Ten facts you should know about the McLaren 570GT

You might prefer to think you'd only ever thrash your very own McLaren supercar, but utiliy matters. And the 570GT delivers. In the nose, all McLaren 570s offer you 130 litres of stowage, but the GT’s glassy rear hatch scores you another 220 litres of space, albeit right in the way of the car’s peerless rear visibility.

So, 350 litres in total, which is more than you get in a Ford Focus (316 litres) or a Mercedes A-class (341 litres). We defy you to find a more tip run-friendly supercar. So long as you break everything up into two pieces.

Click on these blue words to see Chris Harris driving this very 570GT in a suitably exhuberant fashion.

Buy a McLaren 570GT in a right-hand drive market like Britain or Japan and the glass rear cover hinges from the right, so you can open it safely from the pavement.

But in wrong-hand drive places like, er, mainland Europe and America, McLaren switches the set-up so the hatch hinges from the other side. A nice bit of attention to detail.

Both the classic V12 supercar and the heaviest, least focused of McLaren’s new Sports Series range officially see off the drag-racing benchmark distance in 11.1 seconds.

On the way, the 570GT hits 124mph from rest in 9.8 seconds. Presumably not to the tip.

Yes, despite its launch-control capability and dual-clutch gearbox, McLaren claims 3.4sec from 0-62mph for the 570GT, compared to 3.2sec in the lighter, more powerful but incredibly analogue F1. 

We’re talking body structure stiffness rather than suspension (we’ll come back to that later), but yes, odd as it may seem, the 570GT’s flowing curves lend the body ever-so-slightly greater rigidity than the 570S with its flat rear deck and flying buttresses.

However, as both cars depend on a carbon tub for their strength, not the body structure itself, it’s completely unnoticeable from behind the wheel. Means it's quite useful for a drop-top Spider too...

Well if you’re going to badge a bi-turbo V8 supercar as a ‘GT’, you can’t very well just bolt a greenhouse on top of the engine and call it a long-distance mile-crusher. Refinement matters too, which McLaren already does better than plenty of supercars, but it’s gone to quite geeky lengths with the 570GT.

Take the tyres. Normally on a supercar, the four rubber circles are supposed to be as sticky as possible, for peak lap time internet forum arguing rights. The 570GT’s Pirellis contain a noise-quelling foam that reduces road roar.

Combined with a less shouty exhaust (the louder one is on the options list), it’s three decibels quieter overall. If you’re a librarian who’s won the pools, look no further for your first supercar.

The anally retentive changes don’t stop at the tyres. McLaren made the GT’s steering two per cent slower, and teamed the more relaxed front end with 15 per cent softer front dampers and a 10 per cent reduction in stiffness at the rear.

And sure, if you’re really, intensively concentrating it doesn’t quite match the 570S’s alertness. But if you’ve noticed, you ought to get out more. This is still a sensationally capable piece of kit. 

Yep, you pay a good whack for the extra boot space and, let’s face it, pretty bodywork. The 540C starts at £126,000, the 570S is £145,305, and for the GT, pre options, you’ll need exactly £154,000. So it’s probably quite a lot cheaper just to courier your spare pants and toothbrush ahead when it’s summer holiday o’clock.

Yes, GT06 MCL has been Top Gear’s halo long-term test car for the last few months, but the real fun started last year when McLaren made the foolish decision of letting us loose on their configurator.

Much carbonfibre, a McLaren F1 XP5-inspired paint job and more suede upholstery than Elvis Presley’s shoe cupboard later, we’d ratched up the price from £154,000 to, ahem, £199,485. Whoops.