McLaren Put Owners On One Of America's Most Demanding Circuits & I Joined Them During McLaren Amplified

McLaren gathered owners and invited guests at one of the West Coast's best circuits. It sat within McLaren Experiences, the brand's program of curated events, but leaned toward the lifestyle end of that lineup, combining serious driving with the food, wine, and setting that make this corner of California a destination.

A circuit worth the trip

Sonoma Raceway earns its reputation. Set in the rolling hills at the southern edge of wine country, its roughly 2.5-mile course strings together sharp elevation changes, blind crests, and a technical corner sequence that rewards a balanced, well-sorted car and exposes anything less. It is not a circuit that flatters a driver, which is exactly why it suits a brand that builds its identity on precision.

The venue also carries genuine motorsport weight. It hosts the NASCAR Cup Series each summer for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 and has drawn some of the rarest machinery in the world through events like the Velocity Invitational.

For a McLaren owner, driving the same asphalt that top-level professionals contest is a large part of the appeal, and it lends Amplified an event credibility that a closed-parking-lot autocross could never match.

What is McLaren Amplified

Amplified is McLaren's more social, lifestyle-focused event format, distinct from the pure instruction of its track-day programs. Rather than centering entirely on lap times and coaching, it blends time behind the wheel with hospitality and a strong sense of place, treating the location as part of the draw rather than just a backdrop. Sonoma, with its motorsport pedigree on one side and Napa and Sonoma wine country on the other, is a close fit for that formula.

The format reflects McLaren's approach to ownership. Access is the real product: time with the cars, with the people who represent the brand, and with other owners who share the same enthusiasm. A weekend like this is less a marketing exercise than a reason for customers to bring their cars out and use them the way they were designed to be used.

My experience behind the wheel

McLaren's Amplified event brought me back to Sonoma Raceway, and there's nothing quite like returning to a legendary track behind the wheel of two very different McLarens.

I got to run the Artura through a short autocross course, and it was immediately clear how dialed in this car is. McLaren's plug-in hybrid setup pairs a twin-turbo V6 with an electric motor for a combined 690-plus horsepower, and on a tight, technical course you feel every bit of that instant electric torque filling in before the turbos spool up.

It's the kind of machine that makes everything feel easy: the size is just right, the handling is sharp without being nervous, and it does everything well without demanding much compromise from the driver. For a car that can also run 21 miles on electricity alone and still hit 60 mph in around 3 seconds, that kind of range in personality is remarkable.

Then came the 720S, and honestly, who doesn't love a mid-engine supercar with that kind of pedigree? This is a car built around a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 producing north of 700 horsepower, light enough and quick enough to hit 60 mph in under 3 seconds, and it still feels every bit as special as it did the day it launched.

Turning laps at Sonoma's technical layout was a genuine thrill. Sonoma is a complex circuit, full of blind crests and quick transitions, and I wasn't about to push a car like the 720S to its limits on a track I was still getting to know. But even at a measured pace, the car communicated everything it needed to. Getting laps in at a place with this much racing history, in a McLaren built to be driven exactly this way, made for one of those days that remind you why you fell in love with cars in the first place.

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