McLaren GTS review

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McLaren's entry-level, extra-practicality supercar gets more power and visual attitude in mid-life update

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When it appeared in 2019, the McLaren GT had just a whiff of naivety about it; something the still-youthful firm that made it has actually rarely shown.

This was a supercar for the margins, with a brief to expand the company’s customer base - but, using very much unexpanded mid-engined platform and chassis technology, perhaps not being in a strongest position to succeed.

In the years since its launch, according SMMT UK sales figures at least, it’s sold consistently but quite slowly, playing third fiddle to both the 720S/750S and the smaller 570S/600LT/Artura.

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And now, McLaren GT becomes McLaren GTS, as Woking has added power, taken away weight, pumped up the car's styling, and generally lightly refreshed it for its autumn years.

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DESIGN & STYLING

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McLaren GTS review 2024 29 rear static

Woking’s product planners are pulling familiar ‘lifecycle management’ levers in order to try to keep sales gently percolating. 

They’re not huge levers. Having been introduced as a slightly more bedroomy-looking car than its showroom siblings, with notable stretches of satin chrome trim around and about both the inside and out-, the car now adopts black body trim, and some more aggressively scooped air intakes and jutting aerodynamic addenda (which can be had in gloss carbonfibre, as fitted to our test car, at additional cost). 

It gets ever-so-slightly more power (another 15bhp, but no more torque than before); and it also weighs 10kg less than before in standard homologated form. And so it remains a largish mid-engined supercar with a carbon tub, adaptively damped independent suspension, and a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 mounted longways behind the driver; and now producing up to 626bhp for the rear axle, making this the least powerful modern McLaren - but still one with a power-to-weight ratio high enough to shade its key rivals in the Super GT class, Woking claims.

On top of all that, there’s now the addition of an ‘S’ to the model identity, as a last ditch - and probably vain - effort to convince us all that this really is a different car than it used to be.

INTERIOR

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McLaren GTS review 2024 13 interior

This car's biggest problem remains accessibility. The GTS is no easier to get into, or out of, than the GT was - because it’s a mid-engined, carbon-tubbed supercar. It’s low-of-seat and high-of-sill, and a bit tricky to swing your legs into and out from the footwell. It’s nothing desperately troubling - but if we’re supposed to believe that this is a more comfy and convenient alternative to a 750S or Artura, that you could ‘daily drive’ as easily as a front-engined Aston or fast 911 - well, the illusion doesn’t last long.

GT buyers, McLaren says, don’t mind this so much; they simply want a McLaren supercar that they can get their golf clubs into - and now they've got one with a bit more McLaren-typical visual character and attitude. At any rate, the GTS retains the liftback rear cargo compartment that’s long- and deep enough - just about - to do the trick for the trip to the driving range.

There’s plenty of padding to the GTS’s leather seats, but the adjustment controls are hard to reach, and there’s no cushion inclination adjustment; a real oversight for the comfort of longer-legged drivers.
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

Elsewhere around the cabin, however, it’s a shame that the car doesn’t get the secondary control layout of the Artura and 750S. Woking’s old rotary knobs for powertrain and handling mode adjustment, placed low down, divert your attention that bit more - while the car’s 7.0in infotainment system still doesn’t offer even wired smartphone mirroring, and isn’t well-featured or easy to use.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

McLaren GTS review 2024 24 performance

Apart from the extra dab of high-rpm power, the GT’s driving experience hasn’t changed, McLaren says. It’s a supercar of slightly elongated-feeling proportions, but still with plenty of natural grip and agility in its handling; plenty of tactile feel and positivity about its steering; and a ride that’s a little too communicative and less isolating to count as luxurious-feeling much of the time, but which does certainlyl have a nicely supple lope about it at cross-country pace.

The V8 serves up plenty of effortless mid-range boosty torque, making 60 per cent throttle feel more like 80- or 90-. It revs willingly, and makes for abundant performance - but isn’t especially enticing to listen to, or enriching in the way that other more charismatic V8s can be. The car's twin-clutch gearbox is typically smooth in its shifts and engagements, and can work very quickly in Track powertrain mode.

There's more subjective appeal about the car's handling, which is quite a lot more precise, poised and engrossing than GT-class cars typically are; but the car's ride and controls are less comfortable and filtered than GT cars typically are also - making longer journeys and higher mileages less relaxing than they might be in something more luxurious.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

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McLaren GTS review 2024 01 dynamic

McLaren has added a little over £10k to the asking price of the GTS, compared with that of the outgoing GT, leaving the latter with a starting price of just under £180k. So you can have a GTS with options, and perhaps a little change, for the price of an Artura with nothing optional fitted at all. Some super sports car alternatives cost less, though - the Porsche 911 Turbo S, Aston Martin Vantage, and Mercedes-AMG GT among them.

For running efficiency and cruising range, you should expect to see real-world motorway economy of around 27mpg, and brim-to-brim range of around 430 miles here (for the record, the fuel tank on a McLaren GT is no larger than the one on a 750S).

VERDICT

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McLaren GTS review 2024 28 static

The McLaren GTS retains a certain appeal among softer-edged grand touring options, especially for those who feel well enough served by the particular compromise of accessibility, comfort, practicality, performance and dynamism that it offers. 

But it remains a GT car in name mostly. Notionally, it's no great departure from Woking's other mid-engined models, and wouldn't be significantly easier to use. It also lacks the duality of appeal that the Artura's plug-in hybrid powertrain lends it - and may McLaren customers who considered the Artura the more versatile, daily-drivable car as a result could no doubt make a very convincing case.

However, if the GT came a closer third among McLaren’s most impressive mid-engined series-production models five years ago, I’d say the GTS is a more distant third today - mostly because that widely untouched interior makes it seem like Woking’s latest innovations really have passed it by, and that it has become the overlooked sibling.

Matt Saunders

Matt Saunders Autocar
Title: Road test editor

As Autocar’s chief car tester and reviewer, it’s Matt’s job to ensure the quality, objectivity, relevance and rigour of the entirety of Autocar’s reviews output, as well contributing a great many detailed road tests, group tests and drive reviews himself.

Matt has been an Autocar staffer since the autumn of 2003, and has been lucky enough to work alongside some of the magazine’s best-known writers and contributors over that time. He served as staff writer, features editor, assistant editor and digital editor, before joining the road test desk in 2011.

Since then he’s driven, measured, lap-timed, figured, and reported on cars as varied as the Bugatti Veyron, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Tesla Roadster, Ariel Hipercar, Tata Nano, McLaren Senna, Renault Twizy and Toyota Mirai. Among his wider personal highlights of the job have been covering Sebastien Loeb’s record-breaking run at Pikes Peak in 2013; doing 190mph on derestricted German autobahn in a Brabus Rocket; and driving McLaren’s legendary ‘XP5’ F1 prototype. His own car is a trusty Mazda CX-5.