What difference does a rear wing make? We head to the challenging roads of the Adelaide Hills to find out
The ‘MSO Defined High Downforce Kit for Sports Series’ is the latest tweak applied to the 570S coupe and convertible by McLaren’s personalisation and tuning arm – the acronym translates to McLaren Special Operations. A wing and underbody vanes add 75kg of downforce, which means more tyre grip. That’s great news on the fast corners of a racetrack, but in the wet negotiating the tight and twisty Adelaide hills? It could be hard to find.
By their very nature sports car companies have to innovate to survive. New models, new technologies, new marketing mumbo-jumbo; there is a ceaseless drive to come up with something new and compelling. The Porsche 911-rivalling McLaren 570S is an obvious example of this.
Since the core model in the Sports Series – McLaren has Sports, GT, Super and Ultimate model streams – launched in 2015 the fiddling has been non-stop.
There’s been the entry-level 540C, the 570GT, an optional Track Pack, the convertible Spider and the hardcore 600LT to name a few.
And now this, to give it it’s full name, the ‘MSO Defined High Downforce Kit for Sports Series’.
What the?
The high downforce kit – as we will now call it – was first announced in mid-2019.
It’s been developed by McLaren Special Operations – or MSO – which has been around in one form or another for more than 20 years doing personalisation work for McLaren F1 owners.
But since McLaren launched holus-bolus into the world of high-end sports car production in 2011, MSO has been there doing its bit on a broader scale.
And in this case that bit is a carbon-fibre rear wing and underbody aerodynamic guide vanes that develop an additional 75kg of downforce compared to the standard 570S.
Offered with both the 570S coupe and convertible (Spider), the wing and guide vans can be ordered with a new car or retro-fitted to an existing one. The price is steep, and comes on top of the coupe’s $395,000 – or Spider’s $435,750 (plus on-road costs).
But hey, you do get a wing finished in visual carbon with a dip in the centre to marry with the 570S body style, gloss black pylons with palladium grey inlays, endplates also with palladium grey inserts and an integrated stop light.
Worth it at half the price … well, maybe.
OK, what else
The rest of the package is standard 570S.
So that means the carbon-fibre core, twin-turbo 3.8-litre 419kW/600Nm V8 engine sitting amidships, seven-speed dual-clutch transmission, rear-wheel drive, adaptive suspension and cosy two-seat cockpit accessed by dihedral doors are all entirely unchanged.
So add in the wing and vanes and extra grip and things just got that little bit better yeah?
Um, not so fast. McLaren makes it quite clear these aero extras really come into play at medium to high speeds and are going to be most safely and obviously felt on a racetrack.
So, I don’t usually do this, but worth checking out this official McLaren video with the British racing driver Ross Kaiser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr-Ur07zhAY. He explains what the sensations are around the high-speed Goodwood circuit in the UK. More grip, more confidence, better braking, neutral balance. Sounds great!
Adelaide reality
So, no racetrack for us. Just a quick blat from McLaren’s new Zagame-owned Adelaide dealership up into the nearby hills and back again.
No fires around thankfully, but rain is tumbling down. It occasionally takes a breather only to return with fresh enthusiasm.
It’s dampening our excitement, because these are not the optimal conditions to explore the ultimate handling window of the 570S and seek the limits of grip!
Instead, the short drive becomes an opportunity to revel once more in McLaren’s insistence on sticking with hydraulic steering. Electric may have taken over the auto world but the 570S’ instant tactile responses are a joyful reminder of what works better when expertly tuned.
The same applies to the suspension behaviour. Tunable through three stages, it transits from almost comfortable to almost rock-hard without ever losing its fundamental composure. The 570S is touted as a livable supercar and it’s easy to see why.
Then there’s the engine and transmission. Again, tunable over three stages, it gets more frantic and aggressive through each upward step. Yet even in its most passive mode it’s still a memorable, howling (friendly) monster of a thing.
By the time you get to Track the gearshifts are happening super-fast and the world is going by at the same rate.
The acceleration claims are impressive; 3.2sec 0-100km/h, 0-200km/h in just 6.3sec, across the quarter-mile (0-400m) in 10.9sec at 220km/h and a top speed of 328km/h. Jeepers.
It’s not all peaches and cream of course. The high sills that are a McLaren signature are annoying to clamber over. And this thing is silly-difficult to see out of – but it’s hardly alone among supercars in having that issue.
A gripping experience
And that is just about that.
The wing did look nice hanging out there in the breeze, although any contribution to the go-fast sensations were impossible to isolate.
But, hey, who cares? After all, the high downforce kit serves its purpose in many other ways than just adding a few extra kilos of grip.
How much does the 2020 McLaren 570S by MSO cost? Price: $395,000 (plus on-road costs); [MSO kit price TBA] Engine: 3.8-litre eight-cylinder twin-turbo petrol Output: 419kW/600Nm Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch Fuel: 10.7L/100km (ADR Combined) CO2: 249g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Not tested
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Keyword: Chasing grip in the McLaren 570S by MSO