mclaren

UPDATE: Some glamorous new Australian-market photos have been added to this article. You can read our first drive review of the 2019 McLaren GT here. August 30, 2019: McLaren has this week given its latest creation, known simply as the GT, its Australian debut in Sydney.

McLaren will not follow its sports car rivals by adding an SUV to its stable. The British supercar maker has just released its most practical model yet, the GT. It’s a McLaren aimed at the grand touring segment and, despite its mid-engine layout, offers a luggage capacity of 570L via a specially created cargo bay above the lowered V8 that combines with the front compartment familiar from the company’s other models.

McLaren has used the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance to confirm it will release a new Ultimate Series roadster in 2020. The new car will be an open cockpit, two-seat vehicle with dihedral doors, powered by a version of the 588kW/800Nm 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 used in the Senna. Like other vehicles in the McLaren range, the Ultimate Series roadster will feature a carbon-fibre body. The company claims the new model will be its lightest car yet.

So what do you do if somebody decides to park their tanks on your lawn? Send your own armoured column to grind up their front garden, of course. At the Geneva motor show in March, Aston Martin told us about its plans to launch a series of mid-engined models that are clearly aimed at the established supercar hierarchy.

McLaren has revealed a sneak peek of its upcoming Grand Tourer ahead of its full reveal in May. First announced at the Geneva motor show, the softer McLaren pictured here will be put through its paces on a number of long-distance drives before launch, including a 1600km run from Barcelona, Spain to McLaren HQ in Woking, UK.