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McLaren are on a real mission at the moment and after receiving rave reviews for the P1
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hyper car, they've decided to inject some of its magic into the 12C to create this - the
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new 650S.
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We've come here to the Ascari race circuit in Southern Spain and we'll be driving it
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at the track, but also out on the Ronda road. As you can imagine, I'm quite looking forward
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to finding out what it's like.
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Just weeks after its Geneva Motor Show debut, the 650S really moves the styling on from
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the 12C. That new front end is inspired by the P1with the same LED lights and carbon
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fibre front splitter, new air blades on the bottom of the doors that funnel air into the
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side vents, while at the back, there's an optional carbon fibre bumper which is meant
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to echo McLaren's GT3 car. Lightweight forged alloys, 19-inches at the front, 20-inches
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at the rear an stickier Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres are now standard, as are the frankly
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enormous carbon ceramic brake discs. It looks great too, especially with the striking new
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aurora blue paint.
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Now, there is quite a good reason that I'm starting here at the track. McLaren might
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say it's not a stripped out special, but let me talk you through some of the performance
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figures the 650S has to offer. The 3.8-litre twin-turbo engine has got new pistons and
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cylinder heads, it's got more boost pressure for the twin turbos so it now produces 641bhp
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and 768nm of torque.
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To give you the kind of performance that offers, it does 0-62mph in just six-seconds flat,
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an goes on to 207mph. It also does 0-100mph in just 5.7 seconds - .7 slower than the P1
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which has significantly more power.
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So, here we are in the pit-lane, let's go and find out what it's like.
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The 650S is available as both a coupe and a spyder - that's the drop-top that we tried
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around Ascari. The helmets were for our safety, but that also meant I couldn't hear much in
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the cockpit.
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It really does feel like 641 brake horse power. Everything happens so fast that you've just
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got to try and keep up with it. The shift times for the gearbox, the seven-speed auto(matic),
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have been improved even further and there's a cylinder cut system to make the exhaust
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sound even louder in sport or track mode.
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I'm in track mode at the moment for the powertrain and the gearbox, and it's the most extreme
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mode there is. You really can feel how nailed down the car is to the road - it's so stable
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at high speeds. Even when you're going through these tight corners, you just can't feel it
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move around at all despite all that performance. It's really impressive.
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Starting at the track was definitely the way to feel all those chassis changes at work,
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but what's the 650S like on the road?
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As we've already seen at Ascari, the 650S has some serious firepower. The performance
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figures are intimidating. McLaren also say that here, driving on the road, it's even
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more comfortable than a 12C. The engineers last night told me they did a lot of work
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over 12-months working on the damping and they fitted new dampers which Chris Goodwin
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told me are similar to the ones fitted to the P1 project. They allow for a stiffer side-wall
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of tyre to be fitted and stiffer front and rear springs without any loss in ride-comfort.
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The 650S is very refined for a car of this type and to increase the level of creature
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comfort on the inside - although the cabin is very similar to the 12C - every 650S comes
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with an Alcantara steering wheel, and Alcantara here on the dash and the roof lining.
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The car we're driving has some optional leather trim, but I've seen one of the ones with Alcantara
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and it looks fantastic. There is also the option of some bucket racing seats that are
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completely made of carbon. They save about 15 kilos in weight, they're very similar to
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the seats in the P1 and are really, really cracking - a must have option in my opinion.
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But forgetting all that, what's the 650S like on the road? Well, the difference in performance
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between this and a 12C is less pronounced here on the road - you can't quite feel the
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extra power and that's mainly because it's so fast, the moments that you actually have
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a spare road in front of you where you can actually release full-throttle, but make no
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mistake, the 650S is a seriously quick car. The 12C Spyder was probably one of the quickest
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cars I've ever driven on the road, and the 650S retains that same almighty acceleration.
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As soon as you hear that turbo induction woosh and suck up above about 3-and-a-half thousand
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RPM, it just disappears up the road.
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It feels like the 650S has everything turned up ever so slightly, so there's more grip,
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more noise, more power and more pace. The brakes are better than before and offer far
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more natural feel. The steering is superb, but the car rarely feels playful - it's much
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more of a serious driving tool.