So what is the McLaren 650S anyway? Is it a face-lifted 12C? Is it a replacement for the old car? Or perhaps it’s a discount version of the P1? To find out, Chris Harris went under the skin of the car, literally, bringing out a rolling chassis of the 650S along with a man from McLaren to points out the new stuff in it.

If the man from McLaren looks familiar, that’s because he used to do Chris’ job at Autocar magazine. After a technical chat Harris took the 650 out to the track and pushed it to the limit to test the theories in action:

McLaren 650S is powered by the M838T twin turbo V8 engine developing 650PS (641 bhp). It accelerates to 100km/h (62mph) from rest in just 3.0 seconds, and can reach 200km/h (124mph) in just 8.4 seconds. The standing quarter mile (400m) takes 10.5 seconds, and top speed is 333 km/h (207 mph). This performance puts the latest model from McLaren a full second quicker than the iconic McLaren F1 road car to 200 km/h, and 0.6 sec faster over the standing quarter mile.

Economy-wise, it returns 24.2 mpg (11.7 l/100 km) on the EU combined cycle, and a CO2 figure of 275 g/km. And as for the pricing, as we reported earlier, it starts from $265,500 for the Coupe and $280,225 for the Spider.