McLaren's 570S Spider offers 562 hp of top-down supercar fun
Experience the wind in your hair, or lack thereof, at speeds that would make many cars blush... if, you know, cars could blush.
McLaren's Sports Series, which contains its most "affordable" supercars, grows by one today with the introduction of the 2018 McLaren 570S Spider.
The schtick is pretty straightforward: Take a 570S coupe, and remove the top. Well, OK, it's not removed per se -- it's replaced with a retractable hardtop that takes 15 seconds to open or close, at speeds up to 25 miles per hour. The top and its associated mechanisms add about 101 pounds to the 570S' curb weight.
To prevent the wind from removing one's hat, there's an additional wind deflector that can be raised to help mitigate buffeting, or lowered while the top is up to bring a little more noise into the cabin. There's also an optional "sports system" that channels exhaust sound toward the cabin beneath the tonneau cover for even more noise.
It's a stunner in blue. Oh, who am I kidding, it's amazing no matter what color it wears.
And noise is pivotal to the McLaren experience. The 570S Spider wields a 3.8-liter, twin-turbocharged V8, which puts out 562 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. Mated to a seven-speed transmission, power is sent to the rear wheels and the 570S Spider rockets to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds. With the roof up, it'll hit 204 mph, and with the roof down, it'll still reach 196 mph.
Much of the fancy stuff from the 570S coupe is present on the Spider, as well. It's got three different modes (Normal, Sport and Track), carbon-ceramic brakes, adaptive dampers and a stability control system that lets you decide how drifty you want to get.
There are some slight differences between the two, though. The Spider's rear spoiler is approximately half an inch taller than on the coupe. Three new paint colors are available -- Curacao blue, Vega blue and Sicilian yellow. There's also a new, optional 10-spoke wheel design.
The 2018 McLaren 570S Spider will begin deliveries in August, and will cost $208,800.
