McLaren GT | Test Drive | Auto Class Magazine

McLaren GT | Test Drive

2 August 2021 Redazione News, Stories, Tested

MCLAREN GT

Words Alessandro Marrone / Photos Jay Tomei

I am quite sure that behind that blanket of clouds the first lights of day are trying their best to find a way to the ground, still wet from a night that has reached winter temperatures. The mountains that rise above us still seem to be in full hibernation and the intense wind is the only hope for an improvement in the weather for the following hours. It is not dawn, it is not any particular day of the week, but the road is literally deserted. In these rare moments you realize how noisy the silence of nature is, where you can hear the slightest of sounds as you walk in the wild. Yet another lockdown keeps most of the people locked up at home, relegated to observe a world that inexorably continues to move forward outside the window.

Three years ago I was right here, where one of the most magical escapes of my life began, “The Great Escape” which looking at its numbers not only represents an enormous personal satisfaction and a dream come true, but the ideal way for telling a story made of passion, where all that matters is the perfect combination between driver, car and road. After more than 1,000 days, the sensations experienced at the wheel of the McLaren 720S are still as clear as if I had experienced ‘em yesterday and being able to relive them through the pages of my book, sharing them with thousands of people around the world makes this place incredibly emotional. Every journey has a beginning and an end, but as we all know it is what lies in between that makes it better than the others. In the same way it is the perfect combination of a whole series of factors that can consecrate it as something great, which is why when Federica (McLaren’s Western Europe Communication Consultant) offers me the new GT for testing, in my mind it is immediately clear what was about to happen.

A name as simple and explanatory as it is demanding to wear. GT, Gran Turismo of course, that’s it, that journey that ticks all the boxes thus becoming something unforgettable, where every traveled kilometer offers moments that will be jealously kept. The Woking-based brand, despite its young age in terms of road cars production, continues to expand its market and today offers a whole new model that transforms the concept of travelling. Forget the sleek coupes with a long front hood and a big engine to bring occupants and luggage across continents. This GT is the vision that an exotic brand like McLaren has of its journey, where the dynamism of a supercar with an engine located in mid-rear position is not changed, but rather married with an aesthetically softer car and with two load compartments useful for hosting the luggage for an out of town getaway.

I have never had great sympathy for compromises, because I believe that they are not able to satisfy any need, but the GT immediately makes it clear that it actually is the balance that was still missing, the link between the worlds of high performance and comfortable cruises. With a name like this there is nothing left to do but to find out and so, time to collect the car and get back to familiarize with the typical McLaren traits, while Jay (the photographer, ed) starts to prepare the bags with his gears. I let my eyes travel every inch of the GT and yep, it looks huge, but that’s actually not quite true. It virtually settles halfway between the 570S and the 720S, opening a new niche and offering the power of the sisters, but the possibility of not giving up on taking even the superfluous with you. 4.6 meters long and just over 2 meters wide, the GT has that typical dream car shape: low, with a generous rear and hides a 4-liter twin-turbo V8 under the second load compartment which delivers 620 horsepower.

620 horses, that’s a lot indeed. That’s why the trips will be extremely fast. After all, it just took some tweaks to the powertrain, gearbox and traction control settings and the GT immediately demonstrates how the wet asphalt allows you to widen the rear without necessarily massacring the huge 295-inch tires, with traction only at the rear. The cockpit, although different from the other models of the brand, leaves no room for doubt: we are sitting in a McLaren. There is a different gear selector for the 7-speed SSG automatic transmission, a raised center console that keeps the multimedia and navigation system with vertical development and offers space to arrange objects almost everywhere, while in front of the driver you get an entirely digital display and large paddles (typical McLaren trademark) that allow you to shift up and down depending on how you act on them. Then we aptly have a steering wheel that thank goodness doesn’t even have a single button on it. This is because although the GT is a cutting-edge car, it is fundamentally focused on one goal: driving, or even better traveling.

And so I drive, devouring kilometers in the most comfortable mode that does not disdain even to be used in the city, where you just have to find confidence with the resistance of the brake pedal, which communicates with a carbon-ceramic system made of 367 mm ventilated discs at the front and 354 mm at the rear. The weight, no more than a ton and a half (1,530 kg) is what you would expect from a supercar with a large V8 and all the comfort you need to prevent you from reaching your destination with pain at your back, this also thanks to the softer dedicated setting reserved to the suspensions. The doors with dihedral opening are the wow factor that one would not expect from a so-called Gran Turismo, but say thanks to McLaren that not only maintains a distinctive trait of the brand, but does not make Lamborghini’s mistake in making the Huracan less exotic. In the case of the GT, everything special we know has kept its place. What is added is the practical side of being able to take advantage of the cockpit at the front and a load compartment similar to that introduced at the time with the 570GT, but optimized, both in terms of size and practicality, hiding what you load from strangers’ eyes with a special cover, but also from the heat emanated by the engine, thanks to the use of a special anti-scratch and stain-resistant material developed by NASA and which regulates the temperature.

Between one stop and the next, the weather seems to have no intention of improving and despite a damp tarmac, the GT offers enough safety to be able to take advantage of the throttle pedal, as the kilometers go by driving and the confidence increases. The aerodynamic work is not as exasperated as on the LTs, the surfaces are cleaner even than on the 570S, but the moment the 620 horsepower are called into action and Jay and I are pressed to the seats, never mind our bags and luggage and all that opens up in my mind is the image of the curves that come from the horizon in rapid succession and in the most classic of climbs based on hairpin bends, hard braking and tail sliding accentuated by the wet surface. The GT has kept the sisters’ desire to run fast and it does not matter if the packed lunch arrives at its destination more like a jam, because once you get into the rhythm, you will really need a valid reason to slow down. And they call this engine quieter.

There are 630 Nm of torque, distributed between 5,500 and 6,500 rpm. In this range and with the peak of overall power increasing the directional thrust, the GT proves to be the Gran Turismo to beat, the only one that up to now has had the courage to dare such a leap in the dark and the only one to offer the image of a poster supercar, without implying any kind of renunciation. The ticket price starts at € 203,000 and with a single set-up it offers the opportunity to think about how to make your GT unique, thanks to the lunatics at the MSO department. The following morning, after spending a sleepless night in a cabin lost in the absolute nothingness, the journey resumes exactly where we left it. What changes is the awareness that I could cross continents in the shortest possible time and then reach my destination – or even better the next checkpoint – with the freshness that no supercar is able to offer. The GT, on the other hand, knows how to do it, probably because the pact with the devil made without the knowledge of the rest of the automotive landscape is more real than one might think, again this time without the need to call into question electric motors (you get the wonderful Artura for that), but rather by hybridizing the very concept of supercar and sweeping away the idea that the breathtaking lines of a 2-seater coupe with a horsepower plant, 570 liters of combined load and 326 kph of top speed are the polar opposite of a thousands of kilometers journey, with a sky to be admired through the large glass roof, even capable of darkening when the sun’s rays become more insistent.

The McLaren GT offers its driver the ability to have everything in a single container. Taking 3.1 seconds to shoot from 0 to 100 per hour and not scaring you to death not even when it comes to increase the pace on a mountain road immersed in fog and with practically zero grip, remember that the only limit is the imagination that you will have once you fight with the map. In our case it is all too simple, we just need to have many curves and some spots with a view next to the summit. And if these weeks also imply a total lack of traffic, it will mean that we will have one more reason to get in tune with each of the 620 horses available. All in the name of the purest and ancestral pleasure of a journey to discover a world that will be up to us to decide how fast to scroll.