McLaren's New 570S Spider Is A Seriously Effective Way To Dry Your Hair

It’s turning into a bit of a convertibles day, with the McLaren 570S Spider arriving hot on the heels of Audi’s new R8 V10 Plus Spyder.

The Brit, which has a folding hard-top panel instead of a canvas roof, matches the Audi with a 204mph top speed with the roof in place. Despite only being rear-wheel drive, though, it pips the R8 to 62mph by a tenth, at 3.2 seconds.

McLaren’s world-beating launch control can catapult the car to 124mph in just 9.6 seconds; faster than the R8 – and most other things. Top speed with the roof down is 196mph.

It uses the same retractable hard-top technology already seen in Spider versions of the 650S and 675LT. It takes a brisk 15 seconds to open or close and can be operated at up to 25mph. Structural rigidity is unchanged versus the coupe, says McLaren, and the increase in weight is limited to 46kg.

When the roof is folded away, the glazed rear window becomes the wind deflector, although it can be lowered with the roof in place to open up more of the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8’s noise. McLaren has changed as little as possible, otherwise, even maintaining the dihedral doors that have become a brand signature.

The Spider’s power and torque outputs match the coupe’s, at 562bhp at 7400rpm and 443lb ft between 5000rpm and 6400rpm. It joins the range as McLaren’s cheapest convertible, at £164,750 plus options, but that does make it over £15,000 pricier than the R8 V10 Plus Spyder, if our guesses are eventually proved correct.

The car will make its official debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on 29 June, with the first customer deliveries scheduled for August.