Raw Appeal

Three Supercars Concentrated To Their Most Driver-focused Form, Offer Stripped-out Thrills In Three Very Different Ways

- Chris Chilton

FOUR-WHEEL drive and rear-wheel drive; midengined and rear-engined; naturally aspirated and turbocharged. Rarely does a comparison contain three cars so different in the way they go about their business. The common ground is the exact nature of that business. It’s not simply going fast. Any supercar can do that. These cars are only one tiny step removed from the racetrack, and as perfectly at home on it as they are parked at a Cars and Coffee meet serving as a handy armrest while you regale onlookers with tales of track heroics.

From tall stories to long tails, specifically the McLaren 600LT – the latest track-tuned supercar vying for your lottery lolly. Neither McLaren’s model naming strategy nor its styling is helpful for beginners, and even clued-in fans have to think twice to be sure about what the new model is. So, to be clear, the 600LT is part of McLaren’s entrylevel Sports Series range that until now consisted of the 540C, 570S and fastback 570GT. Like those cars the three-character number refers to the output in metric horsepower, meaning the 600LT has 600ps, or 441kW, from its 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8.

The LT bit, meanwhile, riffs on the elongated versions of the McLaren F1 road-car-turned-racer campaigned at Le Mans in the late ’90s rather than any colossal increase in actual length.

In its lightest configuration, with all trick options selected, the 1356kg 600LT weighs 100kg less than an ordinary 570S. To go with the lighter weight there’s 100kg more push from aero aids, including a jutting front lip and a fixed rear spoiler whose centre section is covered in a special material to protect it from flames that shoot from twin pipes poking clear of the rear deck. Actually, other supercars shoot flames too, but we can’t remember seeing them in the rear-view mirror before.