Cars/ First-drive/ McLaren GT | AN ALL-DAY, EVERY-DAY MCLAREN

McLaren GT | AN ALL-DAY, EVERY-DAY MCLAREN

The Rs. 3.7 Crore McLaren GT is a comfortable speedster – a mid-engine grand-tourer that’s calmer and smoother than many supercars.

For

Ferocious Pace, Sharp handling, F1 racing pedigree

Against

Poor Infotainment system, Limited Cabin Utility

Driving

McLaren fits the GT with a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 that generates 612 horsepower and 630 Nm of torque. It's paired with a seven-speed automatic transmission that sends power to the rear wheels. As you'd expect from a vehicle wearing the McLaren nameplate, ferocious acceleration is one of the GT's many performance strengths. 

The company claims a 0-100km/h in 3.2 secs with launch control and features that work to optimize acceleration from a standing start. We didn’t manage to test it officially but every launch was relentless, pinning me back into the memory-foamed seats. The soundtrack is more muted than I’d have liked, but that’s probably in keeping with the GT vibe. 

But where the McLaren GT shines is in in the way it turns and rides like a mid-engined supercar should. It’s agile, turns flat through corners, doesn't incline to understeer, gets its power down zealously, and the car feels like its hugging the road on all fours balancing beautifully. McLaren also seems to have paid plenty of attention to things like tyre noise, which is impressively low, and the car's ride quality featuring a clever adaptive damping system that is comfortable enough to make it a pleasant choice for every-day driving in Dubai maybe not in amchi-Mumbai.

The engine when left in auto will endlessly upshift seamlessly, allowing you to notice other towering cars over the glass roof available with an electro chromatic feature that allows it to switch from opaque to varying levels of transparency at the touch of a button. Take control of the gearbox in manual mode, and things are dialled up. This is when the GT comes alive. On sweeping A-road sections on the desert outskirts, it’s engaging and addictive to drive. And each click of the metal shifter levers firing home another ratio, your experience keeps getting more dramatic! It’s just a shame that the brakes are lacking in feel, with the top end of travel feeling particularly numb.



TopGear Magazine February 2024