What's the news?
Just a day before it makes its world debut at the New York Auto Show, McLaren has released extensive details on the first model in its new Sports Series line-up, the 570S. It represents the entry-point to McLaren ownership, though priced on a par with the Porsche 911 Turbo S it's hardly what you'd call a cheap car.
Exterior
While the new McLaren 570S has clear familial links to its big brothers, the P1 and 650S, and it's about the same size as the 650S, it is a new design. Highlights include 'flying buttresses' at the back that channel air over the engine cover to help with heat extraction, plus door 'tendons' that hide the door buttons and direct air to the cooling intakes ahead of the front wheels. Those doors retain the dihedral shape that gives them a dramatic look when they're open, though the opening to the cabin has been increased in size due to the redesign of the carbon fibre 'MonoCell' chassis. In spite of the focus on everyday usability, the 570S is light, with a quoted dry weight as low as 1,313kg.
LEDs are used extensively in the new lights front and rear, with full LED headlights as standard and shapely LED light 'blades' at the back. These sit above a serious looking aerodynamic diffuser that houses two large (but well integrated) exhaust outlets. The rear spoiler is a fixed design. There are new forged alloy wheels as standard too, wearing Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres measuring 225/35 R19 up front and 285/35 R20 at the back.
Interior
This is the first McLaren sports car in which usability and space have been taken seriously, so the two-seat cabin has real stowage room for odds and ends and the standard leather covered sports seats don't look like they could slot into a Le Mans racer... Naturally McLaren will allow buyers to make it more purposeful if they so wish. It's quite a restrained design, with leather lining the subtly sculpted dashboard and insides of the doors too. The colour-coordinated leather trim you see in our pictures here is part of the 'By McLaren' bespoke range.
There's loads of lovely carbon fibre detailing and of course bespoke McLaren switchgear. Dominating the floating centre console is the portrait orientated seven-inch IRIS touchscreen system, housing controls for the climate system, DAB radio and Bluetooth connectivity. The main driving instruments are displayed on a customisable new TFT display mounted behind the steering wheel.
Mechanicals
If you know your modern day McLarens then you won't be surprised to learn that the 570S features a development of the company's twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8, though apparently 30 per cent of the components are different. The figures that matter are 570hp at 7,400rpm and 600Nm of torque, the latter available from 5,000- to 6,500rpm. McLaren's seven-speed twin-clutch SSG transmission is bolted to the engine and power is sent to the rear wheels. Carbon ceramic brakes are standard. That's a familiar McLaren recipe, but things change when it comes to the suspension. There are independent adaptive dampers and anti-roll bars front and rear, with the wheels located by a dual wishbone set-up. Normal, Sport and Track settings are available to the driver. Official performance figures include 0-100km/h in 3.2 seconds, 0-200km/h in 9.5 seconds and a top speed of 328km/h.
Nobody cares about the emissions or economy in a car like this, but for the record the 570S emits 258g/km and returns 25.5mpg (9.2 litres/100km).
Anything else?
As suggested by the fact that the 570S is part of the new Sports Series, there will soon be other models in the range. First up is likely to be a 570S Spider, though we presume that this model is the top of the Sports Series range and there will be lower priced cars in time. No doubt more will be announced at this week's New York Auto Show.