McLaren 788HS: The Final Gasoline Supercar, 777 HP Unveiled

Imagine a McLaren that sounds like a curtain call. Raw, purposeful, defiant. That is the 788HS: a lean, last-word supercar from Woking that wears its intention on its shoulders and its exhaust on its back.

Last hurrah, optimized

Born from the 720S family tree and tuned through the 750S and 765LT, the 788HS is a High Sport special built by McLaren Special Operations. Just 200 cars will be made: 100 coupes and 100 spiders. Under the skin sits an upgraded M840T V8, revised with ultra-low-inertia twin-scroll turbos, high-flow twin fuel pumps, and forged aluminium pistons to extract every last beat from the combustion era.

McLaren labels the model 788 as a nod to metric horsepower. For markets that quote imperial numbers, the car is advertised at 777 horsepower at 7,500 rpm and 800 newton metres of torque at 5,500 rpm. Drive goes to the rear wheels through McLaren's familiar dual-clutch gearbox. Weight is shockingly light: a dry mass of just 1,265 kilograms. The result is an eye-catching power-to-weight figure of about 623 PS per tonne, roughly 614 horsepower per tonne.

Performance reads like a stopwatch fetishist's dream. 0 to 100 km/h in 2.8 seconds. 0 to 200 km/h in 7.0 seconds. Top speed is estimated at 330 km/h. Numbers matter, but so does how those numbers are earned: aerodynamics borrowed and refined from the 750S and 765LT deliver roughly 10 percent more downforce than the 765LT, with an S-duct hood that channels air over the front lid and a relocated, more prominent wing paired with a deep diffuser at the rear.

Sound and lightness were not afterthoughts. A quad-exit exhaust with titanium piping trims weight and sings in a 765LT-inspired cadence. Centerlock forged wheels and stiffer chassis tuning sharpen responses; the whole package feels set up to reward a skilled right foot and a patient left hand on the wheel.

Step inside and you encounter deliberate parsimony. This is a two-seat cockpit pared back to essentials, wrapped in Alcantara and exposed carbon fibre. The driver gets McLaren Infotainment System II and the McLaren Control Launcher, which stores and recalls bespoke powertrain, chassis, and aero presets at the touch of a button. These are not convenience features; they are part of the instrument set that turns a special-edition car into a personal tool.

Because MSO handles each build, no two 788HS examples need look the same. That degree of customisation, combined with the model's limited run, pushes these cars straight onto collectors' radars. Expect steep premiums for exclusivity. Rumours around U.S. pricing put the starting point north of about €558,000. For context, the 750S lists at around €339,000 in the same market. McLaren confirmed a local Australian retail price of AUD 1,078,000, which converts to roughly €658,000 at current exchange rates, and allocation will be extremely tight.

Is this the last pure petrol McLaren? The company hints strongly that it might be. If true, the 788HS is not just a high-performance special; it is a final statement before a new chapter begins. Collectors will debate the future. Enthusiasts will queue for the sound and the way it obliges a driver to engage. Either way, the 788HS arrives not as a nostalgic throwback but as a precision instrument that knows exactly what it is and what it wants to do.