Several of them, actually, at the McLaren FWD event which was held at MSR Houston. Did two ~20 minute street drives in a Spyder and 30 minutes on the track in a coupe.

I had had trouble fitting in the car on track with helmet on. I am 6’2” and have trouble in a fair number of vehicles, so this was not surprising. I JUST fit in the car without a helmet.

I don’t own a GT3 but have driven one multiple times. So my perspective may be a bit less biased than an owner? Or less informed? Not sure. In any event, the 570 made quite the impression. Without a doubt the most impressive thing is the power. Mother of god that thing is quick. I know a 911 TT is faster from a launch but I would put my money on the Macca from a roll any time. The thing just picks up and hauls the mail. On a public road, just stomping on it from a stop resulted in 110 plus VERY quickly. Rolling on the power while underway is intoxicating. Of course it’s not as fast as it’s big brothers, but it definitely shades a 991 TT, which is its market competitor. Compared to a GT3, it would definitely pull away at low revs. The last 2000 RPM of the GT3 might match it for intensity though. Not sure about absolute pulling power. Could be close? The GT3 retains its theater and noise up top. Full whack upshifts in the GT3 are definitely more magical. But not by much, as when the McLaren upshifts the swell of torque is intoxicating. The McLaren can be caught napping at low revs but then again so does the GT3. The powerband feels quite linear and builds power progressively. It takes an engine like the GT3 to make it feel turbocharged.

The most imoressive thing about the car is definitely the chassis. We drove it on some VERY bumpy roads nearby at some serious speeds. Even with the suspension in Sport, the car handled it extremely well. Shockingly well. A GT3 on the same road would have rattled your teeth out. You can feel the rigidity of the carbon tub at work as the chassis (conventional not the fancy hydraulic one in the Super series) is set up on the compliant side because the chassis is so rigid. Yet on the track, the car was hyper responsive with very little lean. The GT3 feels more raw and energetic. It will transmit more NVH to you and make you feel more connected to the car. The McLaren is smoother, but still engaging. More communicative than a 991 TT though. But not quite as raw as the GT3. The steering is quite quick and has better feel. It has good weight with plenty of road feel and the car feels light and agile when responding to directional changes.

On the track...I have very little track experience. Mainly just autocross. So the first part of my session was getting comfortable with the car and being on track. My instructor Ralph was excellent. I ran 1/3 of the session in auto until I learned the track and then in manual. The car is fantastic. Very communicative to this novice. Felt very well balanced in the higher speed constant radius and double apex turns. Very neutral. I rarely understeer and for a noob, that says something about the car. I could always feel through the wheel as soon as I washed wide and the car rotated progressively. We ran the car on track ESC and I could see points where the car was helping me, but it did allow some rotation and when it did, it was easy to balance on the throttle or catch it with a quick countersteer. I did notice that putting the power down onto the two long straights TC was intervening; not sure if that was me being overly eager or needing to have ESC off. I would have liked more time on track to find out.

The transmission is as good as PDK S. In Sport it dials in some “thunk” for effect but in track that goes away to keep the car from getting settled.

The brakes are a bit more wooden than PCCB’s. Not as much initial bite with a toe flex. But when shoved, they scrub speed with alacrity. I think my top speed on the track was around 140. I definitely saw the car sweep through int the 130’s before looking back up to brake. I’d say that I was scrubbing about 80-90 MPH max. It wasn’t a long session and the brakes didn’t change one bit.

All in all, it’s a phenomenal car. Considering it’s the baby of the range, shaded mor toward road performance, I can’t imagne what a 720 or a Senna would be like. The 991 TT is a more subtle car, and its AWD makes it better in foul weather. But in launching the 570 hard, I never detected any TC interference either by the dash light or by feel. If you don’t mind the attentions I’d take the 570 all day. And although I’ve not taken a TT on track, I’d have to believe the 570 would take the occasional track day better. I don’t get the sense it’s set up to be as track capable as the GT3, but as a dual purpose machine, it’s hard t beat.

Nice write up, and hope all is well!

a friend of mine owns a 570, and was at that event.

i have driven his car on the street several times, very impressive power and the grip is very impressive. Super quick steering and very odd pedal feel on the brakes on his car.

the ride quality and handling were definitely what stood out to me the most.

for me, I was impressed by it but by no means craved it. The noise was not good at all to my ears and just wasn’t tremendously exciting to drive outside of the initial power rush.

it is clearly, in my experience, much quicker than a gt3 or an rs, but those cars sound much better and combined with the high rpm rush and pdk felt much more exciting to me.

i think like you said it’s a competitor to the turbo. That is a tougher ask for porsche. That said, I still prefer the Porsche feel

hell of an impressive car though