Living with a Mclaren 570GT
It’s time to bid farewell to stunning but problematic supercar
RARELY has a car on the Auto Express fleet caused such mixed emotions. I’m truly gutted that my time with GT10 MCL has come to an end – I don’t think there are many cars on sale today that are better to drive and there’s nothing better looking. But as regular readers and other Mclaren owners will know, living with one can have its ups and downs…
One of the best bits is knowing that your car is truly bespoke. I enlisted the help of Mclaren’s senior manager of global product strategy and planning, Donna Falconer, to spec my car tastefully. Together (well, mostly Donna), we came up with a stunning spec true to the 570GT’S ever-so-slightly softer positioning in Mclaren’s Sports Series.
Then ensued a wait of seven months before I collected my car from Mclaren’s dealer in Ascot, Berkshire, and started to understand what Mclaren ownership really meant.
Having experienced plenty of other supercars, I wasn’t expecting the level of good-natured interest and goodwill towards Mclaren. This is a car that people talk to you about on petrol forecourts, take pictures of when you’re on the move and even let you out of junctions to admire. I’ve had everyone from Premiership footballers to unfamiliar neighbours talk to me about my car.
Part of that has to be the work-of-art looks, especially in the Volcano Orange special paint finish. But people also know the Mclaren name and what it stands for, and that it’s a great British success story.
Warm, clear evenings and a Mclaren 570GT made me very happy. That’s when the car really comes to life, with an amazing level of grip, huge poise from the chassis, delicate feedback through the steering and big dollops of power from the 562bhp 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8.
It shone at sister title evo’s trackday, but what also amazed me was how usable the car was on my regular commute into central London. The ride is superbly judged and the car is docile in traffic. It’s a great GT.
But for all the many highlights, there were constant niggles, necessitating three returns to Mclaren HQ in Woking, Surrey. The IRIS infotainment system was the biggest gripe: always sluggish with poor graphics and functionality, it failed on multiple occasions. Superminis have better systems.
We had a worrying brake issue, which to be fair, Mclaren investigated thoroughly, failed to replicate and only occurred once. The nose lift – so essential over speed bumps – wails uncomfortably, both before and after a supposed fix. The car struggles to find the key, making it difficult to get in and start up, even when the key’s inside. The windows will open by themselves when you’ve tried to close them. And every day, there were numerous unexplained warning messages and accompanying chimes.
Just before the 570GT left our fleet, I was invited to meet Mclaren’s new chief operating officer, Dr Jens Ludmann, to talk about life with the car and the problems we’d experienced. He promised to discuss our issues with the engineering teams, assured me quality was top of his agenda and that the company is improving. All good news.
Mclaren is still a relative youngster in the automotive business, but needs to nip these reliability problems in the bud. From our experience with the 570GT, it has the potential to be one of the world’s greatest car makers. Let’s hope it fulfils that.