If a six-figure luxury car or exotic supercar isn’t special enough for you, many automakers offer an array of personalization options. But not everything that is possible is also a good idea.
McLaren Special Operations (MSO), British automaker McLaren’s personalization arm, created this retina-searing paint job for entrepreneur Michael Fux’s 720S. The color is a custom hue appropriately named “Fux Fuchsia” that was originally created for Fux by Rolls-Royce. MSO recreated the color for Fux, and he retains exclusive rights to it. That’s just as well, as it’s hard to imagine much demand for supercars painted in this particular color.
The 720S was unveiled at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where McLaren used it to demonstrate the customization capabilities of its MSO division. MSO used the same fuchsia shade on the wheels, door cards, a pinstripe on the steering wheel, and the rearview mirror. The interior is trimmed in white leather and Alcantara. Between the fuchsia exterior and white interior, this 720S looks like it drove straight out of the 1970s. McLaren would not disclose how much the car cost with all of these custom touches.
The color might draw a few laughs, but everything else about the McLaren 720S is deadly serious. Unveiled at the 2017 Geneva Motor Show as the replacement for the 650S, the 720S takes supercar engineering to a new level of fanaticism. McLaren designed the body as conduit for air, which is why the 720S lacks the massive side vents seen on other mid-engined supercars, and why its headlights appear to be hollow sockets. The extra space is used for air intakes.
Underneath the trick bodywork is a carbon fiber monocoque chassis, which helps keep weight down to around 2,800 pounds. That makes less work for the 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 mounted behind the driver. The engine produces 710 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque, rocketing the 720S from 0 to 62 mph in 2.8 seconds, and on to a top speed of 212 mph.
Anyone in the market for a supercar can appreciate that kind of performance, but this particular 720S was clearly built with only one person’s tastes in mind. That’s perfectly fine, as long as that owner doesn’t have to sell it.
