CarAdvice – McLaren 570S Review – Video
If you grew up in the early 90s, there was one car above almost all others that you dreamt of owning, the McLaren F1.
It had a 460kW 6.1-litre V12 engine, a top speed of over 390km/h and it’d do 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds – everyone wanted one. But at more than a million dollars, the idea of every owning one was, for most, best kept to dreaming.
Twenty-three years on though, and the English brand has a range of modern hi-performance transport, the newest and most affordable of which, is this, the McLaren 570S.
Claiming 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds, 0-200km/h in 9.5 seconds and a top speed of 328km/h, the new McLaren 570S is the debut car for the brand’s ‘entry-level’ Sports Series.
Siting under the 650S Coupe, 650S Spider, 675LT, P1 and P1 GTR, the McLaren 570S packs a twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 engine with 420kW of power at 7400rpm and 600Nm of torque between 5000-6500rpm.
Blending a carbonfibre MonoCell II chassis with ‘Superformed’ aluminium body panels, the 1313kg 570S not only looks stunning, it’s light.
It’s got an aggressive front splitter, a fixed rear wing, staggered 19- and 20-inch wheels and massive carbon ceramic brakes.
Inside, there’s optional Alcantara-covered racing seats, a seven-inch touchscreen and McLaren’s Active Dynamics Panel, offering drivers the choice of Normal, Sport and Track modes for both the suspension and the engine and gearbox.
Not launching in Australia until early 2016, the McLaren 570S will start at $379,000 – or around $80,000 less than a 650S but still slightly more expensive than a Porsche 911 Turbo.
In Normal mode, the car can’t quite match the 911 Turbo for ride comfort. It’s never crashy though and beautifully transfers information directly to the driver. And, provided high levels of feedback and driver engagement are what you want in your super sports car, that’s a really good thing.
The gearbox is fast, the brakes are solid and, while on the heavier side, the hydraulic steering is wonderfully responsive and consistent – and a definite highlight of the car.
On track, you can bring the revs up to between five and eight-and-a-half-grand and the whole package becomes an entirely different beast.
Crisp, agile, fast, responsive. The McLaren 570S is, without question, one of the most potent yet communicative track weapons you, or anyone else, can buy. And worse news for its rivals, it’s so much fun doing it.
But to better exploit the car’s true potential, we jump in for some hot laps of the Portimao circuit with chief McLaren test driver, Chris Goodwin.
Intended to be more road focused or not, the McLaren 570S is a serious piece of kit. Fast on road and blistering on track, if you’ve got a lazy odd $400k lying around, do yourself a favour, pop down to your local McLaren dealer and order one of these.