A few days after the debut of the McLaren 570S, part of the company’s new Sports Series, McLaren announced U.S. pricing for the new model. The 570S will start at $184,900, not including destination charges that McLaren hasn’t published yet. That puts it squarely in the midst of higher-end Porsche 911 models — precisely whose lunch McLaren intends to steal once the new Sports Series goes on sale.
The 570S is powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8 producing 562 hp, sending power to the rear wheels via a seven-speed SSG transmission. The 570S has a 0-62 sprint time of 3.2 seconds and can hit 124 mph in just 9.5 seconds. The McLaren’s top speed is a breezy 204 mph.
“We are a very young business; we first started selling cars in the latter part of 2011 when we launched the McLaren 12C, and in 2011 we only sold 150 cars,” said Jolyon Nash, executive director of global sales & marketing at McLaren during the reveal of the 570S in New York last week. “Fast forward to 2014: Last year we enjoyed enormous growth; we sold 1,649 cars.”
Jolyon Nash, executive director of global sales & marketing at McLaren, during the reveal of the 570S in New York.
McLaren has also revealed that a second, slightly milder Sports Series model will debut at the Shanghai motor show shortly: the 540C. Designed to be about 90 percent of the 570S, the 540C will feature a little less equipment and will reportedly produce 533 hp and 398 lb-ft of torque from a detuned version of the 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. U.S. pricing for the 540C has not been published yet.
The company also plans a couple of additional Sports Series models, expected to be released by the end of 2015. One will reportedly be a Spider version — pretty logical — while the fourth variant remains a mystery for now.
“What about the future? Well, one thing we can tell you about our future product range is that we are not going to be manufacturing or developing an SUV,” said Nash. “That’s not something you’re going to see in a McLaren. We know what we’re good at. We know how to design, how to engieer and how to manufacture high-performance sports cars, carbon-fiber sports cars, cars that are breathtaking to drive. That’s where McLaren will be in the future.”
The Shanghai motor show opens to the media on April 20 and runs through April 29. At the time of the event, McLaren will undoubtedly drop some hints about other upcoming models.