McLaren has taken the roof off its 675 LT to create a new Spider variant, which will go on sale next summer for a price of £285,450 – almost £26,000 more than its coupé sibling.

Styled in the same vein as the coupé, the 675 LT Spider’s three-piece hardtop folding roof can be opened at speeds of up to 19mph, and is stored under a tonneau cover at the rear of the car when folded away. The open-top McLaren weighs in at 1270kg dry, a full 100kg lighter than the 650S Spider and 40kg heavier than the 675 LT coupé.

McLaren says that due to the inherent strength of its carbon tub, no further strengthening was needed to create the convertible.

Mechanically, the Spider features the same twin-turbocharged 3.8-litre V8 engine as the coupé, producing 666bhp at 7100rpm and 516lb ft of torque between 5000-6500rpm. Around half of the engine’s components were altered for the Spider, with new elements including more efficient turbochargers, redesigned exhaust manifolds and a lightweight camshaft and connecting rods added.

McLaren has succeeded once again in making its Spider variant match the coupé in terms of performance – the 675 LT Spider keeps the coupé’s 0-62mph sprint time of 2.9 seconds, and only loses 2mph in top speed terms, topping out at 203mph. McLaren says the new car can return up to 24.1mpg, with CO2 emissions rated at 275g/km.

The 675 LT Spider joins the 675 LT coupé and 650S in McLaren’s Super series of models, and will rival the likes of Porsche’s 911 GT3 RS and Ferrari’s F12tdf in terms of performance.

Like the 675 LT coupé, which sold out soon after its unveiling at the Geneva motor show in March, just 500 units of the new Spider will be sold, with most likely to go to existing McLaren owners. A first public outing for the new car is planned for next year’s Geneva show.