McLaren has announced a race-spec but road-ready variant for its Sports Series line-up, called the 620R, set to go into limited production early next year.
Described as “a road-legal version of a race car”, the 620R shares much of its chassis and aerodynamic hardware with the 570S GT4 racer. McLaren claims it “retains the DNA of a fully homologated track car yet is free from the restrictions that race regulations apply”.
The latter point has allowed the Woking brand to make the 620R the fastest Sports Series model yet. Whereas the GT4 car sees power cut from the 562bhp of the 570S to about 420bhp, the 620R makes, as its name suggests, 620PS, or 612bhp. Torque is rated at 457lb ft.
Combined with a kerb weight down by about 30kg over the 570S, that allows for a 0-62mph time of 2.9sec, a 0-124mph time of 8.1sec and a top speed of 200mph.
Of course, the racing pedigree goes beyond raw straight-line pace. The 620R gets the GT4 car’s two-way manually adjustable coilover system, which features 32 clicks of adjustment for rebound and compression rates. The dampers themselves are 6kg lighter than the standard units. These combine with stiffer springs and anti-roll bars and solid stainless steel top mounts for, McLaren claims, greatly improved control and feedback.
The 620R has been engineered to run on slick tyres without any adjustment, meaning owners can rock up to their favourite circuit and swap out the road-legal rubber with minimal effort. It’s delivered from the factory with Pirelli Trofeo R semi-slick tyres, with an optional full slick set specially developed for McLaren. Braking is taken care of by a carbon ceramic set-up.
Aero is a significant part of the 620R’s appeal over the standard Sports Series models. It gets the same adjustable carbonfibre wing as the GT4 (with a third brake light to make it road-legal) which can be set to more significant angles of attack allowing for up to 185kg of downforce. The new car also features a redesigned front bumper, splitter and bonnet that all improve airflow, along with dive planes on the front wings.
A pared-back cabin sees items such as the carpet, glovebox, air-con, navigation and audio system junked to help keep the weight down, but all can be installed at no extra cost. The touchscreen is retained and features a track telemetry system ( with an optional three-camera set-up), while lightweight carbonfibre racing seats get six-point harnesses as standard. Door pull straps, along with carbonfibre shift paddles, steering wheel spokes and centre console, enhance the race-spec feel.
Three exterior colour schemes are offered - orange with white racing stripes, white or black, the latter two with orange stripes. A number of racing decals are optional, along with configurable detail colour and trim options and the full range of MSO personalisation. The car pictured features a decal livery inspired by the Senna GTR.
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Team Meeting:
"ok guys, how many of our cars do about 200mph and 0-60 in 2 point something?"
"err, all of them"
"just as I thought, we better get another one on the market pronto"
Right team, it's time for our
Right team, it's time for our bi monthly new model
Computer guy, up the powe by 5% ,stiffen the suspebnsion by ooh lets say 6% and lower the ride hieght by 3 mm.
Body work guy, put a couple of new holes somewhere, and lets have wire mesh over them this time.
Paint work guy, get computer guy to ramdom generate a new name for the bog standard paint we bourght last week... and a couple of ramdom numbers and letters for the model name of course!
New model done! And we can still make the pub for lunch.
Vs 600lt