The Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a popular place for manufacturers to unveil their newest sports car models, and who better to present a new model at Goodwood than McLaren, who build their cars less than 40 miles way?
This past weekend McLaren treated gawkers and potential buyers alike to the first public showing of their newest track-ready car, the McLaren 570S Sprint, as it ripped up the hill at full song then parked in the supercar paddock alongside several other McLaren beasts.
This is a special car built for those who want to drive fast in a track environment but don’t want to have to commit to any form of racing series. Not everybody who drives a dedicated track car wants a no-compromise racecar. Some people want a car that’s just a bit more liveable. McLaren understands this, so they’ve developed the 570S Sprint alongside the FIA-compliant 570 GT4, using a lot of the things they learned while developing the GT3 prior.
Utilizing the same aerodynamics as the GT4 but keeping the chassis control and brake steer of the 650S, the Sprint is intended to be more forgiving at the limit than a dedicated racecar would be. If there’s any doubt that this car is meant to be more tolerable for the average supercar track-driving layman, keep in mind that it retains what McLaren calls a “lightweight air conditioning system”. Air conditioning on a track car? That’s some serious luxury.
Make no mistake, though. That slight nod to comfort isn’t much of a compromise. This is a true circuit runner. Even if it were street legal – which it isn’t – you most likely wouldn’t want to drive it to the local Whataburger for a #3 with cheese and a root beer shake.
It has a roll cage. It has FIA-approved seats. It even has an onboard four-corner jack system to make changing the Sprint-specific center-lock wheels and Pirelli slicks just that much easier. The suspension would pound your kidneys to a quivering pulp on local roads, and you’d drag the belly pan over every lane reflector in your path.
Nope. This is not a car for the timid or the street poser. It’s a beast for the track, intended to be flung around the world’s race circuits with abandon, and I’d expect it to be quite good at doing what it’s meant to do.
Want one? Better break open that piggy bank, because at the current exchange rate you can expect to spend almost $200k before tax.
