My first
Words BY PAUL HorrELL
his car is McLaren spreading the
supercar love. The new 570 S
contains much of what makes the
company’s 650 S so extraordinary,
for three-quarters of the price.
In fact, the power, torque and
performance figures of the newcomer are
within a whisker of matching the original
MP 4 - 12 C’s. Which means, to put it
another way, it goes like a Lambo—that’s
not just the Huracán but the Aventador.
‘Baby McLaren,’ eh?
Clearly, the 570 S bears the McLaren
family look, but it actually has entirely
different body panels, made out of
different stuff. It’s the first of what
McLaren calls its Sports Series—the 650 S
and 675 LT belong to the Super Series,
and the P 1 and GTR are the Ultimate
Series, see. Have you been following the
firm’s latest naming scheme? No? We
forgive you. The bloke at McLaren who
devised the transition from the seemingly
random formulation of MP 4 - 12 C told
me it has been bugging him for two years.
But if you have been keeping up, you’ll
deduce that the 570 S’s engine packs
570 horses. Soon there will be a slightly
cheaper and less powerful one, the 540 S.
And a cabriolet as well as this coupe body.
And, later again, a GT version, with more
domed rear glass and a hatch to give
more luggage space.
Strange, in a feature about a newly
launched supercar, to be talking about
luggage space so soon. But then, the
Sports Series are supposed to be the more
usable of McLaren’s cars. The designers
took care to carve out a roomier and more
habitable cockpit than in their faster cars.
The doors give you more elbow room.
The tub’s sills have been lowered and
the doors’ arc of opening is amended,
so getting in and out is less of a faff.
But don’t imagine it’s not a McLaren.
It’s born to perform. It’s pitched more
against the new Audi R 8 V 10 and 911
Turbo, rather than the Ferrari California
or more mainstream spec of Astons and
AMGs. McLaren’s engineering chief
Mark Vinnels says, “We have a serious
philosophy. It’s the highest level of per-
formance at this price. It’s not a soft car.
The benchmark was the 911 GT 3 .” That’s
the sound of a neck being stuck out.
What McLaren has learned, not
without pain, since the early 12 C is that
supercar buyers don’t just want the
measurable or the rational. They want
thunder and sensation. Vinnels says,
“It’s also about increasing the emotional
content—objectifying the emotional.”
Of course, one thing that comes from
Woking’s history of Grand Prix racing
is the baked-in desire for continuous
improvement: “We’re a young road-car
company and we have to run fast to catch
up and overtake.”
I ask Vinnels to list the ways the 570 S
saves money over its pricier relatives.
First, he mentions the absence of the
complex hydraulics in the suspension.
Instead, there are conventional anti-
roll bars—mind you, the dampers are
adaptive and the brakes carbon fiber, so
they’ve hardly skimped. The powertrain
and engine use fewer exotic materials,
with the latter having 30 % different
parts. There’s less carbon fiber in
the body, especially by having an all-
aluminum skin. There’s no airbrake or
McLaren
the 570S employs
McLaren’s familiar
seven-speed DSGNot small. Not cheap. Not slow. Meet the 570S, the
so-called baby McLaren that’s anything but
T
16 TOP GEAR PHILIPPINES WWW.toPgEAr.com.PH
Flying buttress curls
air around the rear
of the cabin. Neat