Michael Satterfield
Lifting the nose, pulling the paddle into first gear, and rolling out of the Four Seasons parking lot, the 600LT Spider in comfort mode is as easy to drive as a Honda Civic, which is surprising considering it is essentially a street-legal track car. But comfort mode is for the weak and we quickly switched over to track-mode to see what the Spider could do as we carved some canyons in the foothills above Scottsdale.
The 600LT Spider comes with the same 3.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 that makes 592bhp and 457lb-ft of torque with the iconic, flame-spitting, top exiting exhaust, which sounds much more exciting without a roof. The dual-clutch seven-speed Seamless Shift Gearbox, allows the 600LT Spider to reach 0-62mph in just 2.9 seconds, only 0.2 seconds slower than the Coupé. With the top up the Spider will reach 201mph and 196mph with it down. All of this power and handling is channeled through the specially engineered Pirelli Trofeo R tires which are engineered alongside the cars to ensure maximum performance. The tires even have a small MC on the sidewall which designated them as McLaren specific tires.
After a nice run through the canyon, we drove through a series of small towns as we made our way towards Arizona Motorsports Park where the McLaren team was going to let us take the 600LT to the track. The 600LT Spider was defiantly an attention getter outside of Scottsdale, stopping in Wickenburg there to grab a drink and stretch our legs we had people asking questions about the car and snapping cell phone pics.
After a few hours in the car I was surprised how comfortable I was in it, track-focused cars are generally not great road trip cars and other’s had reported that the 600LT Coupé had a “hunched over” driving position, but I didn’t find that the case in the 600LT Spider. Riding shotgun for a few hours as well was still comfortable and for two average sized people the cockpit is roomy, it even has cup holders. The front truck is also fairly large with 5.3 cubic feet of storage, which means you could get two carryon size bags in there, so long as you aren’t overpacked.
Arriving at the track, we parked the street cars to be refueled and cleaned up; while we headed out to our track safety meeting, they had several rack cars already set up with cameras. First, we took out a car just to do a few laps and learn the course. Then, with a pro driver in the seat next to me, I got to take the 600LT Spider on some hot laps. On the track is really where the 600LT Spider shines, it transformed from a comfortable road car into a full track car at the flick of a switch.
It nimble and lets every driver get right up to their edge without feeling out of control, even when the backend steps out, the car pushes through and you get an even better understanding of its balance and where you can push it harder in the corners, it is an easy car to drive fast. On the track is where you also experience the brakes that were nabbed from the 720S. These lightweight carbon-ceramic brakes, coupled with the Pirelli Trofeo R tires, allowed me to push harder in the straights and brake far later than I initially thought possible.
Like the Coupé, availability of the 600LT Spider will be limited with each car will be hand-assembled at the McLaren Production Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. For more info visit cars.mclaren.com
