Motor Shows
Motor Shows

McLaren 720S Spider years away, 570S Spider a matter of months

With the smoke barely cleared from the unveiling of the 2018 McLaren 720S at this week's 2017 Geneva motor show, the UK performance car brand has revealed a convertible Spider version of its latest Super Series car is in the pipeline. A previously confirmed drop-top version of the 570S Sports Series flagship will beat it into showrooms, however.


Speaking to CarAdvice at the 2017 Geneva motor show, McLaren Automotive global communications and public relations director Wayne Bruce said, although plans for a McLaren 720S Spider are on the table, it won’t be seen in the near term.

“You can imagine that we’re considering a Spider, but it’s still sometime away, by which I mean years,” Bruce said.

“[A 570S Spider], that’s a lot closer. You’re talking months rather than years.”

Calling out the as-yet-unseen 570S Spider as “a very beautiful car”, the McLaren Automotive PR chief also hinted that fans of the 570S can expect the lidless variant of the car – confirmed for a 2017 debut back in October 2015 – to feature a similar two-piece retractable folding roof to those seen on the 650S Spider and 675LT Spider.

In those examples, the roof could be raised or lowered in less than 17 seconds at speeds up to 30km/h, at the cost of a 40kg weight penalty over the car’s hard-top equivalents.

Bruce also revealed that, while McLaren “may want to differentiate more between our different series”, the 720S’s unique ‘no side air intake’ design may be seen again in other future McLaren product.

“Super Series is the core of the brand, [and] although the styling has moved on over the previous 650S, if you took that badges off, [the 720S] is still recognisably a McLaren.

“But some things have changed. For example, the front light graphic. We used to have daytime running lights in the shape of our speed mark – this car just has a straight line, which is perhaps about how we’ve matured as a brand. Perhaps we don’t need to make quite so many statements about ourselves than we used to in the past.”

“McLaren’s a very fast-moving company,” Bruce said. “We launched the first Super Series [the 12C] six years ago, so for us, it was time for the second generation. It could’ve been easy for us to just take a small step forward but, having seen the car, I hope people think, compared to the 650S it’s replaced, this is very much a revolution and not the evolution it might have been.”

Teaming a new carbon-fibre ‘MonoCage II’ – as opposed to the previously used ‘MonoCell’ – with a 537kW/770Nm twin-turbocharged 4.0-litre V8, the aggressively aero-styled 720S claims performance figures of 0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds, 0-200km/h in 7.8 seconds, 0-400m in 10.3 seconds, and a top speed of 341km/h.

Use of the new ‘MonoCage’ shell also means a weight saving of around 18kg, plus promises to help the 720S offer drivers amazing visibility, thanks to its thinner A-, B-, and C-pillars.

Open to the public from Thursday, the 2017 Geneva motor show runs from March 9-19.

MORE:McLaren Showroom
MORE:McLaren News
MORE:McLaren Reviews
MORE:McLaren 720S Showroom
MORE:McLaren 720S News
MORE:McLaren 720S Reviews
MORE:Search Used McLaren 720S Cars for Sale
MORE:Search Used McLaren Cars for Sale
MORE:McLaren Showroom
MORE:McLaren News
MORE:McLaren Reviews
MORE:McLaren 720S Showroom
MORE:McLaren 720S News
MORE:McLaren 720S Reviews
MORE:Search Used McLaren 720S Cars for Sale
MORE:Search Used McLaren Cars for Sale
Chat with us!







Chat with Agent