Every car is an argument about what matters, and the McLaren 570S makes its case with 3.8 L M838T E twin-turbo V8 and 570 PS. Mclaren built from 2015 to 2021 — as electrification stopped being an experiment and the crossover took every market. Rob Melville drew it.
The story
The McLaren 570S is a sports car designed and manufactured by the British car manufacturer McLaren Automotive, produced from 2015 until 2021. It was unveiled at the 2015 New York International Auto Show.
What is underneath
Power comes from 3.8 L M838T E twin-turbo V8; 570 PS is the published figure. It weighs 1356 kg (570S coupé). Work it out per tonne and you get about 420 horsepower — hypercar territory, where the limiting factor is the tyre, not the engine. It shifts through a 7-speed Graziano SSG dual-clutch. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 105.1 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: its successor was the McLaren Artura / McLaren GT (570GT); assembly was at Woking, Surrey, England, United Kingdom. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Ferrari 488, the Aston Martin Vulcan, the BMW i8 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Mclaren catalogue sit the McLaren M15 and the McLaren M16.
What it costs now
The list price when new was £143,250. Condition, mileage and specification move any single car a long way from a headline figure.