McLaren 600LT: The Longtail Returns
McLaren 600LT brings back an evocative name, pumping up the 570S for a hard core drive.
McLaren’s near-constant new model barrage continues with the 600LT. Tagged with “The Edge is calling“, the Woking team has amped up its core 570S, added some rear bodywork and, well, done a lot more besides.
The Longtail name was last seen on the 675LT before its replacement by the properly psycho 720S and it’s a name that means something. The first McLaren LT, the F1 GTR is a true icon, so the company has been careful not to splash it around too liberally.
McLaren 600LT
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As the name suggests, the McLaren 600LT packs a 600PS punch from its 3.8-litre V8 engine. Translating to 441kW, the seven-speed twin-clutch transmission also has to channel 620Nm to the rear tyres.
The new top-exit exhaust is apparently “more extreme” than the Senna’s and hopefully sorts out the lack of aural drama in the cabin. Unless you’re in a tunnel – then you can really hear the flat-plane crank’s glorious racket.
The twin-turbo 3.8-litre V8’s engine mounts are rather firmer, too. The 570S isn’t exactly the quietest of cabins to start with, so this one is definitely skewed to trackday use. That dovetails nicely into the announcement that a standard feature of the 600LT is a day of track tuition.
Aerodynamics
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The 570S is already an aerodynamic machine, with a beautiful set of aero devices baked into a curvaceous body.
The Longtail name physically manifests itself in a longer tail. The 600LT is 74mm longer, which aids high speed aero. That was the original point of the F1 GTR – more top-end for the long La Sarthe straights.
A bigger front splitter, extended diffuser and big fixed rear wing. That rear wing is actually rather modest when compared with the Senna’s mad 747-sized monstrosity. If you pulled a 570S and 600LT apart, 23 percent of the parts are different.
Chassis
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Straight off the bat, the 600LT is 96kg lighter than the 570S, which itself is hardly chubby. Standard weight saving includes carbon fibre body panels to replace the aluminium skins. Go hard on the MSO options list (seats, interior trim, deleting bits), you can get the weight down to 1247kg, or about 140kg lighter than a manual Lotus Evora.
Amusingly, the F1 GTR Longtail was just over 100kg lighter than the standard GTR, so the team got close to mirroring that figure. Obviously they locked marketing out of the engineering meetings.
Do that and you’ll have a power-to-weight ratio of 354kW/tonne (481PS/tonne), but you can’t go anywhere because there’s no fuel. Or oil. Or coolant. So dry weights are pointless. Still, that’s a good number.
Throttle, steering, brakes and suspension are all quicker to react and the Pirelli P-Zero Trofeos (same as the Huracan Performante’s Nurburging lap record tyres) are super-sticky. The same forged aluminium suspension carries over, but there’s nothing wrong with that to start with.
Can I get one?
We’ve only got British pricing, coming in at £185,500.
McLaren is unlikely to say no to you unless you live in North Korea, so yes. And no. Like the Senna, its numbers are limited, although one wonders if they’re not already sold out. McLaren says the production run is 12 months and 600LT production will be fitted in around existing orders.
