McLaren 750S review

This looks tricky. A third-gear right at the bottom of the hill, arcing upwards and away. It rained about an hour ago, but here in Portugal even in November, the road is now merely damp. Mostly.

What matters now? It’s not the 740bhp of the 4-litre twin-turbo V8 now in its umpteenth specification. It’s not even really the grip of the P Zero Pirellis nor the power of the brakes, for there’s space enough to slow to a crawl if needed. But where’s the fun in that? What matters now is the conversation.

We’ve been having it since I set off on the looping road route McLaren has devised in the hills above Sintra, but now we really need to be listening to each other. If this is going to work as expected, it needs to execute my instructions at once and to the letter, while providing a detailed commentary of precisely what it’s doing and potential pitfalls along the way. My part of the contract is to interpret these messages for what they are and, if necessary, act on information provided.