Described as equally at home on the road and on the track, the McLaren 570S isn't your ordinary car. Part of the carmaker’s so-called Sports Series along with five other creations, the 570S Coupe has a claimed top speed of 204 mph. Just recently, a YouTube video surfaced showing the 570S cruising down a runway besting its published top speed.
A Green Beast
On the hot seat is a green 2017 McLaren 570S powered by 3.8-liter V8 twin-turbo engine. This mill is not tuned, which means it delivers a factory max output of 562 hp and a peak torque of 443 lb.-ft. Its mid-engine setup sends power to the rear wheels through a 7-speed automatic transmission. Weighing just 3,201 lbs., a McLaren 570S can sprint from zero to 62 mph in only 3.2 seconds and from nil to 124 mph in 9.5 seconds. Given the favorable conditions, a 570S can go as fast as 204 mph.
Definitive Test Of Top Speed
To determine whether a McLaren 570S can really achieve a top speed of 204 mph, a long stretch of road sans any traffic is needed. Incidentally, Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds (JBPG) has a strip perfect for that. It runs the so-called Straight Line Aerodynamic Testing at a three-mile long concrete runway (with 1000 ft. of asphalt runoff on each end) in Merritt Island, Florida.
This testing can be used to fact-check any claim of vehicle performance. Johnny Bohmer doesn’t only time test but also speed-checks vehicles using Garmin and Racelogic monitoring systems. It conducts tests in various distances: half-mile, 1 mile, 1.5 miles, 2 miles, 2.3 miles, 2.5 miles and 2.7 miles. Well, 2.3 miles should be enough to gauge a car’s top speed.
Faster Than Claimed!
The 2.3-mile straight-line testing was done on the early afternoon of December 7, 2019. The McLaren 570S easily reached the claimed top speed of 204 mph. But there was still some concrete to cover and the 570S reached a top speed of 206 mph exactly at the 2.3-mile mark. Official top speed was 206.568 mph, and that’s faster than McLaren’s published spec for the 570S! Impressive!
Source: Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds On YouTube