2017 McLaren 570S Spider revealed: 3.2-second 0-100km/h for $435,750 drop-top McLaren

Claimed to offer the same high-performance dynamic attributes and refinement of the 570S Coupe, but “with the added exhilaration of open-air driving”, the previously-confirmed 2017 McLaren 570S Spider combines the Coupe’s carbon-fibre MonoCell II chassis, with an electrically-operated two-piece hardtop.

Featuring identical technology as that used on the 650S and 675LT Spiders, McLaren says the 570S Spider’s lightweight composite retractable roof can be opened or closed in 15 seconds, and at speeds of up to 40km/h.

Further, to reduce hairpiece-disturbing in-cabin wind buffeting, the new 570S Spider also receives an electrically-operated glazed wind deflector, while an extended rear spoiler – finished in Dark Palladium Grey – sits up 12mm taller than that of the 570S Coupe’s, to compensate for the Spider’s change in body shape.

Powered by the standard 570S’s 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged M838TE V8 engine, the Spider is gifted an identical 419kW of power at 7400rpm and 600Nm of torque between 5000-6500rpm.

Despite the convertible stacking on an additional 46kg over its fixed-roof sibling, McLaren says the 570S Spider’s structural rigidity is unchanged from the 570S Coupe, and so too, with the help of the brand’s seven-speed seamless-shift gearbox (SSG), is the model’s 3.2-second 0-100km/h time.

Zero to 200km/h will take you 0.1 seconds longer in the Spider (9.6s), however, the Spider’s 328km/h top speed is also a match for the Coupe’s – unless you want to roll roof down, in which case you’re limited to a meagre 315km/h.

Sitting alongside the 570S Coupe and 570GT, the 570S Spider is the third model in the British supercar brand’s Sports Series range, sitting below the 650S’s replacement, the 720S – the latter unveiled at this year’s 2017 Geneva motor show.

Due to make its world premiere on June 29 at this year’s 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the 570S Spider will be hand-assembled in Woking in England – like all McLaren Automotive models – with the first deliveries reaching customers in August, before the first cars reach Australia in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Following in the footsteps of the 720S, McLaren says, the first 400 Spiders built will be ‘launch edition’ models, while the arrival of the Spider also brings with it the introduction of three new exterior colours to the Sports Series palette, with the inclusion of Curacao Blue, Vega Blue, and Sicilian Yellow, giving buyers 20 colours to now choose from.

In even better news for buyers, with UK pricing kicking off at £164,750 ($276,000) and local pricing starting at $435,750 (before on-road costs), the new 570S Spider becomes the most affordable McLaren Spider yet - priced above the current $379,000 570S Coupe and $406,800 570GT, but significantly undercutting both the $511,000 McLaren 650S Spider and the $526,888 Ferrari 488 Spider.

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