Ferrari just revealed their latest one-off wonder, the roofless Ferrari SP-8 and someone out there is smiling deeply at the sight of his or her brainchild.
Frankly, if you give me a roadster and a coupe sports car for free to choose from, I will immediately take the open-top and get on my merry way for some canyon carving on the way to the nearest beach resort. But that doesn't mean I won't appreciate a proper grand tourer with a fixed roof over my head.
As such, taking into account that the Ferrari SP-8 got us all worked out for some supercar bonanza, it's only fitting that I stumbled upon a lovely little quarter-mile dragstrip series of races featuring a veritable jewel. It's simply called the McLaren GT, and as the name suggests, it's a grand tourer designed and manufactured by the British sports car maker.
McLaren Automotive introduced it as their first dedicated GT model and shares its underpinnings with the outstanding McLaren 720S – albeit with a slightly fancier design and a carbon fiber rear housing with a tailgate that allows for significantly larger storage capacity – probably there's room for two or three golf bags instead of none.
Anyway, the McLaren GT isn't entirely new, as its production kicked off in 2019 sporting the 4.0-liter M840TE twin-turbocharged V8 in a midship position, downgraded to 'just' 612 horsepower and sent to the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch setup. It's not exactly the most lightweight supercar, either, tipping the scales at 1,530 kg (3,373 lbs.), so it's not something you would expect to see at the local test and tune day, either.
However, time and again, one should always expect the unexpected at the local quarter-mile dragstrip – hence this footage from the good folks over at the racing-focused ImportRace channel on YouTube taken at Island Dragway in Great Meadows, New Jersey. And the videographer wastes no time taking us into the heart of the action, where the McLaren GT first brawls with a subtle Audi RS3. While the latter is slower to start, it's also faster to the finish line and delivers a nice mid-ten-second performance (10.49s versus 11.81s).
Secondly, it's time for a Lexus to take a beating, hence the 10.59s versus 12.65s elapsed times. Thirdly, a big-wheeled Caddy Escalade shows us the antonyms of racing – a GT versus an SUV ends in disaster for the latter, given the 10.57s versus 14.44s result! Wait, as there is more, with a Blue Oval representative as the next victim – the crimson Mustang was even slower off the line, and the gap was humongous – 10.55s versus 13.73s.
Do you want something classic to go along with the elegant GT? No worries, a second-generation Chevy Camaro tried its best not to get shamed – and at least it looked spectacular while losing completely and utterly badly (10.75s versus 15.6s!). Next up, another Mustang – also a GT with the 5.0-liter Coyote V8 – and history repeated itself with the other GT taking the victory laurels. Last but not least, a BMW also came to the quarter-mile dragstrip party and left a little late from its lane – enough that the McLaren GT won the race again!
So, what did we learn from this series of races? Well, bar any tuning or supercar surprises, even a luxurious GT is enough to teach a quarter-mile dragstrip lesson or two to the general population…
Aurel has aimed high all his life (literally, at 16 he was flying gliders all by himself) so in 2006 he switched careers and got hired as a writer at his favorite magazine. Since then, his work has been published both by print and online outlets, most recently right here, on autoevolution. Full profile
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