First Drive Review
Brother, can you spare $26,350? That figure—$85 more than the price of a shiny, new Subaru BRZ—represents the premium required to secure a power-retractable hardtop McLaren MP4-12C Spider rather than a fixed-roof coupe. But beyond tearing the roof off the sucker, McLaren worked in a few other updates for all 2013 models that give the dashing supercar more character.
For instance, although the full MP4-12C Spider nomenclature is the car’s actual moniker, all press materials and McLaren Automotive’s website refer to the car as simply the 12C Spider. The shorter name gives the car a more casual feel, all-important in this segment. Or maybe it’s a sign that the folks at McLaren are as tired of ungainly alphanumerics as we are. Whatever.
More important, the roadster-fication process has given the 12C more expressive styling, with a pair of flying buttresses that evoke the shape of a Formula 1 race car’s air intake in profile. As on the coupe, there are subtle creases and bulges more noticeable in person than in photographs. The top itself folds in fewer than 17 seconds, splitting into two pieces and tucking under the tonneau behind the cabin. The rear window operates independently. With the top down, that window can be raised to reduce wind buffeting, or it can be lowered when the roof is up to more directly pipe in noise from the 3.8-liter twin-turbo V-8.
As to the stuff introduced on the spider and carried over to 2013 coupes, primary among them is a power increase. The engine now makes 616 hp—up from 593—due to refinements made to the engine-control software. We’re not sure if we noticed the four-percent bump, but we did hear plenty more of the turbo blow-off valve, which is a good thing. And should you want to hear even more engine-room raucousness, the intake sound generator (McLaren’s fancy term for a sound tube) can now be adjusted independently. Previously, the ISG increased the noise as you climbed through the engine and transmission’s normal, sport, and track modes. Now a menu in the dashboard settings allows you to choose full bellow in every mode. The gearbox has been updated for 2013, too, with new programming that enables smoother and quicker shifts.
