Reviews
Gallery 1
We all keep little highlight reels of our better drives saved on the mental hard drive for later savouring.
A blast through a tunnel with the windows down here, the perfect drift in the rain there, all committed to memory to be recalled at will in the secret projection room of the mind.
McLaren’s new 570S will have you worried you’ll run out of mental disc space. It’s a baby 650S in price and spec, if not size, and while the older sibling throws around more performance muscle by way of 59 extra kilowatts, a more sophisticated chassis and active aero – adding up to a sharper driving experience – the younger brother may be the better entertainer. After two days in one, and several hours of hard driving in the back hills of Portugal, our grin was yet to subside by breakfast, day three.
It looks like a blueprint of the 650S, but in fact it’s 110mm longer and looks more restrained from certain angles. The main difference is revealed at a lift of a heron-wing door, for McLaren has tried hard to make its 570S as friendly as possible for daily use. To make it easier to get in and out of, the forward section of the sill has been narrowed and shortened by 80mm. The new seats offer more support and a slightly more generous range of adjustment (but beware, the top-of-the-line carbonfibre jobbies aren’t cheap).
For the first time there’s a lit vanity mirror, a proper glovebox and respectable storage space. You even get two windscreen wipers instead of one. McLaren is still playing catch-up in other areas, though. There’s no adaptive cruise control or head-up display, and while there’s start-stop, McLaren doesn’t yet do the kind of off-throttle coasting you might find in something from Stuttgart.
Steering feedback is super impressive, but in the wet the grip is delicate; roundabouts getyour heart rate up time (front!) after time (rear!). Meanwhile the carbon ceramic brakes are wooden when cold, the engine note loud but one-dimensional, and the ride ho-hum on the brittle suspension and extra-stiff sidewall tyres. A lack of separate damper adjustment doesn’t help. At least the 570S shows off a nearly flat cornering stance when the speed starts to ramp up.
As you might’ve guessed, “570S” is a nod to the 570 horses under the engine lid (which, for the record, customers can’t open). There’s 419kW at 7400rpm and from there to the limiter, there is still 1100rpm to play with.
A stab at the launch control button turns every set of traffic lights into an opportunity to lay elevens. First gear is so short it requires a well-prepared index finger or you’ll snag the limiter. Second can cause mild whiplash. Third is where the 570S jettisons solid rocket boosters and hits warp drive.
It’s bordering on irrelevant in the real world, not least Australia, but it’s the 200-300km/h bracket where the 570S truly comes into its own. Seventh is not merely a cruising gear anymore, and fifth transfers all that grunt almost seamlessly to sixth.
And along Portugal’s eucalyptus-lined back roads (some of which feel uncannily like Australia) the 570S reels in and spits out road like a tarmac-processing machine, with catapult-like briskness, an addictive appetite for corners and an overtaking punch that has to be felt to be believed.
Unlike a 911, which fights every corner and won’t fully relax even on straights, the British bullet rarely feels to leave its comfort zone. Despite a few character traits that could be considered rhythm-interrupting (ie, the braking distances compress as the hardware heats up) the 570S is all about riding the flow.
Yet when you’ve had enough, the 570S is only too eager to prove its mettle as marriage material, with a decent stereo, plush interior materials and the kind of features that make for a keeper, including soft-touch doors, front-vehicle lift and reversing camera.
All that is quickly forgotten, however, at a glance of the green light at the end of Portimao pit lane. Our black-over-green track chariot comes with AUD$95,000 worth of options including swathes of carbonfibre, thinly-padded buckets, an almost vulgar sports exhaust, racing harnesses and stealth-look wheels wearing Pirelli P-Zero Corsas. But it looks angry.
Manual gearshift mode comes with a single-piece, see-sawing shift paddle arrangement. It’s a neat little detail, but in a sporty road car we still prefer the unambiguous fixed Ferrari paddles with “Up” and “Down”. Same applies to the one-knob-does-it-all manettino, which is much more accessible than the McLaren equivalent, hidden in the undergrowth of the centre console.
All modes set to Race and with the ESP in Dynamic, we blast out on to the Portimao track. This is no boring, Mickey Mouse circuit; it’s a challenging drive, fast and full of undulation, dotted with crests, dips and blind corners. At the end of the downhill start-finish straight the digital speedo reads 255km/h – 15km/h more than the R8 V10 Plus we drove here three months ago.
Again, it’s the mind-scrambling urge above 200km/h which particularly focuses attention. There’s no all-wheel drive but the nicely balanced weight distribution (42:58) makes the 570S hugely chuckable, transparent and responsive.
Our black-and-green beauty is only too willing to demonstrate its rowdiness and throw around its rather large ego as we move closer and closer to where the grip runs out. It’s only now that the chewing-gum tyres let out the first little squeals and the gearshifts become brutal to the point of sending a shudder through the carbonfibre chassis.
But if nothing else, the 570S is certainly emotional. Sliding ever-so-smoothly in an arc – fourth-gear, no less – is grand cinema for the brain. Up there, in the secret projection room of the mind, you can’t help but constantly hit the repeat button late into the night.
4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS
SPECS Body: 2-door, 2-seat coupe Drive: rear-wheel Engine: 3799cc V8, DOHC, 32v, twin-turbo Bore/stroke: 93.0 x 69.9mm Compression: 8.7:1 Power: 419kW @ 7400rpm Torque: 600Nm @ 5000-6000rpm Power/weight: 298kW/tonne Transmission: 7-speed dual-clutch auto Weight: 1406kg Suspension (f): double A-arms, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar Suspension(r): double A-arms, adaptive dampers, anti-roll bar L/W/H: 4530/2095/1202mm Wheelbase: 2670mm Tracks: N/A Steering: Electrically-assisted rack-and-pinion Brakes(F): 394mm ventilated/drilled discs; 6-piston calipers Brakes(R): 380mm ventilated/drilled discs; 4-piston calipers Wheels: 19.0 x 8.0-inch (f); 20 x 10.0-inch (r) Tyre sizes: 225/35 R19 (f); 285/35 R20 (r) Tyres: Pirelli P-Zero Corsa Pros: Class-leading pace; most engaging McLaren yet Cons: Firm ride; steep options pricing Price: $408,000
Up close: McLaren’s new baby
The nitty gritty of Woking’s new sports car
TWO: IN SUSPENSE 570S is the first McLaren not to use the clever ProActive Chassis Control, which uses hydraulically connected dampers. McLaren has instead developed a traditional mechanical suspension system with adaptive dampers.
THREE: HOT STUFF Aluminium body panels are created through a process called ‘Superforming’, in which hot aluminium is blown into shape over a mould. Complex shapes are possible and McLaren claims the resultant panels are as light as composite equivalents.
FOUR: SUPER SLIM As with all McLarens, 570S is based around a carbon fibre ‘Monocell’ which weighs just 75kg, helping to acheive a dry weight of just 1313kg. McLaren claims this is the lightest in its class, however it’s very adamant the 570S is a sports car rather than a supercar.
FIVE: OLD SCHOOL Steering remains electro-hydraulically assisted, McLaren claiming that the levels of feel that result cannot be replicated by a fully electric system, and based on the evidence of the 570S we’d have to agree. Front tyres are a mere 225mm wide, while rears are 285mm.
