GOES LIKE A ROCKET
As it says on the tin, this is McLaren’s first toe-dip into the Grand Tourer pool. It sits alongside (not part of) the manufacturer’s existing Sports, Super and Ultimate Series cars. Does that mean the Woking crowd is leaving the door open for more GT style cars in the future? Possibly.
This is a first for McLaren, but also a first for the genre. A Grand Tourer with its engine amidships? Surely the idea of a classic GT is to possess a needlessly long bonnet housing some massive power unit designed to thrum its way rapidly from Paris to Vienna, Christchurch to Queenstown even, without breaking sweat.
True to type, the engine sits behind the driver here. That engine is a new 4L twin-turbo V8, pushing out peak power of 456kW and 630Nm peak torque in a broad, flat curve. Because cabin and luggage space were the prime motivators, the engine sits lower. Buttoning up its dress shirt somewhat, the GT features a new exhaust manifold and muffler system, with active valves that open under acceleration, but keep things more civilised at idle or when touring.
Though the sound is slightly different and the oily bits are new, the source of all that lightness remains the same: McLaren’s signature Monocell II-T carbon fibre tub and lightweight aluminium body panels. This is the lightest GT available — but looking at the badge you probably already guessed that. The power-to-weight ratio of 297kWper-ton is another of those diverting stats, suggesting this remains a supercar, with the manners and usability of a GT.
Helping keep those breezy jet-set GT manners in check is a new Proactive Damping Control (PDC) suspension system, designed to react to surface changes in milliseconds and up the comfort level overall. To my mind it still sits on the “performance car” side of the equation when weighed up against other GTs. It’s firm, but not unpleasantly so.
Speedtail aside, at 4.7m the GT is the longest car McLaren has designed. It’s also the tallest, exhibiting extra ground clearance (110mm) in line with what the manufacturer suspects will be more day-to-day urban use. The car’s 13-degree approach angle is apparently in line with something as utilitarian as a Mercedes-Benz C-Class. There’s still a “nose lifter” button but I didn’t once have to reach for it.
It’s not only the twin-turbo V8 sitting behind your shoulders that needs cooling. Because the primary boot space is on top of the engine, the GT’s designers have come up with what they call an “air blanket”; cooling ducts that channel air into the luggage space in order to keep your drivers and nine irons suitably chilled.
Even a forward-thinking manufacturer such as McLaren can’t escape the golf bag measuring stick when it comes to boot space; one of those will fit in the rear nicely. There’s a further 150-litres of storage in front of the firewall too, meaning a total of 570 litres of luggage space.
Depending on which interior you specify, you can also option in cool electrochromic panorama glass above the driver and passenger seats, which chops out the UV while letting extra light in. On the whole, the GT feels light and airy inside, as any Grand Tourer should.
The seats definitely err on the side of sporty; they’re comfy, but once you’ve eased up those butterfly doors, you still have a relatively wide sill to slide across in order to sit in them. It’s probably something an owner would eventually develop muscle memory for, although I certainly couldn’t achieve entry or egress with anything approaching elegance.
Once inside, a newly reconfigured infotainment system with a familiar smartphone-like menu structure sits at centre stage up front. The reaction times from the touchscreen have improved markedly over the system in the McLaren 540C I drove last year. The manufacturer’s nicely analogue switches for power train and chassis settings — which are carried over from Sports and Super Series cars despite the GT body style — are as intuitive to use in order to dial in preferred suspension and acceleration settings as they always have been.
It was rather telling that the moment I felt this thing come truly alive wasn’t on an alpine pass high up in the hills behind Grimaud on the Cote d’Azur. Rather, on the highspeed motorway sprint down to Cannes, the endless acceleration, the glass canopy all around and the absolute settled and compliant ride from the PDC melded together to make for a true Grand Touring experience.
It’s a GT, yes. But it’s primarily a McLaren. It’s about as practical as the storied manufacturer probably wants to get without compromising the performance side of the ledger.
As the maker of some of the world’s fastest cars, McLaren’s entry into the world of the Grand Tourer represents a bit of a balancing act. This isn’t a traditional GT. But then, McLaren isn’t a traditional supercar manufacturer either. And that makes this thing all the more interesting.