docjohnM

I’ve been waiting for a week of good weather here in NJ for some more driving before posting, but it isn’t going to happen…… So here is my official No-Kool-Aid™ 2019 GT3 review and comparison with the 570S (along with minor notes on the GEN 1 Audi R8).

Disclaimer & friendly advice:My reviews generally lack fanboyism to any one brand, and can offend people, so if you have any kool-aid stains in the corners of your mouth, or a porsche tattoo, you may wish to just pass this review on by. That being said, I try to make my reviews appeal to a certain reader. I try to be fair and as scientific/objective as possible…. I also hit topics that might be a bit more obscure, since there are plenty of reviews on all of these cars out there already and the cars are well known. I do compile a list of complaints and negatives for each of the vehicles. Take it with a grain of salt, since Owners will have different wants & needs for their car.

Background:
My recent experience was owning a Mclaren 570S. Before that I had a smattering of M3s, 911s, an R8 and so forth. All were fine cars. I’ll mostly compare to the 570S, since it just left my driveway a few weeks ago.

My reason for purchasing a GT3: I bought my GT3 with the thought that it was perhaps one of the last examples of an “Analog” car: Naturally aspirated, manual transmission, no hybrid, no turbo, real noises, and a more raw & connected feel. Most importantly, it needed to have real-world reliability, because I intend to daily drive my GT3.... for better or for worse. When I heard that it was available with a manual tranny, my decision was made. If it were PDK-only, I would be driving a GTS with a manual now instead of the GT3. A few years back, I was able to daily drive an R8 6-speed manual for nearly 4 blissful years without a hitch. The car went everywhere I asked it to, and was just exotic enough to make each commute interesting. I am hoping the GT3 can do the same. The best compliment I’ve heard on the R8 was, “It’s the best 911 that Audi ever built”. High praise indeed! I do have a 2018 Golf R for mundane tasks and it is also a great vehicle. If Porsche made a hatchback, this would probably be it! I do NOT intend to track my GT3, which I know is a bit wasteful since it is a sublime track-day tool. I do Autocross my cars a bit and attend the Evolution Autocross school every year. (you must try one of those schools out…even if you are a track-rat) But like many on the boards here, I gravitate towards purpose-built racecars and participate in sanctioned racing. I just don’t enjoy trackdays enough to justify them. I like that racing is brutal and involves plenty of contact and risk. You can let it all hang out at 110% and not worry about the car. Tire barriers get hit, suspensions bend, and bodywork is rubbed raw. I’ve thanked God for my HANS device more than once. That is not to say there is anything wrong track-days or with what anyone else does, it simply is a statement to help understand what I personally expected from my GT3. It also will explain some of my “build” options.
My Build:

Being a daily driver, I did a pretty middle of the road build. I did not spec the “park benches”, a.k.a- the LWB seats. They just seemed a little inconvenient for me for my intended use. I know some like the benches for daily use, but I just don’t see that as appealing to me because of the short nature of my daily drives. I don’t want to be a poseur either, and pretend I need the benches for driving to work, or even running an autocross. And that brings me to one of my observations: I always found it odd with the GT3 series that buyers spec all these “glamour” options (leather fuse box covers, yikes!), have the car clay-barred, ceramic coated, and “paint-corrected”, and then put bizarro roll cages, splitters, pull-straps on the door (to save 10 grams..seriously?) and other racing-style options in them. Just seems odd to me to put lighted door sills and leather air vents and then be like, “Gotta have a fire extinguisher..cuz, you know…’race-car!”. LOL. Yeah……sure. That being said, I do actually like rigid seats and my racecars have had custom Butler seats made with full head and leg containment systems. And truthfully, the Butlers are pretty comfy, probably just like the Park-benches. One benefit of this type of seat is that you can custom pad them almost perfectly if you choose to do so. But I plan to have people in and out of the car, as well as getting in and out myself several times each day. The dealer told me it was best to add the Park-Benches later if needed (something about a wiring harness coming with the Sofas having a more complete wiring harness.. I dunno). I also ordered heated seats. Love them. After 4 hours in the car, they somehow can make you go another 4. I spec’d Bose, since I was told the road noise is nasty in these cars, and also the full leather/Alcantara interior. I learned my lesson years ago with stock Porsche interiors…I spec’d a base interior on my 2009 C2S and it received it fair share of, “how much did you pay for this thing with rubber door panels?” -type comments... My thought is that when you pay this kind of money, it just makes sense to throw a little sybaritic touch to the areas that matter. (but not a leather fuse box cover or deviated stitching on the gas cap, I gotta stop somewhere!) I optioned the leather on steering wheel and shift **** too, since I like the way they look as they age. I am fond of alcantara as well and have it on the seats, but it can look nasty where your hands contact it all the time. As mentioned before, I spec’d the manual tranny to just be a bit more engaged with the car at non-track velocities. It truly has become a special treat to have a manual. I would not have bought the GT3 without one. All of the race cars I’ve run were manuals. (Viper ACR/Spec Miata/SRF/Formula Mazda). That being said, I do respect the speed-superiority of DSG/DCT/PDK type double-clutchers. Totally awesome. I got the extended fuel tank as well because I hate getting gas. In new jersey, you can’t pump it yourself, and the gas attendants can be real A-holes if you have a nice car. (I had a guy once who could not figure out how to open the flap on my 570S, so he starts banging on it! Hard! I got out and asked him if he’d like me to bang on his head too, LOL!) That’s pretty much it for the Spec. Like I said, ‘middle of the road’ and good for DD. I did pass on the front-lift. Mostly because it only lifts the car an inch. And adds a bunch of complexity and weight. They do fail as they age, and if out of warranty, are not cheap to fix. I’d rather just pull out the spanners and raise the shocks 15mm and then replace the splitter from time to time. Just my preference, and I agree it is very dependent on where you drive. If the Porsche lift raised the car a bit more (2.5” perhaps), I probably would have ordered it. But there are no speed bumps where I live and my R8 never scraped once. My 570S did once or twice, and it is probably why it had a really high front lift… it looked like a jeep when raised, but took so dang long to raise. That being said, I only used the 570S’s lift once per month or so. The only other thing I added was a full front and partial rear PPF. Done by our local guy Greg Gallas at Signature Detailing of New Jersey. I’ve worked with him before, but as per a recent thread, I did tell him “Tage sent me” and it got me a huge smile from Greg. (Tage is a local car enthusiast who is also on this board). Work is exquisite as expected, and their standards are actually higher than mine.Small Rant on the Porsche “Options Process”: The game Porsche plays with color options is maddening. I know they like to make money…but they continue to restrict the color palate and push people to PTS. PTS is a money-grab, pure and simple. It is sad when a major company offers 4 colors for a car, and then says, “we can put this VW Golf paint on for $14,000”. (yes, Golfs come in PTS colors, and they are actually cheap options…my neighbor has a Fashion Grey golf…seriously. Worse yet, is that the blue I wanted comes standard on a Ford focus, who’s list price for the entire car is around what PTS costs) I remember in the 1980s, when Hondas only came in White/red/black and had one special color each year. I guess Porsche thinks that is a good business model. Go figure. I can understand when and if buyers want to really personalize a car with a “special” color, but Porsche deliberately removes normal colors from the options and gouges you to buy them back. No thanks….I’ll spend my money on another racing season.
Mclaren 570S review:I had my 570S for 12 month and 3200 miles. 9 months of which it was in the shop. So don’t expect these things to be daily drivers. Mind you, just like with Land Rover owners, there are always going to be people who are like, “mine never broke down once!”. Well, good for you…you got lucky. But I can tell you that dealer lots are littered with “problem cars”. I actually made a large group of friends by commiserating over our broken Mclarens. We are a proud society and are always adding new members! Haha! We were going to make T-Shirts up with a 570 broken in half as our club’s logo. Does this mean I don’t like Mclarens? Not at all. Lovely car. And Mclaren is a fine company. Far better to customers than Porsche would ever be. Mclaren knows they are a young company and generally treat you right. You may even get a call from the actual VP of the company. And you get action. Before the dealer bought my car back, Mclaren offered extended warranties, services and other compensations for my hassle. They were both polite and accommodating. That alone is worth it’s weight in gold. I WILL be coming back to Mclaren for sure in a future buy. The cars are that good to drive. But, never, never ,never own one without a warranty. I should also add that I never took the 570 to a track. It fell apart all by itself. Problems that occurred in those 3200 miles included: Key not recognized (never fixed), Windshield washer tube (fixed), weekly check engine lights (never fixed), carbon canister fouled (fixed), Headlight fault message (never fixed), limp-home mode on monthly basis (never fixed), memory seat not working (never fixed), A/C control issues (never figured out, but rare), IRIS crashing, parking sensor going off randomly (never fixed), Rust/corrosion on body panels (fixed), Headlight switch fell out and broke (fixed), Fuel gauge showing empty with 5 gallons still in tank (never fixed), and some various trim issues and so forth. Note: my dealer always gave me a fine Porsche as a loaner car. Put close to 15K fun miles on it, and it reminded me how great P-cars were. I give a 5-Star rating to Mclaren of Philly. Great folks and treated me like I was special.
I have to say….The 570 itself is an interesting beast.

First and foremost the 570S is an “experience” car. Apparently (according to Mclaren), it was designed to make the driver “feel” a certain way. “Numbers” were not the goal. They wanted a tactile, emotional, lively car, which could also ‘relax’ and become a daily driver. They actually did an amazing job with everything except the “daily driver” part. If you drove this car everyday, it would fall apart. As for the driving….Think of it as a 600hp Lotus Evora. The steering is analog, alive, feelsome, and provides a stable “straight ahead” as well. (many systems can’t seem to do the whole gamut). Ironically, The first time I drove a 570, the steering was uber-light and wobbly. I was shocked at how over-rated it seemed. But then the Mclaren rep pointed to the dashboard and noted that my tires were still around 70degF. Sure enough, once I got the Corsas warm, there were bags of feel. The interior of the 570 is also a bit of a treat, but a dichotomy as well. The leather is a true, thick “full grain” and several steps above anything in a Porsche, as are many of the metals/plastics. Then again, I don’t remember ever having a headlight-switch fall out the dash on a Porsche either. But it does happen in Mclarens….All the time. The parking brake switch also falls out from time to time as well. The IRIS system on the 570 worked great for me. It only crashed 3 times, so I got pretty lucky. The “cell-phone” type interface is actually brilliant, since we all use smartphones now and it feels natural. Even the orientation of the display is like a cell phone. I do wish there were some buttons on the steering wheel for Audio functions and menu scrolling though. The B&W stereo was magnificent, and the interior, despite my car having the Sports Exhaust, was quiet at cruising speeds. The seat was oddly firm, and it had a lumbar set about 3 inches too high on the back. You could move it really high to just below your shoulder blades…and I am not sure why anyone would want to do that. (BTW, I am 5’10”) The seat controls are almost entirely cryptic and are hidden from view. The seating position is typical mid-engined. You have good leg room, but the backrest of the seat needs to be pretty upright. It took a while to get the position right, and my memory seats never worked in the car, so it was a hassle. One thing was shockingly brilliant about the 570….you could motor the steering wheel out of the dash about 6”. Compare that to the 2 inches the 911 moves. That means that no matter where you sit in the 570, the steering wheel is in the perfect spot. More companies need to do this. Handling was nimble, predictable, but perhaps not entirely “sure footed”, and is often considered “twitchy” by Mclaren forum members. This characterization as “twitchy” is not exactly true. It never puts a foot wrong, and you’d have to try hard to spin the car, but it moves around a lot. Mostly under braking. The 570 is set up to be relatively neutral, but only at medium to higher speeds. At lower speeds, there is a bit of understeer. Along with the turbo lag, the 570 will not be winning any autocrosses. Be reminded that you still have to look hard to find that understeer, but the front end washes out first. At higher speeds, the car is superbly balanced. The brakes are powerful ceramics, but Mclaren decided to make them feel like manual brakes. I got word from a Mclaren rep that they tried to recapture the feel of older Mclaren race cars…well…they did, but I am not sure most drivers appreciated it or liked it. If you’ve driven a formula car, or something similar, then I can tell you, it does feel uncannily like the manual brakes in those cars. But remember that those cars don’t feel like they have any brakes at all until they are at just the right temps. It can even be a little scary when you apply the brakes in the 570 and then wonder if they are going to stop the car at all! LOL! On the plus-side, mine were dead silent. No squeaks at all. And no dust. Also, since they are identical to the Carbons in Corvettes, they are cheapish to replace. Anyway, lets get to the most controversial aspect of the 570; the ‘lazy’ feel of the daily drive. First, in the “normal” drive mode, the car shifts at 1500rpm. You’ll be in 3rd gear by the time you leave your driveway. And 1500 rpm is below the turbo’s boost-threshold. So, you generally have a car with the torque of a 1990 4/Cyl. Golf. Heavy throttle below 2000 rpm does nothing but make a noise. And the sound coming from the engine is not particularly nice. And sure, you can get 34MPG (really, you can), but it is odd to have a supercar that shuts off at every stoplight to save “carbon”. Driven a bit sportier at higher RPM, there is still a bunch of lag. Only in the “track” mode, RPM up over 4500, and manually shifted, do you get a sense that the car is responsive. Did I mention that the car is FAST. It will feel faster than almost any non-918 Porsche. Partly because “lag” + 2-wheel-drive + light weight. There are times where the boost hits in 3rd gear and suddenly the car is going down the highway sideways and accelerating like a rocket ship. You can’t help but giggle. Then you click it into 7th, and the car is as sedate as a BMW sedan. The ride comfort was quite nice as well. It could be cement-stiff, or as nice as a BMW. All you do is twist the adjustment **** on the dash. Driven with gusto, and with the engine on the boil, there are few cars as engaging as this.

So the 570S “HITS” are:
Light weight and light feel
Analog and Hi-Def steering
Nimble handling
“Dual-personality” Jekyll&Hyde drive
Opulent
Speed….The car, when on-boost, is exceptionally fast.
Impact: The 570 is both exotic and an attention grabber. (if this is your thing)
Fantastic Company and great dealerships

The “misses” are:
Bugs, bugs, bugs, bugs.
Things just fall off the car.
Lots of turbo lag. And a slight “disconnect” because of the combo of Carbon-tax nannies, and the turbo lag.
Depreciation is savage.
Reliability: Never own one without a warranty. Just don’t do it. One of my electrical faults would have been $5K to troubleshoot. And I had dozens. I probably racked up $35,000 in dealer shop-time in just one year. (and nothing major broke). There is a guy on the forums with a 675S who’s steering rack gear broke, and he got hit with a $30K bill for it. Truth.

Luckily, My GT3 shows up just as my 570 gets towed away, so no withdrawal symptoms.


Comparisons between 570S and thoughts:The GT3 is a very different beast in almost all aspect compared to the 570S. As for appearance, it is totally subjective. Odds are, if you appreciate a 911, you’ll like the Mclaren. I admit that the GT3 shape is pure art to my eyes, because I grew up loving the shape from pervious versions of the 911. The 570S is a newer look, and is very impressive. The Mclaren only has one ‘bad angle’ and for me it is from the rear. It is too pinched and busy. Either way, I don’t think there are too many ways to complain about either car. As for “first impressions”, I showed up at a Porsche dealership once in my Mclaren and all of the customers instantly forgot about the Porsches and walked out of the showroom to look at my car. It is an absolute “magnet”. Some will love this, some will hate it. Anyway, I was politely asked to not bring the Mclaren back to the dealership! LOL! There is something about owning an “exotic” that entices. The first “handshake” with the GT3 is not as dramatic as the 570, since you just open up a standard swinging door in the GT3. The Porsche door is light and twangy, and not the vault like sensation of the 570 scissor doors. (I also had the easy-close doors on the 570 and it was a cool treat to see them pull down into the latch) I think my particular GT3 doors actually have a problem, since the passenger door does not shut with that tinny noise. Gotta have dealer check that out…

Interior: Ingress and Egress on the GT3 is much easier than the 570. You hop in, and immediately you know you are back in a great driver’s space. Porsche always seems to get the pedal/seat/steering wheel relation correct. I’ve never driven a better street-car in this regard. My R8, although it also had a very usable interior, made your hips/back hurt within 90 min. of driving because the Dead pedal was about 1.5 inches closer to you than the gas pedal. My Mercedes is the opposite, and has the dead pedal 2 inches further away than the gas. Odd that so few manufacturers figure it out like Porsche does. Either way, Thank you Porsche for doing your homework and not compromising on such an important thing! The GT3 has a much higher dash than the 570 or R8, so you don’t get that “I am sitting on the road” feel, but at least you can see the headlight bumps and it reminds you that you are in a 911. The Sofa seats are pretty comfy and relatively soft in the first 5mm of padding. I can see how they are ‘incongruous’ with the mission of the GT3 tho. What is nice, is that they “disappear” after 30 min of driving and you no longer notice them. That is a fine compliment for seats. My one complaint is that the front lip of the seat should lower more, but I know many manufacturers do that as an “anti-submarine” feature so you don’t go under the seatbelt. The rest of the GT3 interior has some good and bad. I love the center-mounted Tach. It is clear and esthetic. The steering wheel stalks are uber-cheap, as are some of the buttons. The shiny fake chrome on the various buttons is sub-par. For example, on the Macan and Cayenne loaners that Mclaren gave me, they all had flaking Chrome around 40k miles. That’s No Bueno!….. I’ve always found it ironic that American cars get ribbed for cheap interior parts, but in reality, there are plenty in this GT3. In the same areas, the 570 has billet aluminum parts, for example. Still, the things that actually matter are all 10/10 in the GT3. Great steering wheel, great shifter, great seats, good armrests and so on. The leather and stitching is flawless, but admittedly lacks the “rich” feel and smell of the full-grain hides in the 570. Note: I saw the video of Porsche stitching full grain hides at the factory. But full-grain hides don’t wear, crack and flake like you see on their seat bolsters. Maybe Porsche only uses full grain for the dash and panels? I dunno.Ergonomics & minor Controls are just so-so on the 911. Actually, I’d put them a bit below my golf R. For example, on the GT3, the HVAC controls are thin and set in the seam of the dash. Some of the buttons are not lit, and the AC button faces away from the driver. I guess if you were sitting on the dash, it would be perfect! The shifter obscures the fan control as well. The PCM controls are also only mediocre. Menus are not intuitive. I am sure they are learnable over time, but when I first drove my Golf R, I just hopped in, plugged in my iPhone and was rocking every car feature in about 2 mins. In contrast, My R8 was a mixed bag. It was great with the hardware buttons, yet poor with the electronic controls, but it was a GEN1, and it had the old 2008 MMI system. In regards to the Mclaren, the 570’s biggest headache was the way they used the 2 column stalks to control the dash displays. Took too long and too many tries to use them. Tons of deep menus on the 570, but who can use them while driving? The Porsche does a better job here. One last note; the 570 has a full digital dash and the contrast is still not super-good. That means that at night, the “black-levels” of the display are a bit brighter than the analog gauges on the GT3. It is one huge advantage for the standard dials vs. the electronic gauges. I know that they have fixed this in the newer cars, but still, Porsche does a very nice set of analog gauges and I think I will be sad to see them disappear in the 992.
NOTE TO BOTH COMPANIES: taking the controls off of steering wheels is a great way to save money….it really is. But it is stupid as well. There are few things in an interior that are as useful as those controls. And for those who want to say, “hey, you know…cuz’…race car”….just remember that most race cars have dozens of controls on the wheel.

AUDIO: The Bose is just ‘OK’ compared to the 570’s B&W system. There is a veil in the upper midrange and treble, and the bass has the typical ‘tubby’ bose sound. After a week of listening, I can understand why folks switch out the tweeters. The highs do get fatiguing. They are not sibilant or harsh, but they are also far from smooth and are simply not resolving of details. The 570’s B&W system used the company’s Nautilus Tweeter, which manages the balancing act of being smooth and fast, but also ‘resolving’. The lack of resolution in the Bose does completely take away the depth and realism of the soundstage, and using the Bose surround function does at least center the imaging to a good degree. The stage is centered and concentrated on the area where the wart would be on a Chrono car. I have to note that you do lose even more of the detail and resolution when you turn on the sound processing though. Ironically, this is opposite of what Bose advertises! LOL! It appears that the center channel speaker takes the output-burden in this mode, and perhaps that speaker has even worse response in the upper mid/treble than the L/R tweeters. I know it has been mentioned by Musicar that the center channel is an issue that they can’t easily fix, but I would love for them to produce a kit with a center channel replacement too. At least the overall Volume is more than adequate and nothing rattles in the doors (yet). So in the end, the Bose is a 6.5/10, with it’s thick and spiky sound. On that scale, the Mclaren’s B&W would be an 8.5/10 with it’s smooth and resolving sound, The Fender System in my Golf R would be an 7.5/10 and the B&O in my R8 would almost tie the 570 with an 8.0/10. Both the Golf and the R8 have a lively sound.

Driving: The GT3 has a “tight” and solid feel. It reminds me of when you are boxing and a punch comes in, and you tense your body and hunker down, waiting for the blow. That feeling of rigid muscles, planted to the ground, is much like the GT3’s feel. The car feels like it’s all tight and ready. Truly marvelous. And it does so in a way that does not fatigue you. It gives you confidence. In contrast, the 570S does fatigue you over time because it lacks some of the GT3’s feel of stability, and with the Mclaren’s hydraulic steering set-up, the steering wheel is always wiggling…. The Mclaren has more of a Jekyll&Hyde thing going on, when compared to the GT3. The 570’s feel vacillates between ‘lazy’ and ‘hyper’. But when in Hyper-mode it bombards you with input. This frenetic drive is why the 570 is loved by many, but it also requires your full attention, lest you like eating trees. In my eyes, the Mclaren feels agile and light on it’s toes like a good wide-receiver. In comparison, the GT3 is slightly different in that it is also “on it’s toes”, but is more like a talented running back in the way it moves. It has more solidity and weight-of-action than the 570’s Wide-receiver’s dance moves. I admit that I enjoyed that same sort of “Running Back” feel in the R8, but this GT3 is set up more sharply, and will keep turning long after the R8 has become an understeering boat. (no disrespect to the R8, it was tuned that way on purpose to be predictable and stable) All-in-all, it is hard not to see the genius in the GT3’s tuning. It engages at EVERY speed, and never has that lazy feeling that the 570 gets at 1/10 driving. It also does not bore you with over-protectiveness like the R8 does. It manages to provide the warm stability of the R8, with handling capabilities exceeding that of the 570.
In the GT3, as many have noted before, the engine is center-stage. Throughout the rev range, all sorts of noises and changes of pitch make for a Wurlitzer of aural enjoyment. The engine puts on a performance that can be appreciated with any driving chore or style. In comparison, The 570 just has a monotone thrum trough 80% of its function and then zings to a superbike sound when you really boot it. Thankfully, not so with the GT3. My R8 made some pretty noises as well, but the car was a tad “too polite” from the inside….while from outside it sounded like a NASCAR racer.

Brakes: Special mention also goes to the GT3 iron brakes. They have that “hand of God” feel that I only seem to find in a Porsche. The R8 in comparison is overboosted and rheostatic (the Golf R has very close copy of the R8 feel as well, which I assume they did on purpose, having shared their chassis with the Audi TT) In far contrast, The 570 often felt like there were no brakes. You need to have a very strong left leg in that car. The Porsche, being in the middle of those extremes, is “just right”.

Steering: The Steering of the GT3 is vastly different than the 570. The 570 has a lighter effort, with that distinct “analog” off-center feel. What I mean by that is that the first 10deg of steering angle is quite soft and light, but effort ramps up quickly and exponentially in the next 3-5 deg (see attached chart), and then becomes more linear in effort vs. steering angle. It is like pushing a marble out of a bowl. The marble is relatively easy to move along the bottom, but weight ramps quickly as you push it up the sides. Yet, it is within this off-center area that you get that “grainy” feeling of road surface that so many drivers savor. The GT3 steering is devoid of this subtle behavior, which actually makes it brutally effective, but perhaps not nuanced. Where the GT3 comes out far ahead is the better weighting, feel and resolution at higher g-forces vs. steering angle. The 570, as it nears and exceeds its front grip, only has a slight loading and ramp-up of forces felt thru the wheel. It sure is there, but it is a more subtle. The GT3, like a manual steering car, really lets you really feel when grip is there…and when it starts to go away. It is one area where the car shows some racing heritage. The 570’s steering whispers, where the GT3’s shouts. That being said, the delicate 570 steering is wonderful in everyday driving, where the GT3 feels about 10% too heavy for daily chores. (that’s not a criticism, since it is probably perfect for the track).

My complaints: (again, some may wish to skip this part)First, the gearing in the first 3 gears is too tall and the last 3 are too short. That has been covered ad nauseum, but Porsche has an existing gear-set and they don’t want to pay to change it. The second issue is the silliness of the sound of rocks hitting the wheel wells and all the ersatz racing car vibes that it implies. Porsche can afford to put some arch liners in the wheel wells, and the 1 lb of material will not slow the car. These are not race cars, any more than putting cards in the spokes of your bike makes it a motorcycle. Porsche knows better. Put some insulation in the GT3 and leave it out on the RS. Problem solved. And there are ways to allow all the lovely engine noise in, without all the road-noise (which is not pleasing in any way) . I’ll say again so Porsche can hear me: Road noise=Bad….Engine-sounds=Good. Haha!When your customers talk of wearing earplugs due to tire noise, you need to remedy that. For example, The 570 was raw when it needed to be, but I never heard a pebble in the cabin, nor any tire thrum. Same goes for the R8. Yet when you cracked their throttles all hell broke loose….just the way it ought to be. Both the 570 and R8 were thunderous on the boil, but could also go quiet when you wanted it. All in all, as most of you know, the GT3 is unique and sublime. It is just shy of perfect, and the “flaws” appear to all be planned and designed in, so maybe they are not flaws at all. Perhaps the word “compromise” is better suited. You can’t have everything in one chassis. (at least no one has been able to do it yet). The GT3 is an amazingly well-honed and well-engineered toy for car lovers.

500 Mile update: “flaws”?.....what flaws??
An interesting note as I pass 500 miles, the character and positive attributes of the car make many criticisms seem silly. I still stand by them, but boy, do they seem insignificant. I’d imagine 30 laps on a track would do that further. I only am still annoyed at the lack of steering wheel controls, and the silly level of road noise. Love that engine tho. I plan to swap out the tires soon for PS4s, and better deal with the wet conditions where I live. Also some of the road-noise should be abated with the different tires. I miss having a memory function for the seats too. In some of my previous cars, I would set one position for Autocross, one for daily and one for long distance. Otherwise, I am just feeling that this is a hell of a car, with bags of personality. I am amazed at how my 997.2S left me somewhat cold and unimpressed and this thing is so far in the other direction. There are Porsche–noises at every hash-mark on the rev counter, and the car always seems to ask you to drive it harder. I don’t miss the 570 much, but I do miss the “cockpit” feel and drama of settling in to the vehicle. There is something very cool about the beginning of every drive in the Mclaren. And I do miss the space-ship feel. Also, have not scraped the nose yet, so that is good. I do wish there were parking sensors to protect the nose, but I also realize if that was so important, I could have gotten a C2S! The Bose sounds a little better after 2 hours of burn in. But mostly, I think I am just forgetting how good the 570 system was. Time for the Musicar upgrade. I also think I found a reversible solution for the road noise. I’ll update after I work on a prototype.

Gesler

Nick

As I did but I would go blind. A nice one paragraph summary will be appreciated.

Gary(SF)

It's a shame you had so many issues with your Mac. My car has been rock solid over the 3 years/12k miles of ownership...no IRIS crashes, no electrical or mechanical issues at all. Never had any switches fall out, either. I feel like I owned a different brand of car than you did... I've owned a number of Porsches over the years, and love the brand, and for track use there is no question the RS is the better choice than the 570S (the 600LT is the Mac weapon of choice in this area) but for weekend fun sprint drives I really love the McLaren.

mass27

TLDR:

Mac: good or bad?
GT3: good or bad?

Waxer

docjohnM

Yup! Right by Flemington!

Lots of great cars in Frenchtown and surrounding area!

docjohnM

haha~!

That's not the point of the review though. I tried to hit topics that many others did not. Things like the Audio and so forth. Also tried to actually let folks know just -how- the steering of the 570 differs from the GT3.

We all have read Evo, and Car and Driver tell us the cars "handle great" and so on. But none actually tell you how they handle. I'm old enough to remember when reviews were really comprehensive and the data sets were thorough.

As I said in the intro, my reviews are not for everyone!

docjohnM

Roger that! I Loved the 570 and wish I did get a good one.

There are quite a few folks on the Mclaren forum that had bulletproof 570s and they ran like clockwork. Unfortunately, Me and about a dozen other forum members all had the same exact problems and we started that impromptu club. you can probably find my posts over there.

Thankfully, the dealers would swap out the upgraded parts as we went along, but it ultimately was the check-engine stuff and the rust that killed it for me. Honestly, if they could just get the car back to me in a week or so, it would have been great. but it was too much down-time.

I still wish I could afford both cars, because I would have picked up a 2018 Spider as a toy. Just looking out the windshield in that car would get your juices flowing.

docjohnM

Haha!

I'll give you the ADHD-approved synopsis!

-------Mac and GT3 good------

catdog2

konaforever

kyrocks

PierreTT

Really enjoyed reading your review
Well written!!

But I do like road noises and the sound of rocks hitting the wheel wells...

fast1

Those sentiments really resonate with me. As a many decade owner of 911s, I really appreciated the driving experience of the old non computerized 911s. The ones that took considerable driving skill to drive fast. Today's cars no longer offer that experience with their computers, cameras, etc. Fortunately Porsche still offers that driving experience to some extent, especially with their GT offerings.