2018 McLaren 570S Spider Driven: Svengali Supercar

The subtle feedback of tugs and twitches coming through the steering wheel with every pavement undulation and nuanced change in road surface are vivid enough that an astute passenger will notice the wheel’s wriggling. This is not standard-issue carmaking (or even supercar-making) these days. But McLaren is going countercultural by prioritizing driver involvement, even at sub-racetrack speeds, something regularly sacrificed across the industry due to ever-increasing horsepower, performance, and weight. While even McLaren succumbs to the siren song of the stopwatch on more expensive wares such as the 720S, the focus on feedback on its lower-priced Sports Series line of cars—a trio of $200,000 two-seaters that consists of the 570S coupe, the slightly more practical 570GT, and this new two-piece-hardtop convertible 570S Spider—makes them the McLarens to buy.

No Lumps

The pursuit of driving character is why McLaren refuses to take its electric-assist lumps like everyone else, continuing to use hydraulically assisted power steering. Also spec’d in the name of feel are surprisingly modest tire sizes, including 225-millimeter-section-width rubber in front, 10 millimeters narrower than what a Honda Civic Si wears. These restrained tire selections certainly benefit ride quality, too, which is very reasonable by supercar standards. It’s not like these cars can’t deliver impressive numbers, though. We expect the 570S Spider—powered by McLaren’s familiar twin-turbocharged, flat-plane-crank V-8 that was designed with the English engineering firm Ricardo, screams to 8200 rpm, and makes 562 horsepower—to dash to 60 mph in 3.0 seconds and to return quarter-mile times in the high-10-second range. The last 570S coupe we tested managed 1.05 g on the skidpad, so this droptop version won’t be a slouch there, either. And, with the top up, the Spider will reach the same claimed 204-mph top speed as the coupe, a point of pride for the aerodynamics team.