TEN MILLION For An Engine Swap?! McLaren 650S - Setups For Simpletons - GT7

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:07]Hello chums and welcome to setups for simpletons. I've created an entire series dedicated to explaining Gran Turismo 7's quirky and sometimes unforgiving tuning system. But sometimes it's nice to just copy someone else's homework and be done with it. So in this series I will take one car at a time, show a complete setup and a lap of the Nurburg for good measure. Disclaimer. If you use my setup does not mean you're Let's begin. Well, this is going to hurt.

[00:00:38]Yes, the most expensive engine swap in Gran Turismo 7. I decided to try the McLaren 650S over the Lexus LFA for a few reasons. Number one, thematics. A V12 modern McLaren is a cool concept where replacing the LFA V10 isn't.

[00:00:55]Number two, the McLaren has a smaller PP with this engine, which is good if you want to do 100 grinding races to earn back the 10 million you spent on the engine. Number three, the McLaren is 1.2 million credits cheaper than the Lexus in the first place. So, is this S70 engine swap worth the cost? No. No, it is not. For the visuals, the car has the widebody fitted along with aftermarket wheels, which are in the smallest available size. Increasing the size can improve the agility slightly, but the car will be unsettled by the curbs more.

[00:01:26]Reducing the size will give a softer ride and generally a tiny bit more of a forgiving experience. For aerodynamics, it has a front splitter for front downforce. Both options provide the same value. It also has a custom wing set for rear downforce. This is a fully upgraded setup, so the car has every upgrade available, including power, body rigidity increase, handling upgrades, and of course, racing soft tires. The main weakness of this car is the lack of weight reduction upgrades. 1,400 kg is quite a lot for 800 horsepower to propel when you consider the statistics of the majority of Gran Turismo's fully upgraded cars. It causes some under steer, so a few things have been done to try and make the 650S a tad more responsive. Rear downforce isn't as high as it could be. Extra front camber has been added, and body height is higher at the rear.

[00:02:17]This car is rubbish. Yeah, I'm spoiling it early. I really don't like this car.

[00:02:21]Whether you fit this pointlessly expensive engine or not. I'm not 100% sure if the lack of weight reduction upgrades is the true cause of how dissatisfying this car is to drive, but I will assume it is. This car has an overwhelmingly annoying tendency to just not respond in the way you expect it to.

[00:02:39]Particularly on high-speed sweeping corners, the 650S will sometimes take the corner without too much trouble, and other times it simply won't turn in. You can enter the same corner at the same speed multiple times and get a completely different result each time.

[00:02:53]It's like the car occasionally just decides to fight you. Despite a complete lack of over steer or any nasty handling characteristics, the occasional understeer meant that it took me about 10 to 15 attempts to get this lap time.

[00:03:06]By comparison, the majority of my setups for Simpleton's videos, the final Nurburging lap takes two or three attempts. This car feels like it should be so much better. McLaren obsessed over downforce, performance numbers, and drivability when they made this new generation of V8 supercars. You cannot tell that from the way it performs here.

[00:03:24]Again, it's not a monster. It's not trying to kill you. There's no sudden power over steer or liftoff over steer.

[00:03:31]Nothing life-ending. It's just so frustrating. It's also worth mentioning that the 650S does not like the curves.

[00:03:38]I tried running the car with an increased body height, but it still felt the same. It's just not a great car. And this engine swap is totally wasted on it. If anything, it makes the car worse since it's heavier and less powerful than the original engine is capable of.

[00:03:52]The redeeming quality is the performance point rating. This car makes a good case for itself when tuned to 700 performance points because the S70 engine shrinks the car's PP, so it can run almost 800 horsepower. The fuel economy is also pretty unbeatable. How do you set this car up for 700 pp? Well, racing hard tires reduce front downforce to 100 limit power. It's not worth the money either way, though. A V12 does not make everything better when it costs Grand Theft Auto Online money. Sounds good, though. Put it in an E36 and I might change my mind.

[00:04:35]Heat.

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[00:06:28]Heat. Heat.

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[00:08:28]In the end, the 650S got a 6 minutes 20.

[00:08:31]That doesn't sound too bad until you consider that it's been beaten by a Volkswagen Shurocco. Not to mention that dressed up twatty Golf got its lap time much easier than this pointless thing did. So, that was my fully upgraded setup for the engine swapped McLaren 650S. I hope it helps you decide not to buy it. Thank you very much for watching. Please do like, subscribe, and kick my bell so you get notified of my future uploads. Better still, why not watch more of my setup videos such as this one where I test out the Renault Kangu with the K24 engine. It's much nicer than this. Take care of yourself and tra