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Why McLaren Will Redefine GTs with the 570S

I remember when McLaren teamed-up with Samsonite back in 2009 to release a luggage set. It was just a piece of travel baggage, but it came with F1-styled wheels and had a suspension system aimed at protecting the baggage contents - when McLaren decides to enter a new business, its DNA shines through and this is precisely why we are about to meet a new face of the GT phenomenon.
McLaren 570S rendering 1 photo
Photo: Wild Speed
The Brits are almost ready to enter the Grand Touring world, with the 570S being their first venture into this realm of cozy velocity. Take a good look at the rendering above - until the car is revealed next month, this is as close as our eyes are going to get to the real deal.

Don't worry though, this rendering, which comes from pixel shaper Wild Speed, looks like it's got the accuracy of an SAS sniper. You don't even have to take my word for it, the recent 570S spyshots serve as proof here.

So has Ron Denis gone mad? (this would be the equivalent of the McLaren CEO allowing his desk to become cluttered). No, of course not.

At first sight, it might look like the British carmaker is simply giving us a Sports Series to fill the void left below its recently-completed Super Series, which includes the Asia-only 625S, the 650S and the track-special-but-still-street-legal 675LT.

Make no mistake though, McLaren won't simply downgrade from the hypercars and supercars it builds at the moment to sportscars. Instead, like I said, the Brits are putting on GT gloves. Why else would they have chosen the Ferrari F12berlinetta as a benchmark for testing the Sport Series?

After all, the three cars this sub-range will be comprised of (the 5xxC, the 570S and the 5xxLT) would be closer to the Ferrari California T in terms of power and pricing.

And speaking of the F12, McLaren's choice was a slap in the face of all the other super-fast GT builders. Bentley may not be included here, but Aston Martin definitely is. Ouch!

Of course, the acceptance of the GT term will be shaped into McLaren's weave. This means that you may not imagine a magic carpet just by looking at the seats of the thing, as it happens with Bentleys, for instance, but you'll be dealing with the most relaxed McLarens you've ever met.

Surrey has already demonstrated it can make a supercar comfortable enough for daily driving and they've done so from the MP4-12C, the first car they built after returning to the market back in 2011. They still think they can convince the entire world to adopt their ridiculously complicated motorsport-bred nomenclature, but this is starting to become the biggest flaw of their cars, which is awesome.

Yes, 2011 might not seem all that far, but McLaren time is a bit different from our own. Since they've been offline for quite a few years, McLaren is a brand with a big name that acts like a start-up - they follow customer and media feedback closely, releasing yearly updates.

You might loose some of the experience others have... cough... Prancing Horse... cough, but the revisions McLaren introduces every year require a four-year mid-cycle revamp to arrive if they come from the Italians and I'm not just referring to Ferrari here.

This comparison easily spells "blasphemy" in many regards, but when judging solely in terms of desire for innovation and determination for updates, the closest company to McLaren I can think of is... Tesla Motors.

In fact, I reckon that if McLaren would offer consultancy to the Californian EV makers, we'd end up with an offer that would be damn hard to refuse. The McLaren Group is no stranger to such far-fetched associations and with McLaren thankfully refusing to take the SUV road on its own, the premises are already here. But this is another story for another time.
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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist.
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