[meta]

Over the last few days, I drove the McLaren Solus GT at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.

To recap, this is a single-seater closed-cockpit ultra-lightweight track-only hypercar. Its naturally-aspirated 5.2 liter V10 makes roughly 850 horsepower and revs to roughly 10,000 RPM. It is ultra-rare too: only 25 units are to be made.

McLaren has created something special here. This is not a track-oriented version of an existing hypercar like the P1 GTR or the Senna GTR are. It is not a sanitized version of an existing racecar. It is also not an existing recipe presented in different clothing, like the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, which is essentially an LMP2 car built by Multimatic. The Solus GT is quite unique in being a cross between the philosophies of an open-wheel Formula car and a prototype car (LMP2 level), without being just like or being derived from either of those things.

Some thoughts and observations:

• Quite light: around a thousand kilos. You feel the lightness right away and throughout the track.
• High downforce: besides the giant wing and the giant splitter, there are huge amounts of negative space in the car, including exposed front suspension and venturi tunnels that run all the way under the car from the front to the back.
• In addition to the usual dampers, there are heave dampers on the front and the rear that limit how much the car can squat (e.g. under downforce load). The front heave damper is clearly visible through the windshield.
• Closed-cockpit with a glass-domed canopy that slides open: jet-fighter style! (The roof has a large cut-out that can be popped off in case of an emergency.)
• Wrap-around windshield (with a "halo" bridge) with no A-pillars = awesome, unobstructed view. (The entire windshield can be dislodged and removed in case of an emergency.)
• Awesome NA V10 noise. This is an old-school racing engine made by Judd.
• 7-speed motorsport transmission by Xtrac.
• Very direct steering compared to GT racecars: tiny inputs lead to big direction changes. Open-wheel formula cars are like that too, but even if you are used to driving those cars, you still need to recalibrate your brain in the Solus GT because unlike, say, an F1 car, the Solus has a center-of-gravity that's higher, and it's larger, and a bit heavier, so relatively speaking, you feel more weight transfer. Since that transfer is so rapid, it is a bit unsettling initially, and then you get used to it.
• Carbon-carbon brakes + light weight = incredible stopping power. Unlike open-wheel formula cars, the Solus GT does have ABS, which means you can brake / trail-brake more "easily".

A Senna GTR, whose track prowess is formidable, is no match for the Solus GT, as we saw first-hand with both these cars being on the track at the same time.

"Looks like a spaceship" is a phrase that gets thrown around quite a lot when it comes to extreme cars, but in this case, it is totally apt.

[JunkyardHunter]

Wow! How did you get the opportunity to drive this?

[sh3lby]

I think this is one of the rarest, peak experiences that an automotive enthusiast can take on in their lives! May I ask what you do that got you the opportunity to drive this?

[harish]

Originally Posted by JunkyardHunter

Wow! How did you get the opportunity to drive this?

Originally Posted by sh3lby

May I ask what you do that got you the opportunity to drive this?

He owns highly desirable cars like the Ferrari FXX K Evo, McLaren Elva, Koenigsegg Jesko, Pagani Huayra. Highly possible that he owns a Solus GT as well.

[Rohitthebest]

Totally Wow moment for life, I should say.
Eagerly waiting for your response on above two questions.
Incredible experience this is.

[mrstealthy007]

Originally Posted by harish

He owns highly desirable cars like the Ferrari FXX K Evo, McLaren Elva, Koenigsegg Jesko, Pagani Huayra. Highly possible that he owns a Solus GT as well.

And a bugatti chiron and a 1928 bugatti type35b I'm correct

[rohitoasis]

Originally Posted by meta

Over the last few days, I drove the McLaren Solus GT at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
***
A Senna GTR, whose track prowess is formidable, is no match for the Solus GT, as we saw first-hand with both these cars being on the track at the same time.

Thank you for sharing your experience. Just yesterday Top Gear shared this video about the Solus GT at COTA.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LmYy1CK6vM

Something that prompted me to post; is this part of the video at around 8:22 ; when the brake lights appear to be coming undone. I was not sure if British media like Top Gear would allow such a gaffe to appear on their video of a British brand. Top gear editors must be a bit overworked with the number of new launches in the past few days.


Sorry for going OT on this thread. But I was hoping you could share your views on
How your experience with Mclaren has been Vis-a-Vis other brands.
Are their build qualities as notorious as the internet believes or is it common across all brands.
Which drive trains need more babying than the rest.

[meta]

Originally Posted by rohitoasis

Something that prompted me to post; is this part of the video at around 8:22 ; when the brake lights appear to be coming undone. I was not sure if British media like Top Gear would allow such a gaffe to appear on their video of a British brand. Top gear editors must be a bit overworked with the number of new launches in the past few days.

The light is not "coming undone".

The light in question doubles up as a hinged cover (much like a fuel filler flap) for a few things. See the attached pictures. The numerical labels are:

1. Charger port for the onboard battery.
2. Magnets to "latch" the cover shut.
3. Rear tow hook inside its receptacle.
4. Terminals for the light.
5. Hinges.
6. The light itself.

The cover is held in place by a couple of magnets. The onboard battery is quite low capacity, so before starting the car, you would typically have the charger cable plugged in, as shown in one of the pictures.

There could be a few reasons why the cover wouldn't be held shut. For example, the hinges could be "tight" in the closing direction such that some force is required to get the magnets to latch, and a crew member didn't press the cover hard enough after removing the charging cable. It could also be that the synthetic fiber tow hook was sticking out just enough to stop the magnets from latching. In any case, there is no build quality issue here.