McLaren GT – McLaren’s ‘Grand Tourer’ – to debut in 15 May

The McLaren GT – the ‘McLaren of Grand Tourers’ – will debut on 15 May and will, say McLaren, redefine the rules of the Grand Tourer segment.

It’s two months since we learnt, officially, that a McLaren Grand Tourer is on the way. Which didn’t seem to fit with McLaren’s raison d’être.

After all, Grand Tourers should be big and heavy, fit to crush a continent before lunch, with room for four at a pinch, room for a week’s luggage and with a big engine up front. Which doesn’t sound like a McLaren at all.

But it seems McLaren are determined to deliver a new kind of Grand Tourer – claiming it will ‘redefine what a Grand Tourer is’ – although it does seem there’s an element of trying to find a niche in to which the GT will fit, and as it doesn’t, trying to claim it redefines a long-established genre. 

So what we’re expecting is a stretched McLaren Sports car, one that has more room in the cabin, a boot, somehow, grafted on behind the cabin, along with the engine, and room in the front boot for more than a small piece of hand luggage.

It will have to be softer than cars like the 720 – more like the 570 GT, we assume – to be in with a shout of being considered a Grand Tourer, and with levels of comfort and convenience to match cars like the Bentley Continental GT.

How McLaren will do this will be revealed next week – 15 May 2019.