McLaren 600LT 2018 Review – International

Longtail is an emotive label for McLaren. Its genesis was via a racing version of the historically significant McLaren F1. Since then the badge has evolved to now adorn the highest performance versions of it track-focused road cars.

The McLaren 600LT (Longtail) is in every way a fitting recipient of the already-storied badge. This new mid-engined, two-seater sports car may be based on the middle of the range McLaren 570S Sport Series, but the company’s engineers have gone to town in terms of optimising this car for the road and track.

On sale now for $455,000 plus on-road costs, with first Australia deliveries due here by year’s end, it is lighter, more powerful and, most importantly, more driver and performance focused.

It may not wear the title of McLaren’s top-of-the-range Super (or Ultimate) Series cars, but it is in almost every way a performance match for the much more expensive 675LT that went before it.

Compared to its 570S donor stablemate, the new McLaren 600LT packs more punch from its 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged flat-plane crank petrol V8.

Horsepower is up 22kW to 441 (592hp, hence the rounded-up badge) and torque now peaks at 620Nm.

It’s as much about how McLaren has massaged the delivery of the power and torque from the V8, as the increases themselves that makes the engine so good.

The delivery is incredibly linear – perfect for metering out the neddies in fractional doses to maximise every gram of traction on the track. Peak power is at 7500rpm with top torque achieved between 5500-6500rpm.

There have been engine management system changes but save for the single-seater-racecar-style top-exit exhaust (more later), the engine is essentially the same as un the 570S.

Stiffer engine and gearbox mounts are featured and help transfer more low-frequency sounds to the cabin and increase the connection between powertrain and driver, McLaren’s theory goes. It works!

The automated seven-speed dual-clutch transmission is also essentially unchanged from the 570S. It has, however, been fettled terms of its shift characteristics.

Like the other cars in McLaren’s line-up these can be customised by the driver via an ActiveDynamics system through Normal, Sport and Track settings. In Sport, you get all the froth and bubble you’ll ever need (see below). Track is strictly business…

The 600LT’s key physical changes are outside of the engine-room and they are significant. Indeed, McLaren claims almost a quarter of the 600LT’s parts are changed in the evolution from 570S.

Key to the Longtail recipe is weight reduction. McLaren claims an impressive 100kg has been shed in the change from 570S to 600LT to deliver a mass of 1245kg.

Just consider that for a moment. Not long ago, we were praising Peugeot for getting its 308 GTi hot hatch to down around this number. This thing is featherweight and packs 600hp!

The largest weight reduction (over 21kg) is via lightweight carbon-fibre seats – themselves inspired by the buckets McLaren fitted to its mega-dollar P1. Even lighter McLaren Senna part-trimmed variants are an option and featured on our launch cars.

But the weight reduction strategy has been tip to tail. There’s more stripped from each corner of the 600LT via lightweight forged 10-spoke alloy wheels and the list of other items that have come in for a bit of good old ‘gram strategy’ reduction is long.

It includes suspension components (alloy front and rear double wishbones and uprights from the 720S); bodywork (much is now carbon-fibre); brake rotors and callipers; audio and sat-nav; front and rear screen glass; wiring loom and so on…

To achieve the headline 100kg reduction you’ll actually need to ditch the air-con. Don’t worry Aussies, McLaren will let you add it back (along with its 14kg or so with loom) as a no-cost option

More than 12kg is shed by adopting that incredibly racy top-exit exhaust set-up. This has a number of benefits, McLaren’s boffins claim. The aforementioned weight reduction, less back-pressure which helps boost kW and, as it is entirely above the rear axle line, a cleaner and more efficient rear diffuser design.

And the mortar-style exhaust is also just plain-and-simple cool -- even if the 800-degree exhaust gases mean McLaren has to mar the gorgeous carbon-fibre rear fixed wing’s centre section with a special ceramic coating, lest it turn into a flaming appendage.

That fixed rear wind brings us to another of the McLaren 600LT’s party tricks – its optimised aerodynamics. The headline figure here is 100kg of downforce at 250km/h – split 40:60 favouring the rear.

This is achieved via a number of measures, the most obvious of which are the more pronounced front splitter and extended rear body work. It’s the extra 74mm (27mm front and 47mm rear) these parts add that, strictly speaking, deliver the 600 its LT (longtail) designation.

The front splitter is more aggressively profiled, wider and sits closer to the ground thanks to an 8mm reduction in ride height. The profile increases downforce and also tidies flow around the front wheels and to the front-mounted intercooler and brake intakes.

There’s a new carbon-fibre floor under the 600LT and even the ‘floating’ cantrails play a role in both generating downforce and directing cooling air over the engine deck lid. The profiling of the doors, even the mirrors, all plays a part in feeding more (and less ‘draggy’) air to the 600LT’s main (rear) radiators.

But the parting shot of the 600LT is its aero triumph. Without the need to package an exhaust system under the rear of the car, the diffuser is both longer (it starts at the rear axle line) and deeper, thus generating a much larger low-pressure area – and downforce – without attendant drag increases.

If you’re getting the impression that attention to detail abounds across the McLaren 600LT, you’re on the right Shinkansen.

The front track has been increased by 10mm, and as noted above, ride height dropped. There’s been tuning to the dynamic properties of the stability and traction control and launch control systems.

The continuously variable, electronically controlled twin-valve dampers and spring rates are bespoke, although the car retains the linked hydraulically-actuated anti-roll system McLaren has pioneered and perfected.

The steering geometry is unique and the rack quicker than in the 570S; the brake booster system comes from the Senna; the carbon-ceramic brake discs and lightweight multi-piston callipers themselves are from the 720S.

With 390mm front rotors and 380mm rears, McLaren says the 600LT stops from 200km/h in just 117m – only 1m more than the P1 hypercar.

Given the car has a quoted top speed of 328km/h, it’s good it’s got decent anchors. The pedal feel is straight from a track car – it requires a decent shove to get the pads biting but modulation is incredibly precise.

Even the tyres are custom made for the 600LT. Pirelli developed the P Zero Tropheo R hoops to have a softer sidewall than would be typical to help ride compliance and drive.

Yet the same tyres have a stiffer belt construction to aid cornering feel and traction. The technical partnership between Pirelli and McLaren is one both parties play up.

Enough of the theory. There was no public road drive as part of the launch festivities, but McLaren says the varied corners of the Hungaroring are a good match to the 600LT’s talents.

There’s no arguing the fact the new Longtail was immediately more capable than this newbie driver on the F1 layout.

Our drive session at Hungaroring started with some learning and familiarisation laps in a 570S. In almost any other company, this car would be top of the pops -- here it’s a fast and capable way of getting L-plates for a new track.

Then it’s a couple of sessions at rapidly elevating pace in the focal point, the 600LT.

Progressing through Normal and Sport modes on the 570S, there’s cleary plenty of potential. But the very first lap in the 600LT shows the new car has demonstrably more grip, precision and pace.

In Sport mode, the 600LT’s gearchanges are brutal and accompanied with plenty of exhaust histrionics. In low light, there’d be flame on each upshift from the top-exit exhausts.

There’s also straight away more grip and therefore more pace into and out of the track’s 14 corners.

Switch to Track mode, however, and the 600LT comes alive and is even more weapons-grade. The shifts are (ironically) smoothed out and the throttle response is beyond millimetre perfect.

There’s more front and rear-end grip in the 600LT, most noticeably in a series of faster left-right-left-right corners mid-way through the Hungaroring lap.

And the smoother shifts and the way the McLaren drivetrain harvests flywheel inertia during gearchanges translate to more seamless acceleration. In Sport there’s a break, here there is no pause.

After the completion of my first session in the 600LT I’m still retuning my head to the amount of front-end grip the car delivers -- even in comparison to the no-slouch 570S.

This means in the 600LT you can choose to carry more trail braking towards the apex of some of the corners, or clear the pedal early and roll through with substantially more pace and precision than its non-LT stablemate.

And when braking proper, there is a substantial additional margin delivered both in terms of power and feel by the new car’s Senna-influenced braking system.

The 600LT easily tops 235km/h on the Budapest track’s front straight – perhaps 10-15km/h faster than the 570S -- and yet you can easily push another 20-30m into the base car’s braking comfort zone.

After a quick break and debrief, my second session in the 600LT is less about learning the track and more about trying to at least approach the car’s limits.

When driving the Senna at Estoril (a track that in flavour is not a long way from Hungaroring), our own Supercar driver Luke Youlden declared the limit of that car its tyres.

Even at my (lower) pace, here at Hungaroring in the 600LT, I get the same feeling – it’s rare that road cars easily exceed the limits of their rubber.

As impressive as the bespoke Pirelli P Zeros are, the 600LT is so capable, tyre function starts to become a key consideration.

This certainly seems like are car that would more than cope with bolting on a set of the very best racing slicks come track-day time.

The sheer pace of the 600LT is breathtaking. But it’s the overall refinement of the package that is perhaps even more impressive.

There are many components to this: the near-perfect steering weighting and response; the carved-from-solid feel of the cabin and structure itself; the absolutely confidence-inspiring nature of the brakes; and the relatively lack of wind and other extraneous noises – which only highlights the addictive soundtrack of the appropriately raucous flat-plane V8.

Are you getting the impression I’m somewhat taken with the 600LT?

Officially the car will go on sale Down Under from $455,000. Mind you, you’ll need more than $455K to get into a 600LT anything like the cars we drove – most had upwards of $70K worth of options fitted. There are plenty of boxes worth ticking; not least of all those amazing skeletal Senna-style seats.

If that sounds expensive, consider that pundits are already suggesting the 600LT has the pace to see off cars like the Ferrari 488 Pista, Lamborghini Huracan Performante and indeed even its 720S big-brother.

The 0-100km/h sprint takes just 2.9sec; 200km/h comes up in 8.2; 0-300 takes 24.9sec; and it laps faster than the 657LT in official testing. All of a sudden $500K-ish is looking positively bargain-like.

Bad news is it’s likely that even if you can afford one, it’s too late – McLaren will only build the 600LT for 12 months and international orders are already flooding in.

If you think you can afford a spot in that queue, I only have one further thing to say… What are you doing still reading this!

How much does the 2018 McLaren 600LT cost?
Available: Late 2018
Price: from $455,000 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged V8 petrol
Output: 441kW/620Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed automated twin-clutch
Fuel: 12.2L/100km (WLTP)
CO2: 276g/100km (WLTP)
Safety rating: Not tested