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McLaren 570GT MSO Cabbeen Collection Comes to the U.S.

The Year of the Pig Car Comes Stateside

McLaren built the 570GT MSO Cabbeen Collection as a China-only model. The company made five of the cars that appeared at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show in China. Now, there is a sixth car that made its American debut at the Lunar New Year: Year of the Pig celebration in Los Angeles. 

McLaren Special Operations and Mr. Cabbeen, a Chinese fashion designer teamed up to build the bespoke models. The cars feature unique Chinese design elements and have a special Obsidian Black paint job that also features dragons in Gloss Speedline Gold paint on both door inserts. Additional exterior features include new 15-Spoke GT wheels. The wheels and brake calipers are finished in Gloss Speedline Gold paint. 

McLaren 570GT Cabbeen CollectionMcLaren 570GT Cabbeen Collection
Image from McLaren

Inside the cabin, the car gets McLaren Special Operations defined carbon sill covers. There’s Alcantara material throughout the cabin and Mr. Cabbeen added beautiful dragons to the center tunnel and rear luggage area. The embroidered dragons were made using Chao Embroidery, which McLaren notes is a technique that’s part of China’s heritage. 

One of the most special features of the car is that its VIN number and the VIN numbers of all the collection’s cars end in 888888 to commemorate the Lunar New Year: Year of the Pig. From a performance standpoint, the model has not received changes or updates. The car comes with a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 that makes 562 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque. You can find the sixth 570GT MSO Cabbeen Collection car for sale at McLaren Beverly Hills 

2018 McLaren 570GT Sport Pack Drivers’ Notes Review | Best of both worlds

The 2018 McLaren 570GT is the “entry-level” McLaren, representing the British automaker’s Sport Series and slotting under the Super Series models like the 720S. The 570GT, like all McLarens, uses a twin-turbo V8 and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission. In the 570GT, the engine displaces 3.8 liters and makes 562 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque. The GT is the twin to the 570S, though for 2018 you can get the GT with the Sport Pack, giving the GT the best of both cars.

The $5,950 Sport Pack changes the car’s dampers and steering rack, pulling them closer in line with the 570S. The adaptive damping and stability control are tuned the same as on the S model. Our car also comes with carbon-ceramic brakes, Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires, 10-spoke wheels ($6,200), carbon-fiber trim ($3,090) and a 12-speaker Bowers & Wilkins audio system ($2,280). All in, the car came out to $236,220.

Editor-in-chief Greg Migliore: The McLaren 570GT is a brilliant car. It’s powerful, has standout design and is one of the reasons McLaren is carving a niche against other European exotics. When the company relaunched its automotive business a decade ago, there were legitimate questions as to why an enthusiast would buy one. Driving this machine on a gorgeous Friday morning with the windows vented, I couldn’t help but think that uncertainty has been largely put to rest.

Zero to 60 in 3.3 seconds? That feels slow. I pulled up to a stoplight, goosed the throttle and effortlessly hit 60 as I blitzed by dawdling traffic. The brakes are instantaneous and direct. The steering is connected and quick. Tuned for the track, it was more than confidence-inspiring when I had to pull a hard left as another stoplight turned yellow. Oh, and you’re so low to the ground. That really hit home when I found myself looking up at a GTI. That’s low.

Associate Editor Reese Counts: I like but don’t love the 570GT. Yes, it’s astoundingly quick. The 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 packs plenty of power. It handles well, with communicative steering and a firm suspension that doesn’t punish you over rough pavement. It’s relatively practical, too. The interior has a number of small bins, and the luggage shelf above the engine provides an extra bit of storage. Still, it’s not enough to win me over.

There are a number of little things that bug me. First off, you can’t see the infotainment screen while wearing polarized sunglasses. That’s unacceptable in any car, much less one that costs more than $200,000. I had some minor Bluetooth issues, too. Then there’s the engine. Yes, it’s punchy, but it lacks character. The exhaust note — even with the sport exhaust — is less symphony and more cacophony. Compared to a Lamborghini V10 or a Porsche flat-six, it just doesn’t hold up. When you pay this much for a car, you want a little bit of drama.

Finally, the 570GT might have the single most infuriating seat controls of any vehicle I’ve ever driven. They’re placed on the inside of the seat, right next to the center console. Their shape is nebulous, and you have to sit there and fiddle about to figure out what button changes what setting. I’ve driven hundreds of cars over the years. Nothing comes close to being this bad.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a problem with McLaren. The 720S is a phenomenal machine, but the 570GT doesn’t speak to me in the same way. The fantastic driving dynamics don’t make up for some some really frustrating details.

Video Production Manager Eddie Sabatini: The 570GT felt out of place to me on city streets. I wouldn’t wear a three-piece suit to a tractor pull, and I wouldn’t daily drive a McLaren. This thing belongs on a track or wide open twisty roads – not the stop-start monotony of rush hour. My wheel time with the McLaren was frustrating. The car felt handcuffed in the crossover-packed prison that is Woodward Avenue at 5 p.m. on a Wednesday.

Sure, it turns heads at stoplights, and the doors open coolly, but so does the BMW i8, and the i8 never felt caged to me, like the 570GT did on the drive to the office. I’m not disparaging the McLaren — it’s an impressive, beautiful, and serious machine to be sure. But to get a true sense of what it can do, I’d like to set it free on the Nürburgring.

Like dragons? The 2018 McLaren 570GT Cabbeen Collection is for you!

McLaren must be doing good business with its McLaren Special Operations (MSO) special edition supercars because it has just released another, and like with the Canada Commission, this one takes its inspiration from a specific country, namely China. It’s called the 2018 McLaren 570GT Cabbeen Collection, and was developed in conjunction with a Chinese fashion designer simply referred to as Mr. Cabbeen. We suspect that it received the name “collection” because of the connection to fashion, despite the special edition being just one model.

The 570GT Cabbeen Collection is instantly recognizable by its black paint scheme with gold wheels, gold brake calipers and gold dragons painted in the intake scallops. It does revive memories of the garish Jeep Wrangler Dragon Edition, but the McLaren is admittedly much more tasteful. It also boasts some fine craftsmanship, since the dragons are hand painted.

Inside, the theme continues with gold dragons embroidered into the center tunnel and the cargo area. They are done in an embroidery style specific to China known as Chao, and they were put in by the Director of the Professional Embroidery Committee of China’s Arts and Crafts Institute (now that’s a job – Ed.). This is all a far cry from cheap stickers and color-coordinated stitching.

Unlike the McLaren 570S Spider Canada Commission, the 570GT Cabbeen Collection will be available globally. But if you want one, speak up quickly, because only five will be built. Pricing was not revealed, but expect something well into the six figures.

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2018 McLaren 570GT can be as sporty as the 570S

We’re getting the feeling that McLaren is not a company that likes compromise. When it introduced the 570S Spider, it had the exact same performance as the coupe, and barely weighed any more than the coupe, despite having a retractable top. Now, McLaren is bringing the 570GT up to 570S performance parity with the Sports Pack.

The Sports Pack costs an extra $5,950, which isn’t cheap, but shouldn’t scare someone willing and able to drop over $200,000 on a car. For that money, McLaren swaps in the 570S Coupe’s steering rack, shocks, and stability control and driving mode settings. And now that all 570GTs get standard carbon ceramic brakes, there shouldn’t be much of a difference in driving experience between the GT and S Coupe. Except for the fact that you’ll actually be able to bring more than a large wallet with you on the drive.

In addition to the Sports Pack, McLaren now offers an electrochromic glass roof option for the 570GT which allows the driver to pick the preferred amount of tinting. A number of new color options are also now available on the 570GT as well as the 570S Coupe. Finally, the entire 570-line now puts the rear-view camera display in the instrument cluster, when the camera option is added.

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McLaren’s official winter tire package makes your 570S a weather beater

We’re just about to December, the temperature is dropping all around the country, and at least here in Michigan, we’ve even seen some snow flurries in the past month. That means it’s time to squirrel away the fancy expensive sports cars in favor of some safe, boring box until warm weather returns and salt departs, right? Wrong! If you have a McLaren 570S, 570GT or 570 Spider, you already have your winter car, because McLaren has a winter tire package for it.

The company partnered with Pirelli to offer a set of MC Sottozero 3 winter tires designed specifically for the Sports Series McLarens, which includes the whole 570 line in the U.S., as well as the 540C overseas. The tires come pre-mounted to a set of forged, gun-metal finish wheels for quick installation. The company says they provide substantially better performance than normal tires at temperatures under 44 degrees Fahrenheit, and the chunkier tread is better for displacing water and snow.

We’re not sure how many McLaren owners will take the company up on this new option, considering how protective people are over their supercars, but we sure hope some will. We certainly would enjoy being able to drive a McLaren all year long. It would even be a fairly smart choice for winter duty, particularly in salt-happy regions, since the carbon fiber body and chassis are naturally rust-proof.

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