to quote reviewer kelsey mays, "oh, the lengths we go for crucial consumer research." when we were offered a mclaren 570s spider to test, we felt obligated to do so in the interest of our consumer audience, particularly those with roughly a quarter of a million dollars to spend on a car and a desire for one with some fancy-opening doors — dihedral doors in this case, not scissor doors.
over our week with the absolutely stunning car, we found some fault with mclaren's characterization of its sport series as everyday supercars ... mostly because it's hard to believe an automotive work of art could be considered "everyday." especially one with a mid-mounted, twin-turbo 3.8-liter v-8 with 562 horsepower and 443 pounds-feet of torque, a carbon-fiber chassis and a curb weight roughly equivalent to a honda accord.
it's quick, is what we're saying — like, 3.1-seconds-from-zero-to-60-mph quick, according to mclaren. like, quicker than the legendary mclaren f1 supercar from the 1990s. we never got a chance to confirm those numbers at a drag strip, but our time behind the wheel didn't make us doubt the claim.
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the 570s spider wouldn't be a supercar — particularly a british supercar — without some flaws, and our tester had a few foibles. the car was squeaky, and it had some over-active parking sensors along with a passenger window with a glitchy express-up function. general issues with the 570s spider include a backup camera monitor in the gauge cluster where it can be obscured by the steering wheel, as well as a multimedia system screen that's hard to see when wearing polarized sunglasses.
do those issues really matter? nahhhhhhh. just be sure to use the proper term for the doors.
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