FIRST LOOK - The NEW McLaren GT _ Top Gear

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the new mclaren gt a car aimed at the aston martin db11 v8 ferrari portofino and the porsche 911 turbo s says mclaren a car designed for grand touring not banzai hot laps a more sedate but entirely separate sister car to the 720s but unlike the 570 gt which was a mildly more practical 570s this takes its continent crossing abilities a whole lot more seriously clearly mclaren is a master at taking a box of meccano components like its monocell carbon fiber tub two seats a mid-mounted turbo v8 and a twin clutch gearbox and spinning it into an endless array of mid-engine supercars there's now 12 distinct models across the super series sports series ultimate series and motorsport series but this car sits in a distinct fifth pillar all of its own the grand touring pillar don't believe me mclaren has even drawn us a handy little graph see from the outside of the changes from a 720s are obvious the aluminium body is entirely new and less dramatic in its curvature the nose sits higher 110 millimeters from the ground or 130 millimeters with the optional nose lift system to help navigate speed bumps the tyres are pirelli p-0s with special sound deadening foam and the roof rear three-quarter window c-pillar and rear deck are all laminated glazing for maximum visibility and minimum noise a huge intake behind the doors takes care of cooling while the air intake is set wide and high on the shoulder of the car and the exhausts widen low sacrificing some of the diffuser's efficiency to ensure you don't burn your leg hairs when you're unloading the boot yep sounds pretty good too the engine you guessed it is a four liter twin turbo v8 but compared to the 720s we've got new pistons here we've got a new low inertia turbo and it's less highly strung so 611 brake horsepower and a broader flatter torque curve peaking at 465 pounds feet of torque it's also no salad dodger at 1 530 kilograms so although this thing will be nowhere near as quick as a 720s around a track it's still not slow naught to 62 in 3.2 seconds nought to 124 miles an hour in under 9 seconds and a top speed of 203 miles an hour that's broadly on a par then with the 570s yeah as i said not slow then there's all the fine mechanical tweaks aimed at making this car more bearable on a long-haul drive and around town the steering is still hydraulic but that and the brakes are more heavily assisted at slow speeds the spring rates bushes and anti-roll bars are softer and the adaptive dampers are re-tuned mclaren says the driving experience is profoundly different to anything else it makes the focus here is on stability not chuck ability but we'll have to take the word on it for now where the gt scores really highly though is luggage space with the 720s you could fit a couple of weekend bags in the nose perhaps a wafer thin mint behind the seats and with the gt you still get the 150 liters in the front end but you also get a massive 420 liters in the back now that's just 10 liters less than a volvo v60 with the rear seats up peering in here i wouldn't sell the volvo wagon just yet but it is an incredibly useful space i'm told in fact that you can fit easily a full set of golf clubs in here nestled in this groove in the engine cover and as luck would have it i happen to have a set over here here we go shove these in here on their side there we go easy peasy off to the golf club in my mclaren this boot lining by the way is leather perhaps at the less practical end of the spectrum but you can order a hard wearing fabric if you think you're going to be lobbing in muddy wellies and wet dogs for example the interior layout is largely familiar but there are a few key differences the first is the fact that you sit about two centimeters higher than you do in the 720s and these seats aren't skeletal carbon fiber buckets for obvious reasons no they're much softer and more accommodating than that these are trimmed in leather but there is the option of cashmere fabric and while we're on the subject of materials the emphasis here is very much on luxury not on speed so you won't find lots of exposed carbon fiber no across the dashboard you have semi-analyzed leather that's the stuff you get in a rolls-royce and all this bright work around here that's chunky slabs of real aluminium the infotainment system that is all new i'm told five times faster better maps a more smartphone like interface in terms of visibility well it's pretty good actually thanks to that raised seating position and the fact that you got all the glazing behind you oh and you can have endless fun playing with the electrochromatic panoramic roof above your head which is switchable between five modes from fully transparent to almost fully opaque the best way of thinking about this car then is just like the 600 lt plays apprentice to the center well the gt minus the three seater layout of course is very much a junior speed tower clearly this isn't quite a grand tourer in the big comfy bentley conti gt mould the engine is in the back for starters so it's still a car that's laced with supercar dna but for all those buyers out there with 165 grand burning a hole in their pocket but for whom mclaren's obsession with track performance might put them off well this car opens up new possibilities there's more luggage space there's more comfort and there's still more performance than you could legally use on the public road this then is the supercar that takes real life into accountthis is the new mclaren gt a car aimed at the aston martin db11 v8 ferrari portofino and the porsche 911 turbo s says mclaren a car designed for grand touring not banzai hot laps a more sedate but entirely separate sister car to the 720s but unlike the 570 gt which was a mildly more practical 570s this takes its continent crossing abilities a whole lot more seriously clearly mclaren is a master at taking a box of meccano components like its monocell carbon fiber tub two seats a mid-mounted turbo v8 and a twin clutch gearbox and spinning it into an endless array of mid-engine supercars there's now 12 distinct models across the super series sports series ultimate series and motorsport series but this car sits in a distinct fifth pillar all of its own the grand touring pillar don't believe me mclaren has even drawn us a handy little graph see from the outside of the changes from a 720s are obvious the aluminium body is entirely new and less dramatic in its curvature the nose sits higher 110 millimeters from the ground or 130 millimeters with the optional nose lift system to help navigate speed bumps the tyres are pirelli p-0s with special sound deadening foam and the roof rear three-quarter window c-pillar and rear deck are all laminated glazing for maximum visibility and minimum noise a huge intake behind the doors takes care of cooling while the air intake is set wide and high on the shoulder of the car and the exhausts widen low sacrificing some of the diffuser's efficiency to ensure you don't burn your leg hairs when you're unloading the boot yep sounds pretty good too the engine you guessed it is a four liter twin turbo v8 but compared to the 720s we've got new pistons here we've got a new low inertia turbo and it's less highly strung so 611 brake horsepower and a broader flatter torque curve peaking at 465 pounds feet of torque it's also no salad dodger at 1 530 kilograms so although this thing will be nowhere near as quick as a 720s around a track it's still not slow naught to 62 in 3.2 seconds nought to 124 miles an hour in under 9 seconds and a top speed of 203 miles an hour that's broadly on a par then with the 570s yeah as i said not slow then there's all the fine mechanical tweaks aimed at making this car more bearable on a long-haul drive and around town the steering is still hydraulic but that and the brakes are more heavily assisted at slow speeds the spring rates bushes and anti-roll bars are softer and the adaptive dampers are re-tuned mclaren says the driving experience is profoundly different to anything else it makes the focus here is on stability not chuck ability but we'll have to take the word on it for now where the gt scores really highly though is luggage space with the 720s you could fit a couple of weekend bags in the nose perhaps a wafer thin mint behind the seats and with the gt you still get the 150 liters in the front end but you also get a massive 420 liters in the back now that's just 10 liters less than a volvo v60 with the rear seats up peering in here i wouldn't sell the volvo wagon just yet but it is an incredibly useful space i'm told in fact that you can fit easily a full set of golf clubs in here nestled in this groove in the engine cover and as luck would have it i happen to have a set over here here we go shove these in here on their side there we go easy peasy off to the golf club in my mclaren this boot lining by the way is leather perhaps at the less practical end of the spectrum but you can order a hard wearing fabric if you think you're going to be lobbing in muddy wellies and wet dogs for example the interior layout is largely familiar but there are a few key differences the first is the fact that you sit about two centimeters higher than you do in the 720s and these seats aren't skeletal carbon fiber buckets for obvious reasons no they're much softer and more accommodating than that these are trimmed in leather but there is the option of cashmere fabric and while we're on the subject of materials the emphasis here is very much on luxury not on speed so you won't find lots of exposed carbon fiber no across the dashboard you have semi-analyzed leather that's the stuff you get in a rolls-royce and all this bright work around here that's chunky slabs of real aluminium the infotainment system that is all new i'm told five times faster better maps a more smartphone like interface in terms of visibility well it's pretty good actually thanks to that raised seating position and the fact that you got all the glazing behind you oh and you can have endless fun playing with the electrochromatic panoramic roof above your head which is switchable between five modes from fully transparent to almost fully opaque the best way of thinking about this car then is just like the 600 lt plays apprentice to the center well the gt minus the three seater layout of course is very much a junior speed tower clearly this isn't quite a grand tourer in the big comfy bentley conti gt mould the engine is in the back for starters so it's still a car that's laced with supercar dna but for all those buyers out there with 165 grand burning a hole in their pocket but for whom mclaren's obsession with track performance might put them off well this car opens up new possibilities there's more luggage space there's more comfort and there's still more performance than you could legally use on the public road this then is the supercar that takes real life into account\n"