The McLaren GT is McLaren’s new dedicated grand tourer

The new car is pretty much as Bruce McLaren imagined a McLaren GT in the late 1960s when, after dominating Can-Am racing in the US and on the cusp of Formula 1 greatness, he turned his thoughts to making road cars. His first and only prototype, the M6 GT, never did make it into production, but its spirit – and practical side – lives on in Woking’s newest model.

Surprising? Not really. While everyone loves a supercar buyers are less prepared to accept the compromises that a supercar traditionally brings. We live in a world after all where you can spend as much and go almost as fast in an SUV. McLaren continues to rule out an SUV/four-door but clearly a car without room for golf clubs or skis was a purist supercar step too far. The fact that the global market for GTs costing between £100-200,000 is twice as big as the supercar market must have eased the decision-making as the company closes in on its 6,000 cars-a-year production target.

Enter the McLaren GT, unveiled today as Woking’s answer to the Aston Martin DB11 and Porsche 911 Turbo and on sale now priced from £163,000, with first deliveries due by the end of the year.

As the forerunner of a new Grand Touring Series, McLaren has positioned the GT apart from the familiar Sports, Super and Ultimate models, despite sharing their core engineering, and further GT Series McLarens would seem a certainty (remember Woking still has 14 new models to unveil by 2025 according to its £1.2 billion Track25 product plan). Up next in the GT series? It has to be a series-production three-seater, doesn’t it?

For now, though, it’s all about this car – one which, McLaren people tell us, will not come a moment too soon for its buyers. It was they who said they wanted it. Many had tried the pretty 570GT from the Sports Series, McLaren’s softer, roomier, more everyday toe-in-the-water GT exercise from 2016. Its success took McLaren by surprise.

But customers’ feedback said that to be more of a rival for the likes of the DB11, 911 and Ferrari Portofino, it needed to be more accommodating and more differentiated from other McLarens. They also said it had to be yet more usable, quieter and more refined for touring, and definitely more luxurious. All of course without being any slower or less agile than the Sports Series. A sort of son of Speedtail without the three-seat layout, massive price and vast size. Also it had to be a regular production model rather than a limited-run special.

That was the brief, this is the reality. Unlike the 570GT, the GT gets a whole new body, not just an extended “touring deck”. At almost 4.7m long and with uncharacteristically big overhangs by McLaren standards, it’s longer than any Sports or Super Series model (though still a lot shorter than the Speedtail).

While the car’s architecture and proportions may be familiar, based as they are around McLaren’s carbon-fibre MonoCell II central structure, the look presents a fresh take on McLaren’s teardrop-canopied theme. Compared to the pert 570GT, the new car has a chunky, wide-body look thanks to a strong horizontal design emphasis.

In place of the Sports Series’ delicate side “tendons” are large air scoops that have more in common with the Senna. The body, aluminium not carbon, takes McLaren’s light and airy cabin ethos to new levels of brightness with glazed C-pillars and (optional) full-length electrochromic glass roof. The splitter and diffuser are modest by McLaren standards and there is no rear wing here – nor will you be able to get MSO to add one, though the bespoking side will happily add all manner of luxury goodies.

In place of the 570GT’s side-hinged rear hatch, the new car gets a conventionally opening lift-up glass tailgate, a narrow if long section that extends from the back of the roof to the tip of the wing-less tail.

Forget now thoughts of putting your dog in there or carting home flat-pack furniture. There’s an engine under the floor of course, and while the V8 is 120mm less high than the engine in the 570GT thanks to a redesigned plenum chamber, it still takes up a chunk of room. Which is why the depth of the “boot” varies from a lot to a little while still being long enough for the aforesaid 185cm skis or set of clubs.

The figures say 420 litres of capacity on the GT’s rear deck, 200 litres more than the 570GT offered. Up front, there’s the now McLaren-familiar 150-litre boot which is as usefully box-shaped as the rear luggage deck is ski-shaped. The GT is no SUV then but is surely as practical and accommodating as any 1,213mm tall mid-engined supercar has ever been. And MSO would be delighted to sell you a bespoke set of fitted luggage to make the most of every nook and cranny.

The newest McLaren is of course about far more than just golfing and skiing. It’s about “the journey” with levels of touring refinement sufficient to ensure the longer the journey, the more the car will be at home. Cocooned in luxury like no other McLaren – cashmere is one of the interior fabric options, and there’s even leather on the floor – two people (and their luggage…) can cross continents in comfort and style, says McLaren.  

In Comfort mode, Woking says it is the most refined McLaren ever. Noise is minimised by new engine mounts which are half the stiffness of those in the 600LT. A revised, comfort-orientated version of ProActive Damping Control from the 720S is fitted, adjusting damper rates to suit the road surface within milliseconds. The seats are unique for this model, electrically adjustable, heated and padded for long distance comfort while still offering the necessary lateral support.

In other ways the GT builds on existing strengths to make a cabin that is, for a mid-engined two-seater, spacious, light-filled, easy to see out of and offering good access via the dihedral doors. The GT’s cabin also features a new infotainment system with new touch screen, said to be among the fastest-responding systems available.

An engine remapped to deliver a flatter torque curve, a switchable quiet start mode, lots more sound insulation, more on-centre steering feel for a more relaxed motorway drive, bigger wheels (21 inches at the rear, the largest ever on a McLaren) and that ProActive damping control for all-roads ride comfort are some of the ways in which McLaren has enhanced the GT’s usability. As the highest riding of all McLarens it is designed to cope with speed bumps, too, but there’s a front-end lift as well just in case. At its max, there’s 130mm (5 inches) of underbody clearance.

If all this is starting to sound like McLaren is going soft, think again. The twin turbo V8 is used here in 4.0-litre form with 620PS (612bhp), 50 horses more than the outgoing 570GT offered. Although weightier than some McLarens, at 1,530kg the GT’s power to weight ratio is still awesome. At 405PS per tonne, on McLaren’s figures it monsters the DB11 (290), the 911 Turbo (364) and the Ferrari Portofino (362PS per tonne).

The GT may be no track special but the resultant performance is certainly track grade, with 0-62mph in a claimed 3.2 seconds, 0-124mph in 9.0 seconds and a top speed of 203mph, all figures which better the 570GT. McLaren is equally adamant its GT will outhandle any rival, offering what it says will be unparalleled agility and driver engagement for the GT sector.

For McLaren Automotive CEO Mike Flewitt, the super-light construction is the key to a car which “provides the comfort and space expected of a Grand Tourer, but with a level of agility never experienced before in this segment. In short,” he adds, “this is a car that redefines the notion of a grand tourer in a way that only a McLaren could.”

It might have taken 50 years, but we suspect Bruce McLaren would say amen to that.