McLaren

Which McLaren to Pick

A McLaren rental starts with a fact the public never notices. To a stranger every McLaren is simply a McLaren, so rent a McLaren for the doors and the reaction and the 570S gives you all of it at the lowest rate. Rent one for the drive and the 720S is the reference. Rent one for the roof and the sky and you want a 720S Spider, a 750S Spider or an Artura Spider. As an exotic car rental it is the quiet choice, and the quiet choice is a choice.

The 570S is the first-supercar McLaren. Full dihedral-door theater, a low sill, hydraulic steering that chatters about the road surface, and a ride that is no harder to live with than a 911. The 720S is the one people who have done their research ask for by name. The teardrop glasshouse gives it a view out that nobody expects from a mid-engine car, it is narrower than it looks, and its interlinked hydraulic dampers deliver a ride that reads as luxury sedan one moment and razor the next. The 720S Spider adds an 11-second roof and, on some cars, a glass panel that tints itself when you switch off.

The 750S Spider is the sharper, angrier follow-up, with the heaviest steering of any McLaren, a 4-second nose lift and, finally, Apple CarPlay. The Artura, coupe or spider, is the hybrid, and it is the one that leaves a quiet street without waking anyone, because it can roll out on battery and it reverses on the electric motor alone. It also has the most usable cabin tech in the range.

The GT is the McLaren with a luggage bay, 420 liters under a glass canopy behind the seats, and it is the airport and golf-weekend pick. Do not book it as the comfortable one. It lacks the interlinked dampers, so the 720S rides better.

What a McLaren Says

A McLaren is the engineer's supercar. It goes faster than the Ferrari parked beside it and says less about it, and the person who picks one is usually someone whose self-image is competence rather than arrival. Tech money, not old money. Strangers read it as modern and slightly futuristic, and they do not subdivide the range. Then the door goes up. Dihedral doors are the recognition event, and people photograph the door opening more than they photograph the car. Expect a small audience for every exit in a public lot.

The unflattering read is clinical. Reviewers have used the word robotic, and the engine hums and whines where a Lamborghini bellows. If you want drama for an audience, that is the wrong car. If you want drama for yourself, it is the right one.

Where the Precision Comes From

Every McLaren is built around a carbon tub. You sit in it like a bathtub, sills visible, everything tight around the hips, which is why entry is a sit-on-the-sill-and-swing move and why the footbox rewards thin-soled shoes. The steering is hydraulic, kept when almost everyone else went electric, and it puts every tar snake and lane reflector into your palms. The carbon brakes feel wooden until you commit, then they stop the car with a force that reassures. There is no Park. Neutral and a parking brake by your left knee is the whole system.

The 720S and 750S run interlinked hydraulic dampers instead of anti-roll bars, reading extra sensors and reacting in 2 milliseconds, which is why a 720S can ride like a sedan and corner flat at the same time. Under hard braking a full-width rear wing stands up behind your head in under half a second. The Artura adds an electric motor that handles reverse entirely on its own, in silence, with no gear engaged.

McLaren Rentals Across Southern California

A McLaren fits the part of Southern California that cares how a thing works. Angeles Crest on a weekday morning, Ortega Highway before the traffic, Mulholland at dusk, the roads where hydraulic steering matters more than a badge. A 720S Spider or 750S Spider with the roof up and the rear window down is the way to do Pacific Coast Highway through Malibu, because you get the engine and the breeze without the buffeting. The Artura is the McLaren for a rented house with neighbors, since it can leave the driveway before sunrise on battery alone. The GT is the one for a Palm Springs weekend where the bags have to come too.

We deliver McLarens across Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the Inland Empire and Palm Springs, to hotels, residences and the curb at LAX, SNA, BUR, LGB, ONT, SAN and PSP. McLaren rentals run from $895 to $1,495 a day depending on the car, with the 570S at the lower end and the 750S Spider at the top. Longer rentals cost less per day.

Drive a McLaren

Sit on the sill, swing both legs in, and pull the door down from above your head. It is lighter than it looks and it latches itself. Then the 2 things nobody is ready for. The steering is heavy and honest, so heavy in a 750S that your hands notice after an hour, and the brake pedal wants more pressure than instinct suggests. Push harder. It rewards you.

In Comfort a 720S floats over broken pavement in a way a Lamborghini never will. In Sport the turbos spool and the pull is so linear that the speed arrives without an announcement. Brake hard and watch the mirror as the wing stands up. Hold the key fob unlock for 30 seconds and the windows drop as the doors rise. Public roads only. Track use is not permitted.