When an ad team for a supercar maker needs to sell something, I mean really needs to sell a product, they pull out the nuclear option. No, not actually nuking their car, that would be too genius. The real trump card is the soft, classical piano. And then once that's done, you unleash all of the fury.
When an ad team for a supercar maker needs to sell something, I mean really needs to sell a product, they pull out the nuclear option. No, not actually nuking their car, that would be too genius. The real trump card is the soft, classical piano. And then once that's done, you unleash all of the fury.
I'll admit, when I first saw photos of the McLaren 675LT I was categorically Not Impressed. To begin with, for the $200,000 or so of my money that doesn't exist, I wouldn't have gone with the 675LT's grandfather, the McLaren MP4-12C. I would've taken a Ferrari 458, because it looks better, it sounds better, and seeing one in person quickens the pulse in a way the 12C never has for me. And then McLaren upgraded to the 650S, and I was bored, because even though they made a ton of changes to the 12C, on the surface it looked like McLaren just gave the 12C a slight power bump and grafted on the face from the P1.
And the P1 is a great car, but mid-engined supercars are all about creativity and wonder, not about grafted-on faces. And then McLaren came out with the 675LT, which, initially, appeared even worse to me. Because it wasn't just sporting a grafted on face, it was sporting half-truths and misdirection, or as we in the business call it, lies.
LT, we were told before we even saw the car, stands for "Long Tail," and the 675LT would be a longer car than the 650S. The long-tail, low-drag design would hearken back to the glorious long-tail McLaren F1 GTRs, and the ultimate road-going F1 of them all, the F1 GT. It would be curvy and swoopy and, well, long.
Except it wasn't. Not really.
Alright, I guess it was TECHNICALLY an inch – one inch! – longer than the 650S. Because of a spoiler. But it wasn't a proper longtail, at least not by historic standards. So color me disappointed.
This ad, though, has me actually falling in love with it. I know, I know, I'm supposed to be a jaded old journalist, not susceptible to the petty whims of mere marketing. It's not even a particularly original ad, what with the soft music in contrast to the loud engine, the rain, or the slow-motion. We've seen all of those things in ads before.
But something between those fat exhaust pipes spitting furiously, the gaping intakes, the exposed turbo V8 under glass, and that glorious, glorious noise, I can't help but find myself falling in love with it.
And so, like the dog chasing after it, I feel the curmudgeon inside, who just found everything sort of unoriginal, turning into someone who just wants to chase after it.
If you've got a couple hundred grand to spare for me to buy a McLaren 675LT then, please do let me know. Right now, it's exactly what I want.
Contact the author at ballaban@jalopnik.com.
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