There have been times when the styling, spaciousness and quality of finish of past McLaren interiors seemed a smidgen less perfectly engineered than the unseen carbonfibre tub that housed them.
In all respects, the 570S’s cabin feels like a step forward. Its dashboard architecture is significantly different, introducing a new digital instrument cluster and centre stack console.
The most notable alteration concerns that console: the ski-jump fixture of knobs and buttons has gone, leaving a new infotainment screen to ‘float’ above the transmission tunnel instead.
By severing the two, McLaren’s main aim – delivering a greater sense of roominess (without actually creating any) – has largely been accomplished.
There’s a less onerous sense of being sealed into a cockpit and clearly it’s now easier to reach the foremost cupholders.
Thanks to a redesign of the door cards, which lose an abundance of functions previously mounted on the grab handles, and the availability of a small load shelf behind the headrests, a more simple, smart and user-friendly space is made available.
It has not come at the cost of McLaren’s tech-savvy sophistication, either. The rotating dials for handling and powertrain settings remain the same, as does the Active button that engages it all. The pleasingly bespoke switchgear (the stalks, paddle shifters and so on) stay in place, too, and so do the dihedral doors, which never feel less than special – even if the entry to and egress from the form-fitting optional race seats over wide sills still has the potential for a lurching inelegance.
Elsewhere, for the most part, the 570S lives up to its asking price. Granted, some optional extras were required to create our test car’s environment – a plush swirl of leather, Alcantara and carbonfibre – but that won’t come as a shock to buyers familiar with the segment. The way McLaren puts it all together is fast becoming beyond reproach.
McLaren has taken it upon itself to build its own infotainment system — a tricky task, as evidenced by some early versions of its IRIS touchscreen.
Incremental improvements have been made and the 570S’s 7.0in display gives a more positive account of itself.
Nevertheless, perfect it is not. The sat-nav and DAB tuner remain frustratingly difficult to get to grips with — usually because of elemental mistakes that drastically reduce their intuitiveness.
These foibles, though, can be learnt. It’s the occasional complete lack of function that really grates. Not being able to receive any BBC digital station properly while sitting on the M25 is shameful.
Ditto the drop-out of Bluetooth connectivity we suffered and, at one point, losing the radio tuner completely.
McLaren insists that its standard four-speaker stereo system is the lightest it has fitted to a car, but it’s lightweight in sound, too.
An eight-speaker version is available, although we wouldn’t think twice before ticking the full-bore 12-speaker Bowers & Wilkins system that features a fully digital 14-channel, 1280W amp and sites one of its five aluminium Nautilus tweeters right atop the dash.
