The benefits of open-air motoring will easily offset the small weight increase for most buyers. It remains a genuinely thrilling car.
Does the ethos of a hardcore, lightweight
Engine, transmission and 0-100 time
There are no surprises in the mechanical make-up of the 600LT Spider – it faithfully follows that of the coupe. There’s the same mildly tuned version of the familiar
The top speed is 323kph – if you leave the roof on.
Technical highlights
As with the engine, the rest of the 600LT Spider is the same as the coupe: the same forged wishbones, recalibrated dampers and suspension geometry, firmer engine mounts, lighter brakes and wheels and a quicker steering ratio; the same weight-saving measures, such as thinner glass, nets instead of door pockets and no carpeting. That all means that much like the coupe’s relation to the regular 570S, the 600LT Spider is 100kg lighter than a 570S Spider. It says 1297kg dry, but to maximise that difference you’ll need to order the MSO Clubsport pack, removing 5.58kg via its ‘Senna’ seats, titanium wheel bolts and various carbonfibre parts. Even so, it’s still around 50kg heavier than the coupe version.
The discreetly packaged roof mechanism requires 15 seconds to go from one state to the
And yes, it does still spit blue and orange flames out of that top exit exhaust, the rear wing specially treated so that it doesn’t melt like a piece of raclette cheese under a grill.
What’s it like to drive?
If there is a difference between the Spider and the coupe – at least in normal driving – you’ll be hard-pressed to spot it. The very nature of the McLaren monocell carbon structure means that removing the roof panel in theory has no bearing on the structural rigidity of the car, and therefore no penalty other than the added weight of the mechanism. At times there seems to be slightly more wind noise at speed coming from the A-pillar area, but it’s hard to know if this is an incorrect seal on a very early-build car, or how they all are. It’s not something I remember from the 570S Spider.
The 600LT is a car with a very high level of ultimate performance, but one that also involves and thrills at much more modest velocities as well – which was the secret of its eCoty success. It’s equally at home on road or track, but also surprisingly friendly in a way that encourages you to improve your own abilities without penalising too harshly your mistakes. Feedback through the steering wheel is outstanding, and the car always feels hyper agile and immediate, without being nervous, while the sturdy brake pedal feel and iron-grip damping composure breed immediate confidence.
With the roof lowered, the presence of the V8 is much more obvious – and a little, perhaps, more musical. This engine will never win awards for its melody, but it’s hard not to be seduced by its aggressive snarling just over your shoulder. Even better, you can keep the roof on but lower the shallow window pane behind you with the press of another button, thereby keeping dry at all times but still have flames firing out mere inches from the back of your head. Even at less manic moments, a burst of acceleration has the view aft obscured slightly by a vicious heat haze from those exhausts. It’s theatre, pure and simple.
For me though, I’d still probably go for the coupe version, only because when McLaren lists all the hard work and the importance of losing every last gram of that 100kg weight saving Long Tail specification brings, adding half of it back in again so that you can take the roof off seems to run against the basic ethos of the car.
Price and rivals
At $262,640 the 600LT Spider still occupies a slightly unusual, underdog position in the hardcore supercar market, costing some way short of a Porsche 911 GT2 RS or the Ferrari 488 Pista Aperta. As we know, its performance and
This article originally appeared at evo.co.uk
Copyright © evo UK, Dennis Publishing
