► Baby McLaren 570S unveiled at last
► Cheapest McSupercar for £145,000
► 0-62mph in 3.2sec, 204mph!
Watch out Porsche, Woking is chasing the 911 Turbo with this – the freshly unveiled McLaren 570S Coupe baby supercar, unveiled today on the eve of the 2015 New York motor show.
It’s our first look at McLaren’s Sports Series, the so-called baby McLaren range to slot beneath the 650S supercar and the big daddy of the range, the P1 hypercar.
And that’s an apt juxtaposition, since the new, smaller Macca has more than a hint of shrunken P1 about it.
McLaren 570S: what we know
The new range makes its debut at this week’s New York International Auto Show; it’s the first time we’ve seen all three McLaren sports car ranges in one place and CAR will be reporting from the Big Apple to bring you all the latest news from New York.
Britain’s supercar maker is quickly establishing a clear-to-understand naming hierarchy: 570S means 570 metric horsepower, or 562bhp. And today McLaren confirmed some pretty senior performance figures for its cheapest car.
The company quotes 0-62mph in 3.2sec and 0-124mph (200kph) in just 9.5sec. Top speed? A distinctly punchy-sounding 204mph.
Thank the 1313kg claimed kerbweight for the outrageous performance; like its bigger brothers, the 570S is crafted mostly from composite materials, creating a 428bhp-per-tonne power-to-weight ratio.
It looks very like all the other McLarens though!
Yes it does, but this should hardly come as a surprise – since all three share the same basic carbonfibre tub, M838TE twin-turbo V8 (although 30% of the components in the engine are new here) and technology underneath.
On this first evidence, we’d say McLaren is gradually building its design DNA and we love some of the detailing on the 570S; check out the flying buttress, wrapping around the turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 and two-seater package. Like every other Woking wonder since the F1, the doors are dihedrally hinged.
It’ll certainly turn more heads than any Porsche 911, wouldn’t you agree?
Will this be a sports car to out-point a 911, as well as out-run it? The Sports Series is suspended by double wishbones at both ends, with adaptive dampers and anti-roll bars at both ends (a point of difference over the Super Series) and drivers can still select from Normal, Sport and Track settings.
The McLaren Sport Series
The 570S is the high-volume Macca which will be almost single-handedly responsible for taking Woking’s output up to, and hopefully past, 4000 models a year – chief Ron Dennis’s original stated aim for McLaren Automotive.
It’s based around the same carbonfibre MonoCell tub as the 650S (the Super Series) and P1 (the so-called Ultimate Series); this is a point of distinction at this more democratised level of supercar ownership, giving the 570S a stand-out technical advantage that no rival can match. Body panels are aluminium.
Porsches and Mercedes at this price point are all aluminium or steel-based, and McLaren claims this gives it a weight and torsional rigidity advantage of at least 150 kilos over its competitors.
The air scoop visible in these first official photographs shows that the composite material will be used visibily on the car’s design. Why have carbonfibre and not shout about it, eh?
McLaren 570S: full spec
Engine: 3799cc V8
Aspiration: Twin turbos
Peak power: 562bhp @ 7400rpm
Peak torque: 443lb ft @ 5000-6500rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed twin-clutch, rear-wheel drive
CO2 emissions: 258 g/km
Combined economy: 25.5mpg
Dry weight: 1313kg
Weight distribution (front:rear): 42% 58%
Size (length, width, height): 4530mm/2095mm/1202mm
Brakes: Carbon ceramic as standard
Tyres: Pirelli P Zero Corsa 225/35 R19 front, 285/35 R20 rear
Bootspace: 150 litres