Track and trace

FOR It’s a racecar with number plates. What’s not to like? AGAINST You’ll need to be a track day geek to make sense of it

The 620R is the raciest road legal McLaren yet: think of it as a slightly softened racecar as opposed to a pumped up Sports Series car. Using the 570S GT4 as its base, it’s actually much more powerful. Motorsport regulations keep GT4 car engines wound below 500bhp but with the rulebooks duly binned, McLaren’s 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8 now peaks at 620PS, or 612bhp.

Homologating it for the street means it’s not eligible to race, but its overtly hardcore nature will likely stymie frequent road use, too. On first impression it feels surplus to the range – McLaren makes a GT4 race car and the 600LT ‘road racer’, and this 620R straddles a thin line between the two.

But dig a little deeper and its appeal shines through. You can choose between 32-way mechanically adjustable suspension (standard) or McLaren’s adaptive set-up toggled via an interior dial (optional). A set of fully slick tyres is also optional and can be slotted on without chassis changes. You get the fixed rear wing from the GT4 racer as standard, and it can adjust through a handful of downforce settings, offering up to 185kg.

“Wouldn’t I just get a racecar?” you might (reasonably) ask. Well, 2020 has dealt us some strange hands, and among the more first-world issues raised by a global pandemic was the halting of all circuit activity. So having some numberplates on your track toy might now seem a lot less pointless. And on the road, this is actually the most exciting and involving McLaren of the lot.

On circuit, the pieces fall into place. It displays all of the seriousness of a GT4 car, but with a lot more power and none of the stress of actually racing. Popping on the slicks and ramping up the downforce sets a talent level far beyond any stock supercar on a track day, and you’re soon drawn helplessly in, wishing to spend hours upping your game.

It operates in a realm beyond the cars you might conceive as road rivals – it’s more focused (ie less fun) than a 488 Pista, but it’ll develop your talent, rather than flatter it. The fact its extra toughness also makes it McLaren’s most histrionic road car yet is a mere bonus for masochists.