Automotive

If You Want A McLaren Senna Buy a McLaren 650S GT3 Instead


Illustration for article titled If You Want A McLaren Senna Buy a McLaren 650S GT3 Instead
Screenshot: Top Gear on YouTube

Chris Harris isn’t known for his car buying advice. He’s great at giving viewers a good show and describing what he’s doing. He’s a very compelling television show host. But what he doesn’t traditionally do is save wealthy people gobs of money on their track day car choices. But really, if you’re a rich guy looking for a track play thing, why would you buy a Senna over a proper GT3 racing car?

There are very few people in the world who can properly provide the information needed, or the skill set necessary, to compare a Senna and a 650S GT3, but Chris Harris is one of them. Give him access to both cars, the Senna supplied by a friend and the GT3 supplied by the race team Harris races for in Blancpain, and he’ll give you the answer as to which is quicker.

As it turns out, the GT3 is several seconds per lap quicker than the Senna, despite being down on horsepower by several hundred. There are many reasons for that, not least of which are tires, aero, and suspension. The 650S is a proper competition machine, albeit a generation old one now that the 720S GT3 has been launched.

McLaren is competing with itself. The call is coming from inside the house!

So, if you’re in the market, you have to ask yourself if you’d rather spend the money on a proper racing car and a guy to manage it for you, or if you want to drive a compromised street car on the race track, even a really quick one.

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If you’re going for all out track time, buy the race car and some instruction time.

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