Review: McLaren GT

Sure. You just take a super sports car, tinker with it a little, give it a little more space for luggage and then claim it is a GT (Gran Turismo), i.e. a car for the long journey. And that with two doors, a "pull-your-head-in" height of 1,21 meters and a side sill that forces you to plop into the slim-fit sports seats, which is not exactly elegant. Not to mention the 620 HP in the back. McLaren can tell a lot. But guess what? The engineers and designers of the small brand with the big Formula 1 sound are right: the McLaren GT is actually something of a super sports car for every day. An attribute that up to now has been almost exclusively attributed to a Porsche 911 Turbo in this performance class.

Engine and power

Okay, the GT is still a bit removed from its everyday practicality. But for a McLaren and in comparison - let's say the sister model 720 S - it is downright comfortable. And that is certainly not due to the engine. The GT also has the 4,0-liter V8 under the hood, here in comparison to the 720S only tamed by 100 PS to 456 kW / 620 PS and at the top “only” 326 instead of 341 km / h. We'd say: It's manageable.

Since the GT is also an extremely lightweight, as is usual with McLaren, and weighs only 1.530 kilograms, especially thanks to the carbon chassis, one horsepower doesn't even have to move 2,5 kilograms. Compared to an Aston Martin DB11 and its around 1.800 kilos, a big advantage. And that's how the GT drives: of course, very fast, very agile and also handy. And, as already mentioned, also really comfortable in this vehicle class. This is where the standard proactive cushioning helps, especially when you are out and about in comfort mode that is suitable for everyday use.

Otherwise, an impressive 630 Newton meters of torque is directed to the rear wheels. If you want it, you can go from a standing start to 3,2 km / h in 100 seconds and to 10 in less than 200 seconds. Unfortunately, given the traffic in the Rhineland, we couldn't check that out. Just as little as the mentioned top speed of 326 km / h. It was almost 280 briefly on the open motorway in the evening and we had the feeling that we were still far from the vehicle's performance limit.

Design and interior

The vehicle only reaches its limits in city traffic - narrow streets and turning maneuvers are not its thing. After all, the outside width with mirrors is a loose 2,10 meters. Be careful when parking: the spectacular double doors take up less space when open than an open normal door, but the elegant swinging up could tempt you to misjudge the space requirements.

Inside you can find your way around the GT straight away. The small vertically mounted infotainment display takes some getting used to, but is not overwhelming. Rather, it is nice that McLaren does not install a huge display here, after all, despite the more comfortable design, it is still a super sports car. The feeling of comfort is also underlined by the airiness of the interior, no comparison with a Lamborghini, for example. But the interior designers cannot do magic either - there was hardly any space left for storage in the beautifully designed cockpit.

But McLaren is particularly proud of the two luggage compartments. At the front there is a manually opened flap, under which there is space (150 liters) for a trolley, similar to a Porsche. The tailgate can even be opened electrically and offers 420 liters of storage space. However, this extends quite flat over the mid-engine, large cases cannot be accommodated here.

Nevertheless, the McLaren GT can also be used as a travel vehicle, at least for a week's trip. The steering, brakes and ground clearance have been designed to be more suitable for everyday use than other vehicles of the brand, so that you are much more relaxed and stress-free on the road. If you want to, you can even drive the Englishman close to the approx. 12 liter standard consumption. If you want to use the power that is developing behind your back, you will probably have to expect 15 liters, as we did. This is where it becomes apparent that even the most comfortable McLaren is still a superlative sports car - with all its advantages and disadvantages. These include the standard competitive base price of 198.000 euros, which can easily be increased by tens of thousands of euros for items from the option list. The GT is not only a dream car, but unfortunately also one that we can only dream of.

Technical data