McLaren 600LT Spider drops the Longtail's top
The drop-top variant is barely 100 pounds heavier than the coupe.
The fifth car to carry McLaren's Longtail name isn't a completely new car, but that doesn't make it any less wild.
McLaren on Wednesday unveiled the 600LT Spider, the convertible variant of the 600LT coupe. It carries all the benefits of the fixed-roof Longtail, with an extra dose of sunshine for those lucky enough to plunk down the dough for one. The convertible roof adds just 110.2 pounds to the car, but it's still some 220 pounds lighter than the 570S Spider.
The 600LT Spider uses a three-piece retractable hardtop. It's capable of opening at speeds up to 25 miles per hour. McLaren claims its hardtop is more secure and resistant to wear than a traditional soft top. It also packs an electrically operated wind deflector that can be deployed to keep wind buffeting down or retracted to let those top-exit exhaust pipes sing.
McLaren could probably engineer a hardtop that could drop at unrestricted autobahn speeds, but that seems like the wrong can of worms to open.
The top-mounted exhaust is but one way to tell that the 600LT Spider is just a bit more bonkers than your "average" McLaren. Its 3.8-liter V8 produces the same 592 horsepower and 457 pound-feet of torque as the coupe, improvements of 30 and 14, respectively, over the 570S on which it's based. Mated to a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, that V8 will help the 600LT spider reach 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds, the same time it takes the coupe. It'll hit 201 mph with the roof up, or 196 with the roof down.
Inside, the 600LT Spider sports the same improvements as the coupe -- namely, a whole lot of Alcantara suede and the carbon fiber racing seats from the P1 hybrid hypercar. If you want to shed a few more grams, those seats can be swapped out in favor of the lightweight seats from the Senna. McLaren will also get rid of the audio and climate control if you want the most stripped-down experience possible.
With a starting price of $256,500, the 600LT Spider commands a $16,500 premium over the fixed-roof 600LT. It's unclear if McLaren will offer the free day of driver training that it does with the coupe, but considering both cars are equally righteous performers, it'd make sense to include it.
McLaren 720S: We'll never get tired of this thing.
McLaren Speedtail: Yowza.