McLaren 765LT Spider (2023) Review

The McLaren 765LT came out a year or two ago and when we drove it for the first time we weren’t completely convinced. Indeed, he was very fast and had a lot of communication skills that McLaren has now built its reputation around. But he was also a little, uh… spiky in his behavior. An angry person. Too busy, y’all.

And that was in hot, summer weather. Now we run it in the winter. Well, that probably wouldn’t be too positive, would it? And yet, somehow: it’s different. Better different.

Winter tires provide stability

On winter tires they feel friendlier and bite less than they did on the hard Pirelli Trofeo rubber last run. It still has that fun steering wheel and the chassis still tells you everything you want to know, but it’s all a little less nervous.

So we went to speak to McLaren, convinced that other changes must have been made as well; maybe for engine management, to reduce the way the turbos came in. After all, at our last meeting that seemed to be the main underlying problem with the car.

But no, nothing happened that could cause such a thing, we were told. However: what McLaren told us is that the winter tires have a wider tire width compared to the Pirelli Trofeos (haha, not the actual width of the tire, but the window of the situation in which it works effectively).

To feel the same effect as those Trofeos, you have to get them at room temperature, which is not an easy task even in summer. Winter tires do not have such a problem. In addition, you are definitely more careful in the winter anyway, and you know more about the compromises you have to make between the weather and expectations.

Be careful with the McLaren 765LT Spider

But we are also used to a certain amount of vagueness that comes with soft compound tires, which have many channels and sipes in their profile. But none of that would be found during this experiment. No nonsense, no fluff, nothing but compelling handling and high communication.

Of course, you can only go full throttle at low revs; you’ll have to figure out how 800 Nm hits a car that weighs less than 1,400 kg. Caution is always recommended. But to be fair, that goes for any great car at any time of the year. A lot of driving noise hits the carbon fiber cabin and the suspension and damping are decidedly firm.

Final verdict on the McLaren 765LT Spider

During our ride our thoughts returned to the 720S, for how impressive it is all around. And that is also very cheap. But hey, that’s a whole different animal.

And if you still want to spend four fat tons on a supercar, and you’re more interested in handling, chassis and driving feel than about the flexibility that a hybrid offers, then you might consider this instead of the Ferrari 296 GTS.