McLaren Solus GT: Driving Impressions

Join Date: Apr 2019

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Over the past fewer days, I drove the McLaren Solus GT astatine Circuit of the Americas successful Austin, Texas.

To recap, this is simply a single-seater closed-cockpit ultra-lightweight track-only hypercar. Its naturally-aspirated 5.2 liter V10 makes astir 850 horsepower and revs to astir 10,000 RPM. It is ultra-rare too: lone 25 units are to beryllium made.

McLaren has created thing peculiar here. This is not a track-oriented mentation of an existing hypercar similar the P1 GTR oregon the Senna GTR are. It is not a sanitized mentation of an existing racecar. It is besides not an existing look presented successful antithetic clothing, similar the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, which is fundamentally an LMP2 car built by Multimatic. The Solus GT is rather unsocial successful being a transverse betwixt the philosophies of an open-wheel Formula car and a prototype car (LMP2 level), without being conscionable similar oregon being derived from either of those things.

Some thoughts and observations:

• Quite light: astir a 1000 kilos. You consciousness the lightness close distant and passim the track.
• High downforce: too the elephantine helping and the elephantine splitter, determination are immense amounts of antagonistic abstraction successful the car, including exposed beforehand suspension and venturi tunnels that tally each the mode nether the car from the beforehand to the back.
• In summation to the accustomed dampers, determination are heave dampers connected the beforehand and the rear that bounds however overmuch the car tin squat (e.g. nether downforce load). The beforehand heave damper is intelligibly disposable done the windshield.
• Closed-cockpit with a glass-domed canopy that slides open: jet-fighter style! (The extortion has a ample cut-out that tin beryllium popped disconnected successful lawsuit of an emergency.)
• Wrap-around windshield (with a "halo" bridge) with nary A-pillars = awesome, unobstructed view. (The full windshield tin beryllium dislodged and removed successful lawsuit of an emergency.)
• Awesome NA V10 noise. This is an old-school racing motor made by Judd.
• 7-speed motorsport transmission by Xtrac.
• Very nonstop steering compared to GT racecars: tiny inputs pb to large absorption changes. Open-wheel look cars are similar that too, but adjacent if you are utilized to driving those cars, you inactive request to recalibrate your encephalon successful the Solus GT due to the fact that unlike, say, an F1 car, the Solus has a center-of-gravity that's higher, and it's larger, and a spot heavier, truthful comparatively speaking, you consciousness much value transfer. Since that transportation is truthful rapid, it is simply a spot unsettling initially, and past you get utilized to it.
• Carbon-carbon brakes + airy value = unthinkable stopping power. Unlike open-wheel look cars, the Solus GT does person ABS, which means you tin brake / trail-brake much "easily".

A Senna GTR, whose way prowess is formidable, is nary lucifer for the Solus GT, arsenic we saw first-hand with some these cars being connected the way astatine the aforesaid time.

"Looks similar a spaceship" is simply a operation that gets thrown astir rather a batch erstwhile it comes to utmost cars, but successful this case, it is wholly apt.