Custom things I’m getting done to make Monster more mine

I’ll start with the fact that I absolutely love the car as is. I love the exterior and the interior, so if I’m changing something, it’s not because I don’t like it. It’s because I want it to scream my name a little bit more. 

The driver’s seat. I ordered a custom seat with my measurements. The P1 seats are probably the best seats in a car, ever. IYKYK. The same P1 seats are in the 675LT. It’s funny, because they used Recaro parts in them, but the seats themselves are designed and made in-house by McLaren. So, you can’t order the seat from Recaro, your best bet is buying the OEM seat. If you want the set, that will cost you roughly 20k EUR. It’s absolutely worth it, if you plan on driving your McLaren on tracks. Monster is a daily, so putting 20k on the seats alone doesn’t make sense. I also always wanted to have a seat with my own measurements. This was my opportunity to have that. 

I ordered a custom seat from Tillett, which set me back around 3k EUR and that’s not so bad considering all the custom options and stitching I got to choose from. It’ll have a custom green McLaren logo embroidered onto the headrest. Pretty cool. Other than that, It’ll match the rest of the interior - carbon-fibre + Alcantara in black. I can’t wait to try it and I’ll review it once I install it. I’m going to keep the OEM seat that Monster came with, just fyi I’m not selling it. The passenger seat will stay OEM, because there is no point in customising it. But! - we have a set of custom Recaro seats designed to match the P1/ 675LT . We got them for another McLaren, but essentially we decided to just buy OEM P1 seats after we custom-ordered the Recaro ones. They’re amazing, you won’t find this bespoke quality on the Recaro website, so feel free to contact me, if you’re interested in the P1 custom Recaro seats, they're available.

The P1 / 675LT seats

Why having a custom seat is important? 

It’ll improve your driving skills. When your seat is not properly fitted to your body, it causes tension in your muscles and that means your body isn’t relaxed and you end up tired a lot quicker. 

If you’re not relaxed, your reaction time is much slower. Even if you’re the greatest driver, not having a comfortable seat that hugs you and supports your body, your reaction time slows down due to the muscle tension. Your body is fixated on keeping a certain position, which should be your seat’s job. 

Once you have your seat fitted, you need to check your sitting position. Again - your position should relax your body, not the opposite. 

You must feel as light as a feather when driving, if you don’t - notice how well you fit in your seat and you’ll have the “aha” moment! The seat and the sitting position are nonnegotiable, if you want to be a good driver. 

The phone mount. It’s not really “custom”, but it’s designed for the 720S. 

I've been using the same brand in the Mustang for 4 years now. It’s called Brodit ProClip.

So what’s the deal about this brand? They design custom bases for their phone holders that fit into the interior of the car. The base is attached to the interior and on top of the base you can attach one of their many holders. If you change your phone, you only change the holder (if you need to, they can be stretched), the base stays attached. They also have metal parts, which makes the whole system very sturdy and will last you many years (eg. the one in my Mustang). Yeah, the system is on the pricier side, but like I said, it saves you from buying cheap mounts that will fail you many times per year and eventually cost you more. They cover a variety of cars, not just exotics, so you’ll find your solution!

base link: https://www.proclipusa.com/products/mclaren-720s-angled-dash-mount

This is what the base looks like installed in Monster

The 720S (pre-2023) doesn't come with Apple CarPlay, but you can connect via Bluetooth and enjoy your playlist on demand and answer phone calls. But that's about it, which I love. But I need my Waze for obvious reasons and I don't want cheap-looking mounts clogging my interior and this solution is phenomenal. I also absolutely hate big touchscreens in cars, they just cheapen the experience. Hence why I haven't upgraded from SYNC1 to SYNC3 in my Mustang. I currently have a teeny tiny screeny thing that I occasionally use when parking. And upgrading means also losing the CD player (which I love) and giving money to Bill Gates (and I hate that man).

A key fob cover

If you’ve ever used a McLaren key, you’ll know why. It falls apart. This goes for any McLaren key and I’ve seen owners tie theirs with an elastic band. We can get creative about it, but I found a green leather key cover on Etsy for 40USD, so why not. I saw McLaren owners in the reviews being satisfied, so for 40 bucks I can’t really go wrong. There are options for 400USD from alligator and python skins, which isn’t my alley. I just want the key to stay put together and be a bit more distinctive (especially when there’re more than one McLarens around). I will post pics when it arrives.

theSLRgirl livery I'll put my logo on it eventually, I'm just not there mentally yet. It still has the previous owner's livery, which I don't mind - the car came with its history and I can only respect it. I'm currently more focused on getting to know the car, because it's not a stock 720S - something I'm very familiar with. We have another heavily-tuned track-focused McLaren, but we tuned it as we grew with the car, it wasn't an overnight change. Even if I compare the two of them, they're still very different. Monster is very eager, slightly nervous, a little bit obnoxious and snappy, and feels mega powerful. The other one feels more on-demand (which is the desired behaviour on tracks), still powerful tho. But Monster was tuned by the best exotic car tuners in Germany, so I'm very pleased with the end result, it feels like a hypercar. The power to weight ratio is nuts in Monster. I'm yet to strap it on dyno, but on paper I'm working with 960HP : 1300kg. Pants-shitter stats. This puts Monster between the Kings of speed - Bugatti Chiron and Koenigsegg Agera and ahead of LaFerrari, Huayra and McLaren's very own P1 in terms of performance ... and for a fraction of the price.