Going Further, Faster

MCLAREN GT

The Honda and Ferrari stress-test the McLaren’s talents at either end of the spectrum

Sports car meets plush. Fight!

Either McLaren have been thinking outside the box or they haven’t read the script, because the specification of this new McLaren GT veers so far off-piste from a trad grand tourer’s that someone should probably call mountain rescue. Not that the GT’s ingredients are radical, because it follows the same formula as every McLaren produced since 2011’s MP4-12C and its building blocks trip from the tongues of car literates like a primary school pupil might recite the alphabet: carbon-fibre tub, mid-mounted twin-turbo V8, seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, dihedral doors.

You’ll pay from £163,000 (Rs 1.59 crore), so the GT is affordable in a McLaren context and comparable money to the 570S Spider with which it shares so much, though there is differentiation here and logic to McLaren’s approach too. Parts-bin mechanicals are tuned for a more relaxed if still driver-focused character — the 4.0-litre V8 gains new twin turbos and a flatter torque curve for better driveability, there are quieter, softer Pirellis, and gentler suspension and bushings too. Power stands at 620 hp and 630 Nm, splitting the 570S and 720S models, if landing significantly closer to the former. It’s a car for the journey, insist McLaren, but one that also upholds its reputation for exceptional dynamics.

Design that’s a little too see-saw-inspired to these eyes is dictated by the need to provide easier passage over speed bumps as well as extra luggage space — though the impressive-sounding 420 litres of storage under the roof-hinged hatch is presented in an awkward hump perhaps best filled by emptying the contents of your suitcase over it rather than actually taking the case along too.

All in all, an intriguing if oddball creation. So, to discover if the