2017 McLaren 570S review

"Oooooohhh myyyyyyy gaaaaaaaawwwwd!" my passenger, Jon, screamed, as I punched the throttle on the McLaren 570S. "Aaaaahhhhhhhh!"

"A—are you being serious?" I stammered back at Jon. "You don't have to put on an act for me," I said. I'd never heard anyone in real life react that way inside of a fast car.

"This thing is like a rollercoaster!" he shouted back at me over the sound of the roaring V8's wheezing turbochargers.

"Funny, you're the second person to say that," I chuckled.

It was true. Even I, a seasoned supercar driver (really — I'm not trying to be jerky), found the 570S' accelerative properties surprising.

When at full tilt, the car had the ability to lift your innards and throw off your equilibrium — even on a straight, flat road — in a way I'd not ever truly felt below the $260,000 price point. Still, though, Jon's reaction was shocking and unexpected.

Is the 570S really that insane? I thought to myself. Had I misread the bright-orange British wedge of carbon fiber?

Sports Series

Despite its exterior styling, the 570S is not a supercar, at least according to McLaren. Rather, it's the entry-level sports car in the McLaren's newly founded Sports Series.

By most generally accepted standards, supercars leave sports cars behind around the $180,000 mark. But pricing aside, supercars are best defined by their performance: Typically a vehicle enters supercardom when it can do 0-60 mph in around 3 seconds and hit a top speed near or above 200 mph.

All this means that, while the $184,900 McLaren 570S technically makes the supercar cut, it's really a sports car in comparison to McLaren's other cars like the 650S, 675LT and $1 million P1 hypercar. Moreover, the 570S is supposed to be the McLaren you could — and want to — drive every single day,

In other words, the 570S might be mental by commuter car norms, but by McLaren standards, it's rather plebeian.

Sure, it still has billionaire doors (a nickname for McLaren's dihedral doors coined by Silicon Valley character Russ Hanneman) and the same twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 engine as the rest of the McLaren line. However, the 570S' V8 produces only 562 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. By comparison, the 650S produces 641 horsepower.

As a result of that modest amount of power, the 570S will do 0 to 60 mph in 3.1 seconds on the way to its 204-mph top speed. These performance figures position the 570S among the fastest cars in the world and yet, at the same time, near the bottom of the McLaren lineup.

I learned long ago, when I first drove the Nissan GT-R, for example, that a car's performance figures don't define it. That's why I was so taken aback by Jon's screaming reaction to the car's power. To me, the 570S was no supercar. For Jon, however, it was the most insane thing he'd ever felt.

"This car makes me feel... things," Jon panted at the end of our drive.

Turns out, we were both right. It was indeed a breathtaking driving machine that makes anyone who gets near or in it feel many things. Still, though, it's also no supercar.

Divine intervention

With Jon's screams still fresh in my memory, I took the 570S out for a spirited solo drive. I wanted to see if the car could be as surprising and delightful for me as it had been for Jon. I suspected, though, he was just a overacting lunatic. I quickly discovered that Jon's cries of joy were indeed warranted but not perhaps for the reason you might expect.

Since the 570S' engine isn't a big, snappy V8 or V10 (like that of other European supercars), it doesn't feel like it's tearing you apart at a cellular level like you're falling into a black hole at full throttle. Instead, since the engine's twin turbos need to spool up before they can send a wave of power crashing over you, there's a bit of a throttle lag. You have you press your toes into the accelerator for a moment before you get rocketed forward.

Because of this, the car's V8 isn't the most immediately rewarding engine — nor is it especially invigorating to listen to. What the engine lacks in neck-snapping throttle immediacy and soul-churning exhaust notes, though, the rest of the car-driving experience more than makes up for with cunning cornering capabilities.

The 570S is small and light enough that it can change directions like a sparrow chasing a dragonfly. It's also incredibly compliant. Rallying through high-speed corners in other similarly priced cars, I always kept physics in the back of my mind. I had to be constantly cautious not to push my luck.

Instead, in 570S, I could keep speed up and carry momentum through corners without worrying I was about to lose it. In this way, it was very much like a rollercoaster. Since I dare not use the "it drives like it rides on rails" cliche, let's say it almost felt like McLaren had done a special deal with God Almighty to order up an extra helping of gravity over the car, keeping the 570S planted to the ground.

The 570S made me squeal with glee many, many times. However, it never scared me or made me scream like Jon. And that's not something I can say for the mightier next-level supercars on the market out there. The 570S let me stomp the throttle and ride its healthy but manageable surge of performance without making me feel like I was tempting fate or exceeding physics.

Unfortunately, simply handling like a force of nature and soaking occupants with waves of power isn't enough to push the 570S into supercar territory. Supercars, though far more frightening, have in recent years become equally comfortable for long trips. And the 570S just isn't.

The GT dilemma

Everywhere I took the 570S, the car caused a stir and attracted mobs of people keen to pose for pictures with it. Thanks to its exotic exterior styling and billionaire doors, it succeeds at looking like a supercar.

However, at the same time, it misses the mark as the everyday McLaren. Sure, I never feared for my life in it. After day-long drives in the 570S, though, my back hurt and I'd ache for a massage. I reckon that's because the 570S' suspension is stiff and not at all as forgiving as its big brothers'.

Also, the 570S lacked space for, well, things. I fit some groceries and a briefcase in the fronk (front trunk) area but the interior had insufficient space to carry enough luggage for a long weekend getaway.

A photo posted by Nick Jaynes (@nickjaynes) on Apr 12, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

Realizing this, McLaren carved out another place in its newfangled Sports Series for a cushier, more usable model: The 570GT. It has the same looks as the 570S but with a softer suspension, a more premium interior and more room for luggage.

The 570GT is slightly slower than the 570S (by 0.2 seconds), but, since that wasn't the overall selling point for the car anyhow, sacrificing a few tenths of a second on the way to 60 mph isn't a deal-breaker.

If I had $200,000 to spend on a sports car, I'd get the McLaren 570 over any one of its competitors every day of the week. For my money, it has the looks, the performance and tech that I'd want in a super sports car. That said, I'd get GT instead of the S.

So kudos to McLaren for creating the sports car to put all other sports cars to shame... as well as its softer, more desirable bother.