By Sébastien Léger
Before becoming a name associated with speed, victories, and supercars, Bruce mclaren He was first and foremost a child immobilized in a hospital bed. Afflicted with Perthes disease, he spent part of his childhood lying in a metal frame, unsure if he would ever walk normally. Knowing this story gives his journey a new dimension. Speed was perhaps not just a passion. It also represented newfound freedom, movement after immobility, the possibility of regaining control of his own trajectory. And I believe that the spirit of McLaren is still there, somewhere, in every car that bears his name.
The Auckland Child
Bruce McLaren was born in 1937 in Auckland, New Zealand. His parents ran a gas station with a small workshop, a world where he learned early on to observe mechanics, listen to engines and understand that every sound tells a story.
The illness could have broken his momentum. It left him with one leg shorter than the other and a slight limp for the rest of his life, but it didn't stop him from running. Quite the opposite. Barely a teenager, Bruce restored an Austin Seven with his father and participated in his first hill climbs. He wasn't content with simply driving; he sought to understand, modify, and improve.
At 22, he won his first Formula 1 Grand Prix, becoming the youngest winner in the sport's history. The record would stand for over forty years. But Bruce didn't just dream of being a driver; he wanted to design his own... Carto build them, test them and engage them under his own name.
In 1963, he founded Bruce McLaren Motor RacingThe beginnings were anything but glamorous, and the first team worked in a basic building, on a floor partly covered in dirt; a far cry from the spectacular McLaren Technology Centre we know today. But the essentials were already there: people, ideas, and an almost obsessive desire to do better.
The race first
McLaren was born in racing, and that changes everything. Competition has never been a mere advertising tool added as an afterthought; it is the very essence of the brand.
Bruce wins the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966alongside his compatriot Chris Ammon, at the wheel of a Ford GT40. His own team then went on to win in Formula 1, Can-Am and Indianapolis. Over the decades, McLaren would even become the only team to have won all three major races of the famous Triple Crown : the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Manss.
This racing culture has produced cars and drivers that have entered the collective memory. Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Lewis Hamilton have all contributed, in their own way, to writing the McLaren story.
Yet, behind the trophies and statistics, the brand has always retained something profoundly human. It has known glory, but also loss, as Bruce McLaren died in 1970, at only 32 years old, during a test session at GoodwoodHe never saw how far his name would travel.
The unfinished dream
One of the stories I find most touching concerns the M6GT, Bruce's first real attempt to create a road-going McLaren.
This low-slung, lightweight, and extremely fast car was derived from a racing prototype. It already possessed several features that would become familiar at McLaren: an evolved monocoque, an aerodynamically driven silhouette, and spectacular doors. Some details, however, remained delightfully handcrafted, such as the retractable headlights that were manually raised through small openings in their housings.
Bruce loved the M6GT so much that he used it to commute to work and to the racetracks. He wanted to produce 250 examples, but his death brought the project to an end. I really like this anecdote because it brings the great engineer and team owner back to something very simple: a man happy to get behind the wheel each morning of the car he had designed. It would take more than twenty years for this dream to truly take shape.
F1, the absolute icon
En 1992 appears McLaren F1 and sThe name is not an exaggeration: it concentrates in a road car a huge part of the know-how acquired in competition.
Its carbon fiber monocoque is a first for a production car. The driver sits in the center, slightly forward of the two passengers. Its naturally aspirated BMW V12, its low weight, and Gordon Murray's obsessive attention to detail make it a truly exceptional machine. Even its engine compartment uses gold as thermal insulation.
But perhaps the most beautiful part of its history was written in 1995. The F1 wasn't initially conceived as a racing car. Yet, at the request of several clients, McLaren developed the F1 GTRIn her first participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, she won the overall classification in terrible weather conditions.
A slightly modified road car had just beaten prototypes designed specifically for endurance racing. On that day, the McLaren F1 ceased to be just an extraordinary supercar; it became a legend.
The heiresses
After F1, McLaren could have remained trapped by its own masterpiece. Instead, the brand chose to rebuild a genuine range of road cars.
La 12C It relaunched the modern adventure in 2011 with its carbon monocoque, twin-turbo V8, and interconnected hydraulic suspension. It was sometimes criticized for its apparent coldness, but it laid the technical foundations for everything that followed.
Then comes the P1, one of the first modern hybrid hypercars. It proves that electrification can enhance emotion and performance rather than diminish them. The Senna then adopts an almost uncompromising radicalism, while the 720S achieves a rare balance between speed, lightness, visibility and ease of use.
La 720S quickly became one of the most important models in McLaren's recent history. It would give rise to the formidable 765LTbefore evolving into 750SThis family of supercars has been a part of the brand's life for almost a decade. La nouvelle 788HS Today, the final touch is being applied.
Two rare letters
Letters HS mean High SportMcLaren almost never uses them. They are reserved for particularly rare cars, developed to go further than the models from which they are derived.
Before the 788HS, only the confidential 12C High Sport and the very exclusive MSO HSPrevious models, derived from the 675LT, had already been granted this designation. The newcomer is therefore not a decorative special edition nor a simple exercise in personalization. It belongs to a small lineage of McLarens designed as ultimate versions.
And this time, the word "ultimate" is not an exaggeration. The 788HS is officially the final evolution of the architecture inaugurated by the 720S in 2017. It closes an important chapter in Woking's history.
The number and the meaning
The number 788 This corresponds to the power expressed in metric horsepower. The 4,0-liter twin-turbo V8 thus develops 788 ch, or 777 bhp according to the British measurement, for 800Nm of torque.
The engineers didn't just modify the electronic management system. The engine received lightweight forged pistons, ultra-low inertia turbochargers, and a revised fuel system. The engine mounts also adopted a specific tuning to transmit more feedback to the driver without turning the car into an exhausting machine on the road.
The titanium exhaust now features four outlets. McLaren has also reworked the intake and the systems that transmit engine sound to the cabin. It's a way of reminding us that a supercar isn't just experienced with a stopwatch, but also with your ears, your hands, and your entire body.
Air as a tool
Visually, the 788HS It doesn't seek discretion. Its design remains that of a McLaren, but each addition has a function.
The new hood S-Duct channels air through the front of the car. The carbon splitter works in conjunction with a prominent, higher-mounted active rear wing, while the Formula 1-inspired diffuser manages airflow beneath the bodywork. The assembly produces approximately 10% more support compared to the 765LT, which was not exactly a timid car.
Hydraulic suspension Proactive Chassis Control III receives its own settings. The body is lowered by 5 mm at the front, the carbon-ceramic brakes use technology derived from the Senna and the new forged wheels adopt a central nut, a first in this line.
All of this isn't just about shaving off a few tenths of a second. The real goal is to give the driver more confidence, to make the car more predictable as it approaches its limits. This is an important distinction because a great sports car shouldn't just be fast; it should also allow the driver to understand what it's doing.
Lightweight above all
At McLaren, lightness has never been just a line in a press release: it's almost a moral principle.
La 788HS display only 1,265 kg dry weight in its lightest configuration. Combined with its 788 hp, this mass allows it to reach 623 hp per tonne, the best power-to-weight ratio of the entire 720S, 765LT and 750S family.
The 0 to 100 km/h acceleration is announced in 2,8 seconds, the 0 to 200 km/h in 7 secondsand the maximum speed reached 330 km/hThese figures are impressive, of course, but they don't tell the whole story. What distinguishes McLaren often has less to do with the force of the acceleration than with the feeling of having removed everything that could come between the driver and the road.
Two hundred stories
Production will be limited to 200 products, distributed equally between 100 coupes and 100 SpidersEveryone will go through McLaren Special Operations, the brand's bespoke division. Owners will be able to choose highly personalized treatments, including a body entirely made of tinted exposed carbon fiber. The interior will retain the clean lines of the 750S, but will feature a carbon fiber center console, uniquely designed seats, embroidery, and a plaque highlighting the limited-edition nature of the model.
This personalization makes sense. At this level, rarity is no longer just about owning one of the 200 cars produced, it's about making sure that yours truly resembles no other.
An ending, not a goodbye
La 788HS It arrives at a pivotal moment. McLaren is already preparing for the future with the W1, hybridization, and new projects. It could therefore be seen as the last gasp of an old generation. I prefer to see it as a tribute.
It brings together what McLaren has long known how to do: a carbon structure, a mid-mounted engine, a low mass, aerodynamics derived from racing, and an almost obsessive focus on the relationship between man and machine. It may not be the most revolutionary McLaren in history. The F1 and P1 were far more groundbreaking in their time. But the 788HS has another responsibility: to properly conclude a story that began with the 720S, without diluting or taming it.
When I look at the McLaren 788HS, I think less about its 788 horsepower than about young Bruce, confined to his bed, probably dreaming of movement and machines. Between that Auckland boy and that supercar crafted in Woking, more than eighty years have passed. Yet, the same thread still seems to be there:Never accept a limit as inevitable; seek lightness, precision, freedom; transform a difficulty into momentum.
The 788HS marks the end of an era, but it doesn't close the book on history. At McLaren, every ending always feels a bit like the start of a new chapter.
Images: McLaren
