2020 McLaren GT - The InterContinental Ballistic Motorcar

Today we're going to take a look at the latest supercar from McLaren. This is the 2020 GT and we're going to drive it right now on Driving Sports TV. When you look at GT cars of today, they're mostly comfortable, fast and luxurious. The Aston Martin DB11 is a prime example. The top spec engine is a 5.2 liter V12 with 630 horsepower and a 0 to 60 time of 3.7 seconds. Inside is an interior worthy of a prince. Red, purple, blue, you can pretty much get any color you want. On the outside is one of the prettiest cars you can buy today. I do suspect that even shoppers in Monte Carlo would take notice of this one rolling up to the casino. Baccarat, Mr. Bond? Oh, anyway, but the car we're reviewing today isn't that kind of a GT. It's more like this kind of a GT. Back in the 1950s and 60s, the GT formula was a lot different than today. Back then, it was about being light, fun and fast with just enough comfort to get you across the continent without causing nerve damage to your legs and still able to attack the mountain roads without a single compromise. It's that experience that McLaren is chasing with their all new 2020 GT. I want to take a moment to thank McLaren of Seattle for providing us with the car that we're testing today. Normally, we do get them from the manufacturer like the 570S I reviewed a few weeks ago. But McLaren Seattle was able to get us this car quicker than McLaren North America could. We weren't going to get it from them till like next spring. Moving on. The 2020 McLaren GT starts at $210,000. Our test car does come with a bunch of extras. So if you want one like this, you will be paying a bit more. Prior to the GT, McLaren grouped their cars into three categories. There was the entry level sports series, which includes the 570S and its derivatives. Next up was the super series. That's the 720S and its related kin. Finally, on the tippity top is the ultimate series, which is where you would find the ultra exclusive Senna, Elva, and the Speedtail. The GT series slots in just above the sports series. As such, it pulls parts from both the super and the sports series. And as soon as you get inside, you can see that. The interior, very similar to a sports series car. Only here it has been spruced up a bit. This is a GT after all. Likewise, the front cargo area is straight off the 570S with up to 5.3 cubic feet of storage. The engine is a delight. It is a mid mounted twin turbo 4 liter V8 with core parts borrowed from the 720S. Here it has been detuned to 610 horsepower down from the 720S's 710. It's also placed lower in the chassis. Unfortunately, we can't show you the engine because you need tools to even get a peek at it, which kind of sucks, but it's just the way it is. These aren't the type of cars where you would do an oil change in your driveway. To give this car bona fides worthy of the class, McLaren did re-engineer their Monocell 2 chassis to expand the cargo capacity with a shelf placed above the engine and wrapped in glass. To prevent cargo from overheating, air is drawn through the chassis, over the engine, but under the shelf. Quite clever actually. This shelf adds 14.8 cubic feet for a total of more than 20 cubic feet of total capacity. And so long as your bags are long and flat, you can easily fit enough for any holiday weekend. I get the feeling that if you buy this car, fuel economy isn't your highest priority, but I'll go ahead and tell you that it is 15 miles to the gallon city and 22 on the highway. Moving on. Unlike the DB11, which, though pretty, still feels like it's at least related to a normal car, the McLaren has the essence of a true race car, but dandied up for the street. That means raw carbon fiber, aggressive ventilation, and on our test car, even the brakes are track spec carbon ceramics. Now you can get this car with standard cast iron brakes, which if you're driving on the street, you might actually want to consider. Carbon ceramics are great on the track, but they have no progressive feel. They're either on or they're off. If you want more feel in your brakes, just get the cast irons and save some money. Like other GTs, wheel sizes are staggered on this one with 20-inch wheels up front and 21 in the rears. Both are wrapped with sticky Pirelli P Zero rubber. Now let's get into the GT and start it up. Anybody who's driven a 570S will feel right at home here. You have the same steering wheel, same basic touchscreen display, though it has been updated for 2020, and then you have a very similar button layout. Although here they've added piano black, not my favorite, but it does look very pretty combined with those actual metal inserts. Infotainment is a vertically oriented tablet-like system. This gives you access to navigation, which is easy to use, and integrates into the main digital cluster. It also controls air con. Notice how the driver is wearing a helmet, which is a nice touch. Flipping into reverse enables the parking sonars and engages the dash-mounted rear camera. If you're looking for Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, yeah, it doesn't have either of those. All of this is pretty much the same as any other McLaren, but the big change here over the 570S is in something much more fundamental. The seats are well beyond what the 570S offered. The 570S is the equivalent of park benches. These ones are actually like they're out of a car. It's quite nice. Now this car has a number of options. It has the nose lift kit for one. This increases your front clearance within a few seconds. It also has the Bowers & Wilkins sound system, which again has been updated for 2020. And it has some other bits here and there. So there's several drive modes, comfort, sport, and track. I can doodle with these switches all day long. They don't do anything until I hit the active button, and it'll even change the exhaust note. So now the curve out of this park is a little steep, so I'm going to go ahead and hit the switch here, which will raise the nose up. Now if you've driven any other McLarens, they all ride low. You're looking at about four and a half inches normal ride height. With the lift kit, you get an extra inch or so in the front, which can be very useful on entrances and exits. Last thing you want to do is scrape off your carbon fiber nose. What? So now that I've exceeded 30 miles an hour, the car will automatically reduce its ride height back to normal. Okay, let's go ahead and try a 0-to-60. Now this is vaguely representative. I mean, we're not going to do launch control because this is public space, but yeah, let's see what it can do. Just foot to the floor in track mode. Three, two, one, go. What? Yeah, I was busy keeping the car straight, so I have no idea how fast 60 came up. McLaren says it's about three seconds. Yeah, yeah, I believe that. Easily. Because we're driving a dealer car, I couldn't really thrash it like I would a manufacturer's car. So that 5.5 second 0-to-60 was way off of the 3.1 seconds we should be able to achieve. Let's take a look again at the gauge cluster. Three, two, one, go. What? What's clear here is that the turbos kick in at just over 4,000 RPM, which makes sense due to the 465 pound-feet of peak torque hitting at 5,500 RPM. I actually had quite a lot of wheel spin throughout most of that. So cold tires combined with not getting that peak torque earlier meant for a slow launch. So how do you make it launch quicker? Well, that's easy. You use the launch control system. Launch control works like this. Basically, it preloads the engine so that the turbos are outputting their maximum torque, and then it releases it and uses a traction control system to give you the quickest possible launch. Now, while I will use launch control all day long on public roads with a car like the BMW 8 Series, I'm not so comfortable doing that with a McLaren. Launch control with this car will have to wait until we can get a track day. If that ever happens. Let's go ahead and put it in the comfort mode because that is kind of the point of a GT. So if you're looking for a supercar that is loaded with the latest and advanced safety technology, yeah, this isn't the car for you. Because it doesn't have any. No blind spot monitoring, no collision mitigation. It doesn't even have adaptive cruise control. It just has regular cruise control. But at least it has that, right? The suspension on this GT is related to what McLaren calls their optimal control theory system off of the 720S. It uses a bevy of sensors so that it can respond to road conditions almost immediately. Switching to comfort is, of course, the softest setting, and it does a great job to smooth out those rough edges of the road without really ever feeling overly soft. Driving a McLaren is a very special experience. It has road feel that you just don't get with other cars. And though the GT is softer than even the 570S, it still has that McLaren magic. And I love the shifters. Like on the 570S, the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is really best when you're shifting manually. And honestly, those paddle shifters are the best you'll ever feel. When you do let the system shift for you, it can get confused. I get an impression that the automatic programming was kind of an afterthought on this one. Driving a McLaren with memory foam seats is a revelation after being in that 570S for four hours. These are comfortable. And they're not just comfortable, they're also heated. And of course, you get tons of adjustments down here, although it is like the worst place to put it because you have to kind of do it all by feel. Once you do get it sorted, however, you can save them to memory in position one or two. So that's handy. The exclusivity of one of these is off the charts. They're looking at about $1,200 a year. Porsche? Yeah, you might as well be driving a Volkswagen Bug in terms of exclusivity. At least where I live, Porsche 911s are all over the place. Even McLaren still will turn some heads because you just don't see them. And that's, you know, that makes it a little extra special, I think. I mean, there's not a lot to talk about. It's a McLaren. It's awesome. It's a supercar. It's rear wheel drive. It has 20 inch wheels up front, 21 inches in the back. It has a twin turbocharged four liter V8 that's pumping out 612 horsepower to those rear wheels. It is loaded with carbon fiber and leather and metal, and you definitely want one. If you do need to bring two friends with you and you still want to drive a McLaren, the only option currently is the $2.1 million Speedtail. But it's not really an option because aside from the fact that it costs $2.1 million, they're only making 106 of them and all are already sold. No, I did not buy one of them. I just had to drop $800 for repairs on my WRX, so I'm tapped out for the month. If we lived in a Barbie dreamland and you could pick either the McLaren GT or the Aston Martin DB11 for totally free, which one would you pick? Post a comment below. Also, give us a like and a share on our videos. Your support makes them possible. Oh, and speaking of support, if you're watching this on a desktop browser, you'll see that there's a new join button below. Give that a click and check it out. For Driving Sports TV, I'm Ryan Douthit. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you again right here next week.