- The McLaren 600LT is the fourth Longtail in the company's history.
- McLaren modified 13 things to make its new 600LT. This model is based off the 570S Coupé.
- The 600LT is lighter, longer, and more powerful than any other car in McLaren's Sport Series.
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Following is a transcript of the video.
Matt DeBord: This is the McLaren 600LT. It's basically a 570 Coupé but with a whole list of performance modifications to make it that much better on the racetrack. We're taking a closer look at why this track-focused beauty is the fourth McLaren to wear the LT badge. McLaren reserves the LT moniker for its fastest supercars. They're more powerful, lighter, and, of course, longer than their predecessors. The name goes back to the McLaren F1 GTR LT, which won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans with a staggering 30-lap lead over its nearest competitor. Here are 13 modifications that McLaren made to the 570S Coupé to bring the 600LT to life.
Narrator: The 600LT is elongated by just under 3 inches to improve downforce. The carbon-fiber front splitter and side skirts improve aerodynamics. The front splitter also sits 8 millimeters lower due to a reduction in ride height, which reduces the airflow under the vehicle. New aerodynamic body work reduces weight by 15.9 pounds. The dihedral doors have floating tendons that allow air to flow into the intake. A stainless-steel top exhaust shaves 27.8 pounds from the original 570S and frees up space in the rear of the vehicle for the new diffuser.
Speaking of the new diffuser, it's made of carbon fiber. It's wider, taller, and has deeper veins than the other models in the sports series. Due to the elongated rear, the fixed rear wing is mounted back further, which is optimal for improved aerodynamic performance. The center of the spoiler has a heat-resistant coating to offset the heat from the exhaust. Ultralightweight alloy wheels and Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R tires save 37.5 pounds. Carbon-fiber racing seats trimmed in Alcantara save 46.3 pounds and hold the driver in place around tight corners. And the carbon-fiber floor reduces weight and even has blades underneath that generate additional downforce.
Matt: The McLaren LTs are for extreme car enthusiasts who value speed above all else, and McLaren goes to extreme lengths to take as much weight out of the cars as possible, but if you want, you can option some features back in. The new LT has a twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V8, making 592 horsepower with 457 pound-feet of torque. It weighs 2,749 pounds, which isn't a lot, and it can make the 0 to 60 run in 2.8 seconds, topping out at 204 miles per hour. Obviously, a lot of precision went into the 600LT, but let's see how this track-focused beast handles the street.
This is a true supercar. At like third gear in a big V8 Mustang, that's the way you do it. In cars like this, second gear is your friend. As far as the interior aesthetic goes, with McLarens you're, the idea is minimalism, minimalism, minimalism. So you have a flat-bottom steering wheel covered in Alcantara and carbon fiber with the paddle, big, long paddle shifters behind, and there's nothing else on here. It's just the wheel. This is one of the things I've always really liked about McLaren is the wheel feels great, it really feels like a proper race car wheel. The instrument cluster is small, and it doesn't display a lot of information, but it really displays the information that you need, and it's colorful and works fine.
You're really talking about a $250,000 track-ready car and, but the assumption is you are gonna occasionally be driving it on the public roads, and you need some stuff that will make that possible. This is not a full-on race car, but it also doesn't feel frivolous inside, and McLarens never do, and I think a lot of McLaren fans really like that. They like a car that's high-tech as far as the car part goes but maybe not super high-tech as far as everything else. So infotainment system gets the job done, and it looks fine, but it's kind of rudimentary. You do have digital. Yeah, it's digital. It's a digital environment. It's not like we have a couple of old-school analog gauges here. So it's technological in that respect, but really the true technology that goes into this car is the aerodynamics, the engineering and construction of the frame, the body work, the steering, the brakes, the engine, and the transmission. All the stuff that really matters if you're gonna drives a car fast.