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2018 McLaren 570S Spider First Drive | A sweet breeze

The McLaren 570S Spider is madness. Not the car itself, which is a cogent convertible design based on the already handsome coupe. What is crazy is that a 562-horsepower machine that hammers to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds is only considered a sort-of, kind-of supercar. The Spider will be McLaren's volume model in its lowest-priced, lowest-tier Sports Series designation. As such, it is the company's starter supercar. Should you have $208,800 in your Venmo account, you won't give up anything except that fixed roof. There's no perceivable performance demerit when it comes to this retractable hardtop, as it was developed alongside the regular 570S from the onset. The 0-to-60 time is a non-discernable one-tenth of a second slower, and it still gets to a 204-mph top speed when the roof is up. If you insist on a top-velocity hurtle with wind bathing the cabin, it would only limit you by 8 mph. So, yes, madness. It gains only 101 pounds, bringing it to 2,895. One assumes that the real-world difference is negligible. To find out, we flew to Barcelona, enjoying a full day scuttling over gloriously curvy roads in an otherwise remarkably unpopulated part of the world. I recently spent a week with the regular 570S, so my ass was as calibrated as one could hope. Would there be any failings of the Spider over the coupe? Our test car was outfitted in a new hue, a deep Vega blue, with a dark finish on the roof and body accents. The Spider retains the same roofline as the hardtop and it is instantly recognizable as a variation. McLaren has finally settled into its own design language, with highly identifiable rear tail lamps and those unique 3D "tendon" doors first seen on the 570S coupe and which have now migrated to the 720S. It's an architectural-leaning language that translates beautifully into a roadster. With the top down, the Spider gets more attention than the coupe, and perhaps even more than the 720S, which I tested recently in Rome. Perhaps people simply feel drop-tops are especially exotic. Around the summer bustle of Barcelona, kids jumped up and down and attractive women on scooters gave us the thumbs up. There's worse places to be noticed. The top goes down in a snappy 19 seconds at speeds of up to 25 mph. We charged away from the nude beaches near the port and headed northwest, toward the elevations of the Castelltallat mountain range.

McLaren 765LT: How the limited-edition longtail got its $358,000 price

The McLaren 720S starts at $299,000 in the U.S. before the $2,500 destination charge that takes a buyer over the hump to $301,500. McLaren has announced the new, limited edition 765LT will start at $358,000 before destination and any other fees, a number guaranteed to encourage parsing as buyers and enthusiasts try to figure out if the 765LT represents $59,000 in extra goodness. Before whipping out your abacuses, however, the Woking carmaker wants all to know that the 765LT comes standard with options that would add roughly $50,000 to the price of a 720S. These include upgrades like the Exterior Carbon Fiber Pack, normally $7,070, the 10-spoke super lightweight sport wheels, normally $5,490, the parking sensors and rearview camera that together add $5,770, and colored brake calipers with a machined McLaren logo, normally $1,380.  The rest of the dosh pays for extras that can't be optioned from the factory, like the redesigned front fascia and longtail rear end with the bigger active spoiler that help increase downforce by about 25% compared to the 720S. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 gains 45 horsepower and 22 pound-feet of torque, totaling 755 hp and 590 lb-ft, shifting through a transmission that houses F1-derived materials and provides 15% quicker in-gear acceleration. Overall weight, assuming the buyer orders the carbon fiber racing seats — saving another $6,390, as a no-cost option on the 765LT — drops DIN curb weight by 176 pounds versus the standard sibling (DIN weight is fluids and 90% full fuel tank). And the suspension has gotten even more precise, which defies belief since McLarens are already so good, thanks to knowledge from the Senna and Speedtail. If you'd like to crunch the numbers yourself, a poster at the McLaren Life forum has graciously uploaded the 765LT options list and ordering guide. We might skip the $8,470 Double Glazed Engine Window that offers a view into the engine bay, but the $36,340 MSO Defined Gloss Finish Visual Carbon Fiber Roof Scoop would be a great place to start jacking up the price with gusto. McLaren will make 765 examples of the 756LT for global consumption. We're not sure how many will make it to the States, but the ones that do will begin arriving in September. Related Video:

Here's the chassis for McLaren's 650S replacement, full car coming soon

McLaren announced today that the replacement for its 650S supercar will make its debut on March 7 at the Geneva auto show. It also unveiled the underpinnings of the new car, which it calls the Monocage II. The chassis is clearly something the company is proud of – it will offer an option called "Visible Monocage" that will leave the interior side of the A-pillars exposed. McLaren does have reason to be proud of the new chassis, as it brings a number of improvements. The company says the door openings are wider, and the sills have been lowered, which should make it much easier to climb into the new car. The company also claims a lower center of gravity, and a lighter dry weight than a comparable 650S. Specifically, the new car will have a dry weight of 2829 pounds, which McLaren says is 40 pounds less than that comparable 650S. That's a pretty sizable reduction. This new Super Series McLaren is also the first of what will be 15 new models the company will release by 2022. Since the Monocage chassis is shared among today's McLarens, expect Monocage II to be used in most if not all of those new vehicles. McLaren hasn't provided many details on what the other 14 models will be, but expect a number of convertible and ultra high-performance variants, many of which will replace current offerings in the Sports, Super, and Ultimate Series. Hybrids will be a big part of the product rollout, too. McLaren has said that its next hybrid will appear sometime closer to 2022, with half of the lineup using hybrid tech by that date. (Currently, only the range-topping P1 features a gas-electric powertrain.) In the meantime, though, we'll be looking forward to seeing the complete 650S replacement this March. Related Video: