The numbers are dazzling, if not staggering: $831,740 worth of open-air supercars. 1,927 horsepower. 1,674 lb-ft of torque.T
he shapes of these machines,
especially in these colors, make
children jump and squeal with
joy—while most adults wish they
weren’t quite so self-conscious so that
they could do the same.
Because you’re wondering, oh yes,
some grownups act like kids around these
things (yours truly first and foremost).
This trio truly is a collection of rare,
exotic beasts. Each one represents atopless version of its respective compa-
ny’s near-pinnacle performance car.
I say “near” because McLaren just
unveiled the 765LT, Mercedes-AMG
makes the GT R Pro, and Porsche, well,
you just know there will soon be a GT2
RS that makes this car seem like a snail.
Plus, all three manufacturers are in the
hypercar business, to varying degrees (P1,
Senna, Project One, 918 Spyder).
The question, then, is, “Why?” Whywould an automaker take a perfectly good
supercar and hamstring it by removing
rigidity and adding weight? That’s the
question you’d ask before you’d spent a
few days driving this shimmering trio
around some of Southern California’s
greatest roads. After doing so, the only
question is, “Why the hell not?”
I’m going to asterisk this comparison
test at this point. First of all, we still can’t
test cars, so I don’t have any objective40 MOTORTREND.COM SEPTEMBER 2020COMPARISON I 2020 McLaren 720S Spider vs. 2020 Mercedes-AMG GT R Roadster vs. 2021 Porsche 911 Turbo S Cabriolet