It’s simply insane how fast modern machines are getting. Especially cars. When it comes to superbikes like the BMW 1000 RR and bespoke, open-wheel track cars like the Ariel Atom, we already know just how blindingly fast they are. However, it’s genuinely shocking to see how fast modern hypercars like the McLaren 720S have become.
In this new video from Autocar, they compare all three of those aforementioned vehicles to find out which is the best way to go very, very fast with the wind in your hair. Or on your helmet…
Let’s start with the Ariel Atom 4, which is all new. It gets 320 hp from a Civic Type R engine, yet it barely weighs over 1,000 lbs. So it has the same power-to-weigh ratio as Thor.
After that is the BMW 1000 RR that makes 207 hp from I4 engine and revs to 14,000 rpm. Yet, it weighs half of what the Ariel Atom weighs, so it’s power-to-weight ratio is just as extreme. Though, all of its power only goes to one wheel, rather than the Ariel’s two.
Last is the McLaren 720S, the latest in a long line of very fast McLarens. It uses a 3.8 liter twin-turbocharged V8 that makes a whopping 710 hp and still only drives its two rear wheels. Though, it’s quite a lot heavier than the other two, obviously and, being a convertible, is the heaviest version of the 720S. So which is fastest?
Well, after a couple of drag races where driver differences caused different results, they ran each car separately with Vbox equipment to get the most accurate data possible. The results are that the McLaren 720S is faster than both other vehicles. It reached 60 mph in an astonishing 2.73 seconds, while the Ariel Atom 4 did it in 3.01 seconds and the BMW 1000 RR in 3.29 seconds. The McLaren is faster to 100 mph as well, doing it in 5.35 seconds, while the BMW did it in 5.68 seconds and the Atom in 6.78.
In the quarter-mile drag race, the McLaren was still fastest, doing that sprint in a blistering 10.2 seconds. It took the BMW 1000 RR 10.48 seconds and the Ariel 11.22. The McLaren was also fastest in the half-mile as well.
It’s shocking that the McLaren is the fastest. Typically, superbikes and small racers like the Ariel Atom crush even the fastest of supercars. However, the McLaren 720S is otherworldly fast. I’m seriously quite stunned and in love with the 720S.