We drive McLaren's new entry level supercar, the 570S Coupe, around the twisting roads of Faro, Portugal. Can this spectacular sports car hack it as a daily driver?
TranscriptSEYTH MIERSMA: Hey, folks. This is Seyth with Autoblog, and I'm having a really good day. That's because I am in sunny Portugal. I am just leaving the fantastic Portimao Circuit, and I am driving a 2016 McLaren 570S Coupe. The 570 stands for 570PS, which translates to right around 562 horsepower and 443 pound feet of torque. And that's all coming from a twin turbo-charged 3.8-liter V8 engine that sounds really good.
Despite those impressive numbers, anybody who has paid attention to McLaren at all will know that that's a lot less output than every other car that they make right now. And that's because the 570 hits the spot right at the base of the McLaren range. This is the entry-level car, even though it's wicked quick, looks like a supercar, and sounds like sex.
As equipped as you see it here, with a lot of options, the car is well over $200,000. But frankly, this car is too fun to talk about how much it costs. I know that sounds ridiculous, but you know, anything you buy that's a sports car that's in this price range is going to be a really good time, and McLaren is definitely keeping up with the Joneses in that regard.
McLaren is first and foremost a racing company. So even when they're talking about their baby, they want to make sure that the car is lightweight, incredibly agile with a great power-to-weight ratio, incredible grip, and probably most importantly, a really tactile, plugged-in driving experience. It's got an amazing amount of road feel coming through the steering wheel to the front wheels. And you can really tell what the back end's doing through the back of the seat. So you just feel incredibly tied into the driving experience, fore and aft.
The car's light, right around 3,200 pounds curb weight, so that's with fluids. It's not dry weight. Even though it doesn't use as much carbon fiber as its big brothers do, there's still carbon fiber panels. Some of them are optional that you can get. You can get an optional carbon fiber roof panel from MSO. Even without that, it's still a pretty featherweight thing, considering all the power it puts down.
Now, all that sort of core competency for McLaren is expected and pretty well-known at this point with the brand. But where they're really trying to break new ground with this car is making something that is usable as a daily driver, really a lot more liveable, and something that you don't have to be necessarily a hardcore track person to want to drive all the time.
So you can get it any way you want it. But the way that this car is put together is kind of in a more luxurious and less of a sporty mindset. So the seats that I'm in are really rather wide, comfortable, and feel good after a longish bit of driving. They've cut away the interior, giving you a lot less of a sill to step over, and making getting in and getting out of the car a lot easier than it was before.
So one thing McLaren has been really successful at, I think, with this car in terms of trying to make it accessible as a daily driver is they've given it a really playful character. It doesn't have too much tire, I think, for the power available. So when you do feel like getting a little crazy, you can get the engine moving around, the rear end moving around quite a bit.
The handling is just so natural and neutral, even when you're at speed, that you feel pretty safe in the car. Overall, it's just perfectly built to tackle a great road and put a smile on your face.
Let me put it this way. This is a car that I would love to be my daily driver, even with the compromises that I've laid out. Well, it's too bad that I've got to wish you goodbye because it means that I'm on my way out of Portugal and I'm not bringing this McLaren with me. I'm just happy that you guys get to come along and experience a little bit of it with me. For Autoblog, I'm Seth Miersma. I don't know what the speed limit is. Jesus, 90?
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