The Everyday Supercar

We test drive the McLaren gt to experience how it lives up to the brand’s design philosophy of “everything for a reason”.

- Low Shi Ping

Two months ago, I published a story on our website about my visit to the McLaren showroom, ending it by saying having overcome my intimidation for supercars, it was time for me to level up.

Someone must have read it because not long after, I receive an invitation for an overnight test drive of the McLaren GT.

All that bravado instantly flies out of the window and in the weeks leading up to the day, I am fraught with nerves.

I know that at 1,530kg, it is the lightest GT of its class, matched with a 4.0 litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine that lets it zip from zero to 100kph in 3.2 seconds.

This means it is also the quickest accelerating car in its category.

“We call it the ‘everyday supercar’ for a reason,” Sales Consultant Alvin Ng assures me, as we walk towards the burnished copper model that is to be mine for the next 24 hours.

“You’ll find that you can take it everywhere, even the multi-storey HDB carparks.”

Aware that McLaren’s design philosophy is “everything for a reason”, I am eager to find out how these snappy taglines manifest from a driver standpoint.

My first “test” of its everyday-ness is how I would open the Dihedral doors if someone decides to park very close to me.

Without missing a beat, Ng shows me how to lower the window from the outside, so that the door would not need to swing open too widely and I can shimmy my way in.

The GT is powerful and responsive, accelerating deftly at my urging when the traffic light turns green.