Car UK May 2019

MAY 2019 | CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK 99

doubt my resting heat rate has lifted much above its slovenly office-work-
er norm. When, bowed but content, he flashes his hazards in salute and I
turn off, I haven’t the heart to admit we weren’t really trying.
And in this, more exalted company? The principle still holds. You sit
low – really low – in the 911, but swapping from the McLaren back into the
Porsche still feels like getting into a normal car. The Porsche’s steering,
while nicely meaty, accurate and blessed with no little feedback, can’t live
with the McLaren’s standout connection between brain and bitumen. In
the dry, it’s a sensory delight. In the wet (or on a dry circuit, where you can
really commit), studiously edging up to the front tyres’ limits, you some-
times check the apparent madness of your actions, only to realise that so
clearly is the McLaren communicating what its front axle can and cannot
do in that precise moment that there’s nothing remotely foolhardy about
your actions.
But the first autumn leaves of age are creeping in the 570S’s very special
foliage. Much has been written of the 3.8-litre V8’s dearth of charisma,
not to mention its lagginess, but the truth is that it has a character all
its own, a machine-like relentlessness and pulse-pausing top-end rush.
It won’t charm your ears or your happy gland like the Audi’s V10, but it
is punishingly fast. No, it’s the transmission’s lack of immediacy and silk
next to the 911’s eight-speed PDK that really stands out. Then there’s the
interior, which is either a stark place of work with slightly dated screen
graphics – the truth, probably – or a casualty of the strides the 911’s
cockpit has made with this new 992-generation car.
And the R8? With its intoxicating engine, the Audi lands a ferocious
blow on the only real chink in the 570’s otherwise near-unbreachable
armour. Ordinary folk, either from the pavement or the passenger seat,
will vote Audi on the strength of its 5.2-litre V10 alone. But they won’t
know the truth: that out where it matters, the more nimble, tactile and
agile McLaren always comes out on top. ⊲

Fast is not something you

persuade the McLaren to do.

Fast is what it exists to do

▼

PRE-FLIGHT BRIEFING McLAREN 570S

Diffuser like a meat

tenderiser? That’ll

be the McLaren

Why is it here?

The 911 might have

rear seats but it’s a

sports car above all

else – and McLaren’s

established itself as a

maker of outstanding

sports cars. It’s £149k

(before options) to the

Porsche’s £93k but

McLaren doesn’t sell

boatloads of SUVs to

pay the bills...

Any clever stuff?

Refreshingly, no. No

lane-keep assist, no

blindspot monitoring,

no HUD, no adaptive

cruise. Instead you

get a composite

chassis so rigid you’ll

pass out long before

you get it to flex.

Suspension (double

wishbone front and

rear – proper) is pretty

conventional bar the

adaptive dampers.

Which version is this?

McLaren makes a

couple of Sports

Series, of which

this (track-ready

600LT aside) is most

serious. The (soon

discontinued) 570GT

is more cosseting, the

Spider’s a spider and

the 540C less fast but

a useful £14k cheaper.

All options on our test

car are cosmetic. (Or

aural: £4750 sports

exhaust.)