Hit the supercar jackpot with McLaren’s £148k carbon coupe

I DIDN’T need much persuading to attend last week’s McLaren driving event.

Even a two-and-a-half hour drive each way in my old Chev truck didn’t put me off.

Five hours is a long time in a car when the original USA-spec radio will only pick up one station – Radio 4. You have no idea how much I hate The Archers.

But – dull daytime radio entertainment or not – the opportunity to drive my choice of McLarens around the Gloucestershire countryside was too good an opportunity to pass up.

First off – the 570S Coupe. The clue to the amount of power it produces is in the title – 570PS. That’s ample in a carbon-tubbed car weighing just 1,300kgs, I can tell you.

The 570S costs £148,150 – roughly the sort of money you would end up paying for a fully-loaded Audi R8.

It is achingly beautiful but you don’t need me to tell you that, do you? Clamber into the cockpit via the massive opening allowed by the forward swivelling scissor door and thumb the starter button.

The dry-sumped twin-turbo V8 chimes into life with a vocal, hardedged rasp from the tailpipes. Press a button to engage drive and you’re off (but only once you’ve activated “noselift” to clear the sleeping policemen in the car park).

My co-driver for the day lived locally so he knew the best route for the car – a snaking, undulating ribbon of trafficfree A-road with a pretty good surface. You need a good surface when tyres are this big and suspension is this stiff.

The 570S Coupe was remarkable but, again, I probably didn’t need to tell you that.

Overtakes are over in the blink of an eye – like riding a superbike – and the harder you rev that 3.8-litre V8, the more relentless the forward surge.

Steering is surprisingly light with plenty of kick-back, twitch and feel to communicate precisely what the car is doing. The seven-speed SSG auto box shifts quickly and seamlessly.

The carbon ceramic brakes are massively powerful but with plenty of feel. The soundtrack is beautiful.

Two hours later it was time for the 650S Spider. Again the clue is in the title. It’s the same engine in essence but with a lot of changes to gain that extra 80bhp.

Just 20 minutes into this memorable roofless drive, in Dursley, I think, I achieved a lifetime first. A pedestrian actually applauded the car. He stood there. Agog. He clapped his hands above his head and whooped as we drove past. That’s never happened to me before.

The difference in power between these two cars is really noticeable. The 650S tries to break rear tyre traction on dry roads at any speed you care to mention. It might be a change in tarmac, it might be a slight bump or undulation but it doesn’t take much provocation to kick the traction control into action. That said, it’s just SURGE: 570 can be a pussycat but has relentless power on tap as easy to bimble around in at an everyday pace as the 570.

It can be a big pussycat if that’s what you fancy and it’s as easy to drive as a Ford Mondeo if that’s what you want but it’s the way both these McLarens flatter you as a driver that really stands out.

And, like the Audi R8, they both feel like the sort of car you could use every day.

They’re comfortable, well equipped and beautifully detailed but, unlike the Audi, neither of these cars is going to depreciate as severely because McLaren only build a handful of cars.

With demand high and availability low, that’s a surefire way of keeping used values as high as possible.

My pick? The 570S Coupe, on the basis that if I ever owned a car this addictive I’d be wanting to use it every day and a rigid, carbon tub chassis should have a roof to retain its integrity. Best keep doing those Lotto numbers, I guess…