Carl Edwards, Toyota race into NASCAR posteason with Coca-Cola 600 win

Fuel strategy key as Edwards wins his first race for Joe Gibbs Racing

Will the mystery winner of Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 enter and sign in please?

Hint: It’s the guy who does back flips every time he takes the checkered flag.

But for the first 370 of 400 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway, no one would have picked Carl Edwards or his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota as the likely winner of the season’s 12th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race.

Martin Truex Jr., Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin had spent the lion’s share of time at the head of the field, but none of that mattered when Edwards got 62 laps out of his last tank of fuel and took the checkered flag 4.785 seconds ahead of Greg Biffle, who also was on a fuel-saving strategy.

In fact, the top-four finishers all stretched their gas mileage after pit stops under caution on lap 337. Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran third, followed by pole sitter Matt Kenseth and Truex, who led a race-high 131 laps.

Ryan Newman, Brad Keselowski, Hamlin (53 laps led), Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch (118 laps led) completed the top 10. Kyle Busch came home 11th in his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points race of the season, after missing the first 11 races of the season because of injuries sustained Feb. 21 at Daytona.

Carl Edwards won by nearly five seconds ahead of Greg Biffle. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

The victory was Edwards first of the season, his first for Joe Gibbs Racing, his first at Charlotte and the 24th of his career.

But after the very early stages of the race, Edwards wasn’t a factor until fuel strategy came into play in the closing laps.

Soon after Jimmie Johnson spun off turn four on lap 90 to cause the second caution of the afternoon, the race evolved into a two-car contest between the Chevrolets of Kurt Busch and Truex.

Within two laps of a restart on lap 95, Busch drove from ninth to the lead, passing Joey Logano for the top spot on lap 97. From that point, Busch and Truex swapped stints at the head of the field, and by the time Johnson spun off turn four and smacked the inside wall on lap 273 to bring out the caution flag for the fifth time, Busch had racked up 118 laps led and Truex 59.

But another quick yellow flag on lap 282 for Ryan Blaney’s blown engine created the opportunity for divergent strategies and scrambled the running order. Truex was one of nine drivers who stayed out under the caution, but both Harvick and Kurt Busch came to pit road for fresh rubber and restarted 10th and 11th, respectively, on lap 292.

Gradually, methodically, Harvick and Kurt Busch drove back toward the front, but the contrarian strategies introduced another major player into the mix. Denny Hamlin surged to the front of the field and led 53 laps before pitting with a loose wheel on lap 363 and giving up the lead.

That put Truex back in front, with Harvick chasing, and both drivers needing one more pit stop to get to the end of the race.

Edwards, Biffle, Earnhardt and Kenseth, on the other hand, stopped with 62 laps left, and the decision to come to pit road and gamble on fuel proved decisive -- and stole a victory from Truex’s dominant car.

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Three race car drivers who succeeded without fitness routines

Some of the best drivers in history eschewed daily workout regimens

Modern science tells us that a critical factoring in maintaining fitness levels while driving in a race is proper hydration. Jules Goux, one of the Peugeot team’s star drivers pre-World War I, could have told you this more than a century ago, when Goux and his mechanic won the 1913 Indy 500 fueled by champagne. Early post-race reports indicated they had a bottle at each of their six pit stops, but this proved unfounded. It was only four bottles, and they were small ones at that, they said.

Sure.

Big or small, afterward Goux was quoted as saying, “Without the good wine, we wouldn’t have won.”

The next year’s rules included a no-alcohol regulation.

We all know being physically fit is good for you and that exercise science has developed any number of programs to make you even more fit.

Pick a sport—any sport, except possibly horseshoes—and you run into a wealth of material covering both the mental and physical aspects of paths to improvement, nutritional advice, everything right up to the address of your local purveyor of “Better Living Through Chemistry.”

Mario Andretti in the lead at the 1978 Belgian Grand Prix

Today’s major-league racing teams—in Formula One, NASCAR, IndyCar, whatever—have enough fitness equipment to stock a retail outlet; trainers, physical therapists, psychologists and nutrition gurus are almost as common as mechanics.

Roger Penske, who seldom runs second to anyone when it comes to adding a new wrinkle, installed the first fitness program for his IndyCar team 23 years ago. The stock-car facility was installed in the late 1990s.

Today, with both single-seat and stock-car teams headquartered in the same North Carolina building, Penske’s full-time staff includes an athletic director and a trainer.

“Our drivers and crew members are all on some type of fitness program,” says Penske spokesman David Hovis.

Despite all the obvious evidence of benefits, three men you can find in any hall of fame that includes racing drivers say they never had an exercise program. They are Mario Andretti, Sir Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney.

Too busy, they all said.

Sir Stirling Moss chatting with Colin Chapman while clutching the 1961 Silver City Trophy at Brand Hatchs.

Sir Stirling, the great British pilot of the 1950s and early ’60s, and a leading candidate for the best sports-car driver of any era, told Autoweek, “I never trained because I was racing every week of the year. This adds up to 156 days in a racing car, plus two or three days a week testing.”

Moss is primarily known for not winning the world driving title. He won almost everything else, but it was his performances in long-distance events that were truly remarkable.

When he won the 1955 Mille Miglia, he covered the 1,000 miles of Italian roads in 10 hours, 7 minutes.

He drove 42 of the 44 laps when he won the Nürburgring 1,000 Kilometers in 1958 and all but six of the 84 laps when he won the 1955 Tourist Trophy on Ireland’s dangerous 7.4-mile Dundrod Circuit.

He did it all in front-engined cars without power steering.

Andretti, someone observed, might not be the world’s best driver ever, but you cannot discuss the “best” driver without having his name on the list. 

Mario Andretti offering a few pointers to grandson, Marco Andretti

One of America’s two world champions, a Sebring winner, an Indianapolis winner and winner of most anything else you might care to name, Andretti says he didn’t have a formal training program because he was too busy doing what he was doing.

Andretti’s grandson Marco, Mario says, “doesn’t drive nearly as much,” since the design features of Indy cars are fixed, leading to less development time.

“So when he is home, he works out every day, and runs 5, sometimes 8, miles,” he said.

Andretti’s endurance reputation goes back a long way—to 1963, the year before he got his first ride in a USAC Championship car. 

He won the feature event at a New Jersey track, loaded up his dirt car, towed it 110 miles west to a Pennsylvania oval and won two feature events there the same night.

Gurney, who spent at least as much time building cars as he did driving them, says playing table tennis was a favorite method of maintaining hand-eye coordination.

In general, however, he was careful not to work up to too fine an edge, because, as he put it, “I might get too aggressive.”

None of the three, it should be noted, included champagne.

This article first appeared in the May 25, 2015 issue of Autoweek.

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2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid review notes

Toyota’s full-size sedan straddles the line between Lexus LS and Camry

DIGITAL EDITOR ANDREW STOY: The Avalon is part of a dying breed -- the full-size sedan; it's kind of a shame, because some of the best mass-market examples of this traditional body style are on sale today, including the Avalon XLE Hybrid.

Setting aside what already makes the Avalon one of my favorite full-sizers -- interior refinement, space and build quality -- this may also be the first hybrid I've driven that made me wonder why anyone would buy the straight gasoline version. This powertrain is absolutely seamless, uses barely any fuel and, when needed, can deliver gobs of electric torque for a push the V6 Avalon can only dream of. Yes, the regenerative brakes take a bit of mental recalibration, but once you've got a feel for them the car is remarkably satisfying to drive.

This generation of Avalon is blessed with one of Toyota's best interior designs ever -- it's big, bright and airy, and manages to feel as though it belongs in a more expensive car. The touch-sensitive switchgear lives on a corrugated panel that doesn't show fingerprints, and little cutouts demarcate "buttons" to help guide your finger. The effect manages to look just as elegant as Cadillac's CUE or the previous upper trim ranges of MyFord Touch, but it's more intuitive.

Big, comfortable front thrones appear built for 'Murican butts and offer tons of adjustability; limo-like legroom exists for rear passengers even with a 6-foot-plus driver, and the trunk will undoubtedly swallow some focus-group-determined quantity of golf clubs. Basically, whatever you'd expect to be able to use a full-size sedan for, the Avalon will meet your needs and then some.

It's the poor man's Lexus LS, this Avalon XLE Premium. Though, given its luxury amenities, 40-mpg capability and under-$40K price tag, the Avalon hybrid might actually be the smart man's Lexus LS too.

The cabin of the Avalon displays luxury with the leather seats and three spoke wheel. Photo by Toyota

EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR KEN ROSS: The Avalon is amazingly … OK. I don’t mean that in a bad way because there are lots of cars that aren’t good at anything. The exterior is what you would draw if you were asked to pen a semi-upscale midsized sedan. Everything is proportioned properly and there are a few hints of sport in the front fascia. That sharp line behind the running lights gives an impression of motion. It fades out and picks up again behind the front tire, continuing just above the door handles and ending at the point of the wrap-around taillights. On the other hand, my explanation of the line is probably more interesting than the line itself.

The interior continues to be adequate, with a hint of wood-like material along the bottom of the dashboard and a good mix of well-done leather. All of these materials look good together and make a great placeholder for the Toyota. Once again, there are no surprises or disappointments, just business as usual.

I walked away from this car thinking that the discussion in Toyota design was something like, “We can’t make it too upscale or they won’t buy Lexus; OK but we need to make it better than a Camry.”

That’s what the company did and it’s … OK. 

The Avalon Hybrid has a 2.5-liter I4 with permanent magnet AC synchronous motor. Photo by Toyota

Options: Entune premium audio with navigation and app suite includes Entune multimedia bundle including 7-inch high resolution touchscreen with split screen display, AM/FM CD player with MP3/WMA playback capability, nine speakers including amplifier, auxiliary audio jack, USB 2.0 port with iPod connectivity and control, advanced voice recognition, hands-free phone capability, phone book access and music streaming via Bluetooth wireless technology, Entune app suite, HD radio, HD predictive traffic and Doppler weather overlay, AM/FM cache radio, SiriusXM radio with three month trial and integrated backup and camera display with projected path ($935); carpeted floor mats/trunk mat ($225)

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Project Car Hell, Lord Humungus Motor Pool Edition: Thiokol 601 or GMC Mystery Box Truck?

What would the Warrior of the Wasteland, the Ayatollah of Rock-n-Rollah drive?

Inspired by the Mountain Miscreants, winners of our Mad Max: Fury Road Most Apocalyptic Vehicle Contest, the Hell Garage Demons have opted to make today's Project Car Hell episode one of wasteland survival, crossbow bolts, and hats made out of animal skulls. Yes, apocalyptic vehicles, as driven by The Lord Humungus and Immortan Joe!

We've picked out a pair that, with endless a bit of work, might be suitable for use by bands of heavily-armed scavengers feasting upon the long-expired carcass of civilization.

Top speed isn't so great, but it will go anywhere.

Multiple supercharged V8s are great for speeding across great expanses of desert in search of loot, radioactive rats to eat, and so forth, but what do you need when your crew of apocalyptic warlords runs into swampy or snow-covered land? That's right, tracks!

We couldn't find any T-34 tanks on Craigslist (and all that heavy armor means poor fuel economy, anyway), but we did find this 1965 Thiokol 601 Snowcat in Colorado (go here if the listing disappears). Imagine the terrified screams of your soon-to-be-vanquished opponents as they hear those treads approaching their food stockpile! Now, we'll be the first to admit that this fine machine needs a little bit of work to get in operating condition, because the seller (who adheres to the Craigslist tradition of Arbitrary Capitalization of Descriptive Terms) ran the engine completely out low on oil and grenaded damaged the engine. Don't worry, though, because that engine is a plain old available-in-any-junkyard Ford 240-cubic-inch straight-six.

It seats ten, has "Grab Bars Galore," and boasts a snowplow that just needs some spikes welded on for genuine Warrior of the Wasteland style.

We're a little skeptical about this truck being ex-military, but who cares?

That Thiokol would be a welcome addition to any properly apocalyptic vehicle collection, but suppose you and your War Boys want something with a bit more style, speed, and load-carrying capacity? A box truck provides plenty of exterior surface for attaching sirens, menacing symbols, and armor plate, and the roof offers real estate suitable for ring-mount antiaircraft cannons.

A true wasteland leader doesn't want any old boring Grumman bread truck, though— you need to make a statement with your box truck. Say, this 1939 GMC COE box truck, complete with fender skirts and cool-looking circular windows (go here if the link disappears). The seller doesn't offer much information about this vehicle, other than "complete but needs full restoration," so you can start shopping for appropriately crazy drivetrain parts for it right now.

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7 classic cars to watch at Bonhams' Greenwich auction

Rare European machinery set for another cozy sale in Connecticut

Auction house Bonhams is gearing up for another annual sale held concurrently with the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance held in the tiny Connecticut town which has ten times as many hedge funds as fast food joints, with the sale once again set to take place on the tiny peninsula of Roger Sherman Baldwin park. 

Last year's sales topped $8 million, with 93 out of 100 lots finding new homes. The top sale in 2014 was a stunning blue 1975 Lamborghini Countach periscopica that brought $1.21 million, though the biggest surprise of the sale was perhaps the $92,400 realized by the 1973 Volvo 1800ES shooting brake with just 13,000 miles on the clock. Perhaps the most emotional sale of 2014 was the Fitch Phoenix designed, built, owned and driven until very recently by the late John Fitch, who was a frequent visitor to the concours and to Lime Rock Park. The Phoenix brought $253,000, selling to a local car collector, with the sale drawing cheers from bidders who were glad to learn that the car would be staying in the area.

Bonhams' Greenwich sale will take place next Sunday, May 31, with a preview day scheduled for Saturday May 30.

Here are a few lots we'll be keeping an eye on that Sunday:

This Jalpa shows a claimed 500 kilometers on the odometer. Photo by Bonhams

The days of semi-affordable Lamborghini Jalpas offered for sale in the back of car magazines are quickly coming to a close as collectors take note of this oft-overlooked Lambo. Bonhams will offer this 1988 example at the upcoming sale. Powered by a 3,485 cc V8 engine fed by four 2-barrel Weber DCNF carburetors, this particular Jalpa is said to be one of the last examples built out of a total production of just 410 cars. A rarity even in the heyday of Countaches, this Jalpa shows under 500 claimed kilometers on the clock, and is estimated to bring between $70,000 and $100,000 on auction day. Sorted examples are tough to find, and the Jalpa remains a gap in many large collections.

This DeSoto Fireflite Indianapolis Pacesetter is one of about 30 remaining examples. Photo by Bonhams

A rare convertible, the DeSoto Fireflite Indianapolis Pacesetter is a car that we see at auctions -- they just don't change hands that often. This 1956 example is stated to have been in single-family ownership since new, and is powered by a Hemi V8 engine connected to a three-speed Powerflite pushbutton automatic transmission. Said to be one of just 400 Indianapolis Pacesetters built and 30 remaining, it's pegged to bring between $60,000 and $80,000. The modest estimate is partially a reflection of the limited market for this model, as the people who want one have to be in the room, on the phone, or on a yacht watching the bidding on an iPad. But this will be the right crowd for this car, even though Arizona in January would have brought it greater publicity.

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The interior of this 1963 BMC Technical Support Vehicle features an open floor plan, to use a realty term. Photo by Bonhams

This is a 1963 BMC Technical Support Vehicle, used by the company to tour around the U.K. teaching mechanics. Last seen at the 2011 Fairfield County Concours d'Elegance, this BMC bus has also been featured on "Chasing Classic Cars" with Wayne Carini. Around 20 were built and fewer remain, as you would imagine. We had an opportunity to examine this vehicle at length, no pun intended, a few years ago, and were disappointed to find it wasn't configured to hold cars in its interior -- even though the interior is largely empty and can carry at least a couple of Austin Minis. Having said that, it could be be modified to accept a car or two if the "trunk" and rear window were reconfigured to open in a clam-shall manner, which would make it infinitely more useable as a collector vehicle. Bonhams estimates this 6.1-liter Perkins diesel-engined bus to bring between $75,000 and $100,000 at auction. If you own a brace of small British roadsters, this may be the racing support vehicle for you.

This 1957 Pontiac Star Chief Safari Sport Wagon is one of just over a thousand examples made. Photo by Bonhams

Interest in classic American station wagons is showing no signs of abating, and Bonhams will offer this 1957 Pontiac Star Chief Safari Sport Wagon at next weekend's sale. This three-door V8-engined wagon is one of just 1,291 produced (which is why you probably haven't seen one at your local cruise-in) and is stated to have received a complete restoration. Bonhams expects this rare wagon to bring between $35,000 and $45,000, and the top estimate may seem like a bargain in a few years.

Car Life Scottsdale auctions blow through last year's totals

The Scottsdale, Ariz., collector-car auctions have wrapped up a busy week of sales, and as part of producing an up-to-date price guide for classic cars, Hagerty has released the final totals from all ...

This 1968 Mazda 110S Cosmo Sport Coupe is a rare rotary bird in the States. Photo by Bonhams

Japanese classics are attracting more and more interest from North American collectors every year, and Bonhams will offer this 1968 Mazda 110S Cosmo Sport Coupe next weekend. A 982-cc twin-rotor Wankel-engined coupe, the Cosmo looks like something from the Jetsons, and was never been offered in the U.S. even though some examples have found their way here. This example, painted in a very '60s color, is estimated to bring between $150,000 and $200,000 on auction day.

This 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Stelvio convertible by Gangloff is estimated to bring between $900,000 and $1.1 million on auction day. Photo by Bonhams

The top sale of the auction will likely be this 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Stelvio convertible by Gangloff, if it ends up changing hands on auction day. Powered by a supercharged inline-eight engine, this particular example wears original coachwork and remained in France during its early years. This 57C later settled in the collection of Miles Coverdale who kept it for 40 years until his passing in 2002. This car is estimated to bring between $900,000 and $1.1 million on auction day.

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On Saturday, the crowds of the Greenwich Concours Americana almost rendered the field standing-room only. On Sunday, the thousands of car fans who descended upon the small park in the seaside ...

This 911 RS 2.7 M472 Touring may bring between $550,000 and $700,000 on auction day Photo by Bonhams

Porsche 911 Carrera RS values are rocketing upward, and Bonhams will take stock of this model's current value when it offers a 911 RS 2.7 M472 Touring from 1973. Claimed to be a numbers-matching Series 1 RS Touring that was originally delivered to Brazil, of all places, this particular RS is fitted with a number of factory options like a heated rear window and a power antenna, electric sunroof and windows, air conditioning and fog lamps, all which are believed to have been fitted at the factory. Bonhams estimates this restored example to bring between $550,000 and $700,000 on auction day. Yes, it's too late to get in on these -- all that's left to do is watch them jump and touch the rim of the $1 million barrier a couple of years from now.

Visit the auction website to view the full list of lots as well as the schedule for the upcoming sale.

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2015 Ferrari California T Tested: The T Is for Turbo

From the June 2015 issue

Suntanned California has always been a place where people come to experiment with their identity. Thus, the name is perfect for Ferrari’s lowest-priced model, which has been an experiment since it first hit the streets in 2009. It was the first roadgoing Ferrari to put a V-8 in front of its driver and the first with a power-retractable hardtop, and its price and daily practicality took Ferrari on a low pass through the market. It probably should have been a Maserati, as it would have done far more to elevate that brand than it does for Ferrari, but the ball didn’t bounce that way.

Secretive Ferrari won’t say how the ­California sells, but judging by the pletho­ra of low-mileage examples parked on eBay with heavily depreciated prices, the market is perhaps lukewarm. The revamped ­California T—just 14 seconds turns this well-insulated hardtop coupe into a convertible—fixes what may have gone wrong with the old model, including a challenged power-to-weight ratio and styling that evoked a pouting teenager more than the snarling stallions of Maranello.

The T stands for turbo, of course, and in this regard the California, with its twin compressors hanging from a smaller 3.9-liter V-8 with a signature flat-plane crankshaft, is being experimental yet again. This is the first forced-induction street Ferrari since the F40, and so it is the pathfinder for the many turbocharged Ferraris to come, starting with the 488GTB, set to arrive early next year.

The new sheetmetal picks up themes from the F12berlinetta, replacing the soft roundness and elliptical headlights with Ferrari’s newer angular look. That includes more scalloping for ducts and vents, and the droopy black inset panel in back is gone and unlamented, as are the silly stacked pipes that helped heighten the car’s already-tall tush and give it a fake, forced showiness.

The new car’s sleeker form can’t hide the fact that it’s a big machine, being three full inches longer than a Chevy Corvette Stingray, as well as a bit wider, a bit taller, and way heavier at 4064 pounds. Even so, that’s 59 pounds lighter than our last California tester, and there’s 101 more horsepower and 199 more pound-feet of torque to motivate it. Hence, the 60-mph sprint plunges from 3.9 seconds to an astonishing (really, almost unbelievable) 3.3, with a full second knocked off the quarter-mile. And a 0.95-g skidpad perform­ance means there’s more grip to go with the extra kick.

Okay, so it’s finally Ferrari-fast. But a Ferrari has always been less about numbers than about being a crackling Tesla coil spitting lightning bolts. The new direct-injection V-8 barks into combustion, and it sounds every decibel the snarling, pissed-off puma that other Ferraris do. Hidden exhaust flaps somewhere under the car flutter as necessary to uncork and recork the growling on cue.

A Ferrari throttle has always given you precisely what you want, and the California T is, blessedly, no exception. Mat it to elicit the telltale wheeze of the turbos. As the boost builds to its 18.9-psi peak, the revs and power ramp up, but only with the slightest of kinks to the dyno trace. The redheaded V-8 delivers the goods with almost, if not quite, the organic smoothness of the Ferraris in Fangio’s day. It gathers speed in any gear and with haste ­proportionate to the pedal squeeze. The lag is short and glossed over, the V-8 just going when you ask it, exactly at the speed you ask of it. That bodes well for the 488GTB and turbocharged Ferraris yet to be born.

The California also stops with ferocity, but the standard carbon-ceramic brakes proved suppler at city speeds than others we’ve tried, behaving like iron brakes in all the best ways. With 47 percent of its weight on the front axle, the California T is rightly balanced and the steering reflects it, aiming the nose into corners with friction-free lubricity and a thrilling subtlety that matches the other controls.

The $5568 you must spend for Magnaride shocks on top of the California’s $202,723 base price is money well used. With it, the California feels as if it has yards of suspension travel over the bumps, yet restrains body roll and understeer when you’re hunting apexes. Here, again, everything is served in proportion to your demand, from steering angles to ride stiffness. One of the great joys in life is piloting this (or any other) Ferrari up a slithering road, top folded, the cylinders wailing an operatic octet as the red LED lights on the steering rim flicker. Voltage? This car produces it with uranium rods.

When you buy a Ferrari, you buy tradition expressed in aromatic panels of French-stitched leather, flat and rigidly firm bucket seats, and a familiar dashboard of simple circles augmented by a few conventional display screens. It’s definitely old school compared with, say, McLaren’s all-suede architectural cockpits, where the touch screens and buttons seem designed in the Infinite Loop. In the California T, a carbon-fiber arch dividing the center console, part of a $7761 carbon dress-up package, is the riskiest design flourish. The rest, from the large analog tach to the data screen next to it, is Ferrari convention.

It takes time, but eventually you appreciate the California’s practicality. Evoking its many years in the F1 coal mine, the busy steering wheel is where Ferrari puts all the old stalk controls. Using the turn signals is as simple as squeezing your palm, the wiper control reduced to a single multiaction button. The manettino knob gives you the choice of comfort, sport, and Mamma Mia mode, which switches off all the aids. A button marked “pit speed” seems a little precious in this, the Ferrari least likely to see a track. Thoughtfully, Ferrari lets you pick sport for the throttle and transmission settings but retain the softer shock setting if your roads aren’t smooth. Go forth and commute.

Unexpected conveniences: folding rear seats that reveal a tunnel into the large trunk for longer items; plenty of console clutter space; radio buttons on the backside of the steering wheel; a USB port. Typical (for an Italian car) inconveniences: the strange infotainment unit; poor radio reception; and a single 12-volt socket far from the windshield. Next year, Ferrari finally offers keyless operation, but for now you still get the vintage red-plastic-encased key that will suitably impress the valets.

Fanatics in red jackets may look down on it, and the option pricing gets silly (21 of its 28 available colors cost $12,486 extra), but the California T is more enthralling than its direct competitors, namely the Aston Martin DB9 and Bentley Continental GTC, and more passionate than the anodyne Porsche 911 Turbo S. It is your daily dose of Ferrari.

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2016 McLaren 570S Dissected: Powertrain, Chassis, Design, and More!

From the June 2015 issue

Just as German carmakers have mastered the art of slicing sausages into different lengths, such that an Audi A6 seems like just a foot-long hot dog to the A4 ballpark frank, McLaren’s staple ingredients are now being spread over a full menu. It ranges from the Big Mac—the million-dollar P1—to this new value-oriented 570S from the, uh, 180,000-dollar menu. With the 570S, McLaren replaces the special sauce in the 650S’s suspension with ketchup, takes a bit of beef out of the powertrain, and serves it in a familiar wrapper as an alternative to the Porsche 911 Turbo S. When it goes on sale at the end of the year, the 570S will join the Acura NSX, the Audi R8, and the BMW i8 in the burgeoning class of sub-Ferrari almost-supercars.

Tub

True to the McLaren recipe, the 570S begins with a carbon-fiber passenger cell sandwiched between aluminum substructures. Now called MonoCell II, the tub features sills slimmer than the wide, tall rails of the 650S and the P1. That should make it easier to enter and exit the car, playing to the 570S’s intended purpose as a daily driver for those who take their Sunday drives in Gulfstream jets.

Calm down, McLaren nerds. This isn't exactly the same tub as the P1 uses. This one's modified for easier entry and exit.

To strengthen the reshaped sills, engineers added 11 pounds of carbon fiber to the naked tub, which now weighs 176 pounds. McLaren reports a dry weight of 2895 pounds for the 570S. Curb weight should reach a tidy 3100 pounds by the time the car is properly fueled, cooled, and lubricated. If that number proves accurate, the 570S will weigh in roughly 500 pounds lighter than the four-wheel-drive 911 Turbo S.

Powertrain

Like the pricier 650S, the new 570S derives its name from the output of its 3.8-liter V-8 in Pferdestärke, or PS, which is metric horsepower. That’s 562 horses in the units we use. Torque is rated at 443 pound-feet. While the displacement of the twin-turbo engine matches that of the 650S and P1, the hardware changes are substantial enough—though McLaren wasn’t prepared to divulge details—to warrant a new engine code (M838T E). Italy’s ­Graziano supplies the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic.

McLaren's design language is inspired by the SR-71 Blackbird, a whale shark, and McDonald's golden arches.

Since McLaren remains an unwavering advocate for rear-wheel drive, the 570S won’t match the 911 Turbo S’s 2.5-second zero-to-60 time warp. The Brits say their car will rocket to 62 mph in a still-swift 3.2 seconds, but also claim that a best-in-class power-to-weight ratio will give them the edge in any race to triple-digit speeds. Keep your foot in it long enough and the 570S will eventually top 200 mph.

Concurrent with the 570S’s New York auto-show debut, McLaren unveiled in Shanghai the 540C, a less powerful, less aggressive, and less expensive version that could make its way to the United States. Without committing to selling it here, a McLaren rep did say the company would certify the 540C to keep options open. But McLaren must know that the Turbo S outsells the stand­ard 911 Turbo two to one in America. We’re not sure why it’d bother.

Bottom right: The wide-angle camera in the front fascia helps you better see where you're going without looking where you're going. Chassis

The 570S locates its wheels with a pair of control arms at each ­corner just like its brethren, but McLaren’s signature ProActive Chassis Control is conspicuously absent. That sophisticated and costly tech uses a hydraulic network to give the 650S and the P1 flying-carpet-ride quality and Ginsu-sharp handling. Instead, the 570S has conventional anti-roll bars and adaptive dampers that can be set to normal, sport, or track mode. Forged aluminum wheels measuring 19 inches in front and 20 inches out back roll on Pirelli rubber—either P Zeros or P Zero Corsas—and surround standard carbon-ceramic brake rotors.

Design

There’s no mistaking the 570S for anything but a McLaren, although you could easily mistake it for a 650S. Depending on how you feel about that, credit or blame a design language that prioritizes function over form. Chief designer Rob Melville says the surfaces “express the way the air moves around the car.” The lower edge of the channel running through the door, for example, mimics the airstream that comes off the rear edge of the front tire. The shoulders of the doors feature floating “tendons,” behind which the door releases lurk. Those of-the-moment flying buttresses funnel air around the greenhouse and over the vented decklid to extract hot air from the engine bay, increasing downforce by a claimed 22 pounds. As yet, the factory won’t supply a total downforce figure.

Because a radio doesn't make a car any faster, the 570S includes just four speakers as standard equipment. Eight- and twelve- speaker systems are optional.

While the P1 has an all-carbon skin and the 650S wears a mix of composite and aluminum, the 570S is wrapped entirely in aluminum in standard trim. The car on these pages represents a higher spec, with the roof, decklid, rockers, and front and rear fascias rendered in optional carbon fiber.

Whether in aluminum or carbon fiber, the 570S packs the same lightweight, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive flavor that has allowed the Formula 1 experts at McLaren to insinuate themselves into Ferrari’s business in a short time. Watch out, Porsche, you may be next.

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