McLaren 675LT Coupé

11,250 miles from new
1 of 500 worldwide
Optional carbon roof scoop & external carbon pack
Major service and health check recently completed by McLaren Ascot

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Chassis: SBM11RAC6GW675204

This particular McLaren 675LT has been incredibly well specified from new with McLaren Orange Special Paint at a cost of £1,870, ultra lightweight 10 spoke wheels with optional Stealth Black finish and a host of carbon fibre exterior options. McLaren are well known for their extensive use of composite materials and arguably the most important option owners could specify, and of which this car has, was the full exterior Carbon Fibre Exterior Upgrade pack; comprising of end plates, lower side intakes, rear bumper centre and upper all in visual carbon fibre. Also added to the exterior options list were Front & Rear Parking Sensors with Rear View Camera at a cost of £2,730 along with a further two extremely rare external options, the most expensive that could be chosen on the 675LT being the MSO Visual Carbon Fibre Roof Scoop at a cost of £27,273 and the MSO Visual Carbon Fibre Louvres on the front wings which cost circa £10,000. Both options were extremely rare by themselves let alone together and create a very purposeful appearance, elevating the external design to a new, more aggressive level. The roof scoop allows more of the engine and exhaust note to be heard when pushing on which is a welcome and exhilarating sound.

Step into the cabin, your feet gripping the Branded Floor Mats, close the Soft Close Doors and seat yourself on the McLaren Orange Leather Racing Seats and you’d be forgiven to think they were as standard, they were not; they were also optional for the 675LT. The cabin received a healthy lashing of rare options too, with the Track Telemetry option ticked for £3,400 that gives the driver three cameras, one in the roof headlining as part of the carbon fibre structure and one on each bumper, allowing you to record and watch your laps and see what you would like to improve on. One of the 675LT’s pit falls is that the 4 speaker stereo arrangement offers basic sound, not good for the audiophiles amongst us however this is not a problem with this particular car; the Meridian Sound System Upgrade was optioned at a cost of £3,150 giving the passengers 6 more speakers over standard bringing the total up to 10, a must for the long drives you’ll actually want to do in this car. To top it off, it was also an option believe it or not for air conditioning but again you needn’t worry; this option was ticked as well.

The drive

It’s not often a reputation matches the infamy which precedes it. The McLaren 675LT has had a reputation from journalists for being the best driving and most aggressive car in McLaren’s rich history. With a full day and a runway, did the car live up to that infamy from way back in 2016?

The LT series has always brought the best of the track focused abilities and combined them with excellent road qualities. The 675LT was the first of the Super Series breed, taking the bones of the 650S and turning everything up to eleven. Nothing was spared with McLaren adding what feels like 10% to everything it touched, yet retaining the base cars impeccable road manners. You don’t have to wait long to experience that 10%; flick active mode, push your right foot deep into the carbon tub, and feel your eyelids peel back.

The engine is a monster, it may only have 25bhp more than the 650S, but quite what breed of horses they are using no one knows; it feels like 75 or even 100 more. Watching the digital speed readout rocket faster than you can register, trying in vein to pull the paddle on time to keep up, then you realise you’re short shifting. The Papaya orange needle is only around the five thousand mark, there is still another four thousand left to go. A hit of nostalgia smacks you across the face as the two turbos spool in a manner that can only be described as a pure 90’s orchestra. The induction roar above your head as hundreds of gallons of air are engulfed by the roof scoop then fired over your left shoulder feeding that savage behind the bulkhead. Once you’ve frightened yourself to the point of wanting someone to read you your last rights, your foot comes off that beautifully machined pedal.

Burying it on that left pedal you need to prepare yourself for torpedoing down into the foot well, sinking deeper with every millimeter of travel applied to the carbon ceramics; all the while the LT’s iconic rear wing springs up to act as an airbrake or to be more accurate air-WALL as that’s how it feels, conveniently blocking all rear visibility; but you don’t need to see where you’ve been anyway.

Now you have your braking done, it’s time to turn in. Pushing the elegant, buttonless steering wheel is a joy, arguably the highlight of the car. An inch of lock and the car dives for the apex, the wider front track and 235mm front tyres are completely untroubled by the inputs. Rather than gripping the wheel with Hulk like strength, you find yourself on your finger tips, looking miles into the distance and subconscious inputs taking you there. Out of one apex, then back the other way into another, a perfectly weighted steering system giving you terabytes of information while not overwhelming the human at the wheel.

This runway is by no means the smoothest, allowing the 675LT to really show off. After everything above, not once have I been uncomfortable. While diving impossibly late for an apex, the suspension is perfectly benign, keeping the roll to a communicative level yet giving ultimate grip. Then you clip the inevitable bump on the apex, rather than being spat out at inconceivable speeds towards the nearest runway sign, there’s a muted ‘thwump’, a slight head wobble and you never even noticed the blackhole you’ve gone over.

There may not be much difference on paper between the 675LT and the 650S however, chalk and cheese is an understatement; It’s Premier League against the local villages under 5’s.

“It’s the vehicle we’ve been waiting for the company to build since it entered the market.”

- EVO Magazine

Inspired by success

To truly appreciate the McLaren 675LT, the lightest, most driver-focused, most exclusive series-production McLaren supercar ever built; you won’t be surprised to learn that it was inspired by the later derived ‘Long Tail’ version of the 1995 LeMans winning McLaren F1 GTR, entered in the GT1 category.

The F1 was already well known for dominating global GT circles, but the car that won was actually the initial GTR prototype. Prepared by McLaren's Unit 12 and overseen by McLaren's Chief Engineer James Robinson, the car ran on behalf of Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing. The reliability of the production-based McLaren helped it defeat the much faster Le Mans prototypes, although in an interview some 20 years later Graham Humphrys, who engineered the race winning car; attributed the win at least in part to the heavy rain which fell on the circuit overnight, which eased the stress on the drivetrain.

The winning McLaren F1 GTR #59 car driven by JJ Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya at the 1995 LeMans 24 Hours race. - Image Credit

The 1997 McLaren F1 GTR 'Longtail' was the ultimate evolution of the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR. The F1 rules were relaxed that year to allow and encourage further development, as long as at least one road version was produced. McLaren used the opportunity to build a series of F1 GTR ‘Long Tails’, precisely where the ‘LT’ comes from in the 675LT. The cars adorned with extended bodywork front and rear were considerably more aerodynamic and resulted in them becoming faster and easier to drive; they were also some 10 per cent lighter. The two principal teams, BMW Motorsport Fina and GTC Competition Gulf Team Davidoff, won five of the 11 FIA GT rounds that year and finished second and third at Le Mans; securing the cars legendary status and highly successful GT career.

The McLaren 675LT

Fast forward almost two decades, the 500 limited edition Coupe’s of the 675LT were built and launched to critical acclaim, promising to follow the “uncompromising ethos to create a visceral driving experience of unique intensity”. It’s safe to say they knocked it out of the proverbial park by adding more of everything you could want in a car such as this. More power, more precision but most importantly less weight. McLarens “quest for perfection” on both road and track was met with top praise from all leading journalists and publications at the time with no less than seven of them giving the car the best rating possible as the ultimate driving package. It became apparent quite quickly that the 675LT was the car that everyone had been waiting with baited breath for McLaren to make.

The 675LT was the 3rd car McLaren had launched as part of their ‘Super Series’ which later included the 720S and the most recent Longtail, the 765LT. Just like the F1 Longtail it is inspired by, the 675LT utilises it’s specifically designed carbon fibre bodywork and air brake to it’s advantage; increasing downforce by a very impressive 40 percent over all other models in the McLaren Super Series line up. The carbon fibre MonoCell lovingly nicknamed ‘the tub’ provides the 675LT with the impressive combination of lightness, safety and stiffness and a borderline obsessive weight-saving strategy shaves a further 100kg compared with the 650s. If an opportunity to save weight has been found by the McLaren engineers, it hasn’t been overlooked, from the beautiful carbon fibre racing seats, ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels to a windscreen that is 1mm thinner than it’s predecessor, this hefty diet has resulted in a significant improvement in the cars overall performance.

Speaking of the performance, it’s downright evil. The re-engineered M838TL V8 twin-turbocharged engine produces 675PS (where it’s name is derived from) which also equates to (666bhp, see what I did there?) and 700Nm or 516 pound feet of torque; lacing the car with the aggression only otherwise seen from it’s big brother, the P1 it borrows some parts from. The seven-speed dual-clutch SSG gearbox remains mechanically unchanged but now has improved software resulting in gear changes that are twice as fast as the 650s. Add on some carbon ceramic brakes and an uprated suspension system and you complete the radical specification that launches this car from zero to 62 mph in the blink of 2.9 seconds; zero to 124 mph in a frankly ridiculous 7.9 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph if you’re brave enough.

Statistics are great, but where the 675LT really stood out amongst the rest was in the way it drove with it’s steering rack faster than the McLaren P1, not to mention the suspension offering a full 20mm wider track derived from it’s bigger brother too, it was immediately apparent McLaren had found the correct feel and feedback that was so obviously lacking in their line up before. The car having clearly been designed to achieve impressive feats on the circuit, was universally praised for its ability to straddle the line between road and race incredibly well with the cars surprising compliance on the road; thus making meaningful use of McLaren’s different driving modes.

The McLaren 675LT Coupe is launched - Credit: McLaren Newsroom

The McLaren F1 GTR Longtail races up the Goodwood Hillclimb - Credit: Ultimatecarpage.com

Accompanying the car are the factory issued owners book pack, service book, car cover and warning triangle, along with our comprehensively prepared Keep Collection binder depicting the history of this rare model and the modern photography, invoices and specific history for this car for your perusal.

With its limited production, exceptional specification and very low mileage, this McLaren 675LT Coupe is sure to appeal to marque enthusiasts for both road and track.

If you would like to discuss purchasing this car or have a similar car to sell, please do not hesitate to get in touch below.