2017 McLaren 570GT

After producing the legendary McLaren F1, the company waited nearly two decades before the brand better known for racing in Formula 1 returned to peddling street machines. In that time, the posters that used to cover kids’ rooms have turned into phone wallpapers of ever-rotating images. Most people know the name McLaren, but they don’t necessarily know what one looks like. Staring at a printed image so long that the style lines are burnished into memory is a thing of the past, we suppose. And, you know, some McLaren dealerships now accept Bitcoin.

Take this beautiful bluish-green—or greenish-blue—570GT. At a car show in Ann Arbor, Michigan, we repeatedly had to tell onlookers what kind of car it was. Granted, this model padded the brand’s smaller so-called Sports Series roster in 2017, making it new to most eyes, but it presents an unquestionably McLaren silhouette.

The 570GT does away with the contrasting side scoops, flying buttresses, and short, vertical rear glass of the 570S—a car that is otherwise mechanically identical apart from model-specific chassis tuning. A glass roof covers the cabin of the GT and a side-opening glass hatch transforms it into a slightly more practical grand-touring machine. The cargo hold under that hatch isn’t as cavernous as a Corvette’s, but there is enough room for a couple of duffel bags (and it almost triples the total cargo space of the 570S).

Opening the dihedral doors reveals a coddling chrysalis of contrasting cowhide—say that three times fast. There is an airy feel despite the tight confines, thanks to a gap between the screen for IRIS (McLaren’s infotainment system) and the main control buttons and switches between the seats, as well as that transparent roof. The Colin Chapman in us hates the idea of a heavy glass roof, but it works in the GT to bring the surroundings into the cabin. Plus, as in any McLaren, you sit very low and the roof alleviates some of the mild claustrophobia one might feel while navigating the sea of mammoth trucks and SUVs in which many Americans commute.

Of the central-mounted controls, the two of greatest concern are for the powertrain and chassis settings. Normal, Sport, and Track are the options for each, but the various adjustments do not take effect until you depress the Active button. Locking in both Sport modes offers good enough compliance for most spirited driving. Putting the powertrain in Normal tends to see the transmission rifle through gears to achieve semirespectable fuel economy. The EPA estimates 16 mpg in the city; we averaged but 11 overall.

Lively as It Is Lovely

Like its coupe sibling, this hatchback feels alive. Electrohydraulically assisted steering vibrates with communication. Relatively narrow 225/35ZR-19 front tires minimize initial turning effort, which builds as naturally as with an unassisted rack. Unfortunately, when the front axle succumbs to understeer, the steering effort doesn’t taper off as naturally as we’d like, but it’s about as good as it gets in a modern car. Plus, unlike with the multifunction steering wheels in, say, a Porsche 911 Turbo or a Ferrari California T, there are no wheel-mounted buttons to get in the way. The horn is all you can control via a McLaren’s steering wheel.

The 570GT stuck to our skidpad with 1.02 g of grip and stopped from 70 mph in 154 feet. Neither of those performance measures are particularly noteworthy; a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 that sells for less than half the money will walk away from a 570 on a country road. These lower absolute limits make the GT feel more like the world’s fastest Mazda Miata than a slower version of the 650S. And that’s a great thing. Many supercars have limits so high that they are unattainable anywhere but on a racetrack, rendering them a little boring to drive anywhere else. Negotiating an on-ramp at 1.00 g in the 570GT elicits a little tail wag and a genuine sense of excitement. Driving a slow car fast is always more fun than driving a fast car slow. Not that any McLaren could ever be classified as slow—the 570GT runs from zero to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds flat—but somehow McLaren managed to bake in that magic slow-car-fast sensation.

Behind the thin-rimmed steering wheel is the shift paddle. That’s right, one central-pivoting banana. The mildly lazy driver could up- and downshift with just one side—on the right side it’s pull for up a gear and push for down, vice versa for the other side—but the supremely lazy will just leave it in Auto. Tap the Manual button in the center console for full control. Revving the engine past 3000 rpm spooks fellow motorists who react as if they’ve just heard an ambulance. Send the engine to the 8200-rpm redline and the twin-turbo, flat-crank 3.8-liter V-8 effectively delivers a shock-and-awe campaign that’ll make people run for cover.

Stepping Out

Engage launch control, let the boost build (a dash icon indicates when ready), and release the brake for a hole shot few will ever experience, courtesy of 562 horsepower. 3.3 seconds after you’ve hit 60, you’re going 100 mph. A quarter-mile is covered in 10.9 seconds; the traps are triggered while you’re traveling 133 mph. A Porsche 911 Turbo S is quicker to 60, 100, and through the quarter-mile thanks to the launch traction of all-wheel drive, but getting to 150 mph in 14.0 seconds nets the 570GT a 0.6 second advantage. At 3340 pounds, the little Macca is 223 lighter than the 911 and 151 heavier than the 570S. It is not quite as quick as the last 570S we tested, either.

Aside from its substantial cost (the GT starts at $200K; add about 10 percent to get the color, leather, wheels, and carbon-fiber trim seen in these photos), the McLaren’s biggest demerit comes in the infotainment department. Check your polarized sunglasses at the door because they will make the screen unreadable. The United Kingdom is notoriously overcast, but we doubt this could have been overlooked, especially since it was addressed with the system updates to the new 720S. In addition, the menu structure and controls, particularly the steering-column-mounted tab that operates the selectable digital instrument cluster, are not intuitive. We’re sure we’d get used to these as an owner, but it could be off-putting to someone currently in counseling for anger management.

The 911 is the gold standard in the world of everyday sports cars. And for good reason—Porsche has been chasing this goal for more than 50 years. Where the 911 shares parts with the 718, in the same way that an Audi R8 shares switchgear with an A4, the 570 borrows up, from the 650S (which has since been replaced by the 720S), and feels far more special. McLaren’s current street-car lineup isn’t even old enough to vote, but it has managed to make the “entry-level” car feel just as distinctive as the much pricier examples.

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door hatchback

PRICE AS TESTED: $226,960 (base price: $201,450)

ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection

Displacement: 232 cu in, 3799 cc
Power: 562 hp @ 7500 rpm
Torque: 443 lb-ft @ 5000 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 7-speed dual-clutch automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 105.1 in
Length: 178.3 in
Width: 82.5 in Height: 47.3 in
Passenger volume: 49 cu ft
Cargo volume (F/R): 5/8 cu ft
Curb weight: 3340 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 3.0 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 6.3 sec
Zero to 130 mph: 10.3 sec
Zero to 150 mph: 14.0 sec
Rolling start, 5–60 mph: 4.0 sec
Top gear, 30–50 mph: 3.0 sec
Top gear, 50–70 mph: 3.4 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 10.9 sec @ 133 mph
Top speed (drag limited, mfr's claim): 204 mph
Braking, 70–0 mph: 154 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 1.02 g

C/D FUEL ECONOMY:
Observed: 11 mpg

EPA FUEL ECONOMY:
Combined/city/highway: 19/16/23 mpg