McLaren 650S: You Know You Want To
Examining the underrated and the undervalued in the used car market
Welcome to the first in a new series dubbed ‘You Know You Want To’. It will take a look at underrated and undervalued vehicles in the second-hand market (primarily with a performance bent).
This will typically draw on my experience of the cars when they were new, but please keep in mind that this is just my opinion and of course does not in any way constitute financial advice. So if you buy one and it blows up, don’t blame me!
First in the crosshairs is the McLaren 650S. The first modern McLaren, the MP4-12C (latter renamed 12C), suffered a lot of teething issues, though equally very few given the scale of the undertaking, making a world-class supercar company from scratch.
The 650S incorporated the learnings of those first few years. It was faster, sure, but also more involving, more reliable and, mostly, more mature.
I didn’t drive the 650S when it was current; there was briefly a press car but briefly is the operative word. It was a blink-and-you’d-miss-it affair with most supercars at that time.
Thankfully, this hole in the data bank was filled recently when I drove a very rare one-of-50 McLaren 650S Spider Can Am for a Lorbek Luxury Cars video. It was only a brief affair and not in a particularly representative environment, but enough to make a big impression.
Firstly, the quality. Even with few kilometres, time can be unkind to low-volume interiors but the 650S looked and felt brand new. The carbon monocoque means the Spider feels noticeably stiffer than the equivalent (aluminium) Ferrari and the ride quality is truly exemplary.
No, it doesn’t ride like a luxury car, that’s nonsense, but for a supercar it is extraordinarily compliant. I’m not a hydraulic steering snob - there are plenty of good EPAS systems - but the 650S has genuine feel of the sort that’s basically disappeared.
Whether it comes with the side effect of kickback like in the 720S I didn’t have a chance to discover, but it would be worth it for the fantastic communication.
And then there’s the power. Holy ****. When the turbos wake up you are thrown forward like you and the car have become weightless. Outputs of 478kW/678Nm don’t really raise eyebrows these days but the 650S is heroically rapid.
The reason it’s featuring here, though, is that the 650S is cheap. Relatively. As I write there are three ‘regular’ 650S currently for sale in Australia (one Le Mans Edition), ranging between $280,000-310,000 with virtually no kilometres (~10,000km).
Compared to the equivalent Ferraris - the 650S spans the 458 and 488 eras - you’re looking at a saving of around $150,000-200,000. I’m not saying the McLaren is better (I’d like both), but it certainly doesn’t deserve to be any cheaper.
To me, this makes the 650S an absolute supercar bargain at the moment so go on, you know you want to.
