Traditionally, a low slung sports car with its engine in the middle will always rattle the insides of your gold studded, middle aged denture when it negotiates those cobblestoned streets. Road trips? Forget it. There’ll be barely enough space for your boots; forget the luggage. What’s more, after the initial shock and awe, even your shapely spouse will sneer at its impractical nature.
Well, think again. Because the new McLaren 570GT promises to be your aide when you’re just pottering around town, or even when you make that inter-state trip. It’ll even leave her with a long lasting impression. Not that modern sports or supercars are a smoky mess in sticky urban traffic, but the 570GT aims to blend in like your regular Volvo. An anti-thesis to the original intent of a super-car? Maybe, but times they’re a changin’.
The McLaren 570GT joins the 570S Coupé and 540C Coupé as the third model in the recently announced Sports Series family. Called the most practical and refined car to have rolled out of Woking, the new 570GT’s character has been honed to offer everyday usability and long distance comfort.
As compared to its more hardcore cousin, the 570S, the 570GT features a standard fixed glass Panoramic Roof, which accounts for a airier cabin ambience – so that you don’t feel like a worked up race car driver, even when you’re out to grab some donuts and the sky is pristine blue, or starry.
Then there’s the rear hatch. That’s right – the new 570GT comes with a rear glass hatch; technically making it the fastest hatchback ever made. This hatch gives access to 220 litres of space, which is available behind the seats on the leather-lined Touring Deck. The front luggage area remains unchanged from the 570S/540C Coupé, providing 150 litres of stowage.
Getting inside the 570GT won’t require inappropriate bodily movements, as ingress and egress are optimised through a lower and narrower sill, while the signature dihedral doors open with a more upward arc. The MonoCell II chassis that was introduced in the 570S Coupé stays. Weighing just 75kg, the lightweight yet extremely stiff chassis contributes to a dry weight of 1,350kg.
Inside, the 570GT gets an enhanced dual-zone air conditioning system, and a pair of eight-way electrically adjustable, heated sports seats that are upholstered in leather and come with a memory function. The control interfaces for the air conditioning, telephony, navigation and audio systems are managed through the centrally-mounted touchscreen, while vehicle setup is configurable via the TFT LCD digital instrument cluster.
As standard, the new 570GT features extended leather upholstery, front and rear parking sensors, an electric steering column with easy entry / exit function, soft close doors and a quieter exhaust system compared to the 570S Coupé. Lightweight noise absorbing and damping materials are used to line the Touring Deck and bulkhead, further enhancing the level of refinement within the cabin.
The 570GT rides on specially developed Pirelli P Zero tyres which reduce in-cabin road noise by up to three decibels. Now you can enhance that aural pleasure with a selection of tasty entertainment systems – while an eight speaker McLaren Audio Plus system is fitted as standard, a 12-speaker Bowers & Wilkins system is also available as an option, replete with Rohacell bass subwoofers.
Under the skin, the 570GT benefits from some fine tuning to its suspension system which includes a reduction in spring rate stiffness of 15 percent at the front and 10 percent at the rear. Independent adaptive dampers can be dynamically adjusted through Normal, Sport and Track settings, and are coupled to front and rear anti-roll bars. The electro-hydraulic steering system is retained from the Coupé models but with a reduced ratio – by two percent – and has been specifically designed to smooth out driver inputs at high cruising speed.
The 570GT is fitted with the McLaren-developed 3.8-litre twin turbo V8 M838TE engine which debuted in the 570S Coupé. Power and torque remain at 562bhp and 600 Nm. Power is delivered to the rear wheels via a seven-speed seamless-shift transmission with adjustment through Normal, Sport and Track settings. The settings include bespoke gearchange calibrations with comfort (Normal), Cylinder Cut (Sport) and Inertia Push (Track) technologies.
This equates to 422PS per tonne, which results in super-car performance – 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 3.4 seconds, 0-200 km/h (0-124 mph) in 9.8 seconds, with a top speed of 328 km/h (204 mph). The new 570GT also comes with a lightweight composite braking system. Set up with a greater focus on road driving, the system includes iron discs (front 370mm x 32mm / rear 350mm x 30mm) with four-piston callipers front and rear. The new sports car sits on a set of unique 15-spoke GT Design cast alloy wheels – 19-inch front, and 20 inch rear.
The 570GT features an extended fixed rear spoiler – 10mm taller than that fitted to the Coupé models – designed to offer the same levels of aerodynamic performance as the distinctive flying buttresses of the 570S Coupé. The 570GT is priced from £154,000 in the UK, with first deliveries due to commence late in 2016.
