McLAREN 570S GT4 SET FOR NORTH AMERICAN COMPETITIVE DEBUT AT DAYTONA

January 26, 2017 by McLaren

The 570S GT4 will make its North American competitive track debut this weekend at the iconic Daytona International Speedway, as the first customer-run examples of the latest GT model from McLaren take on the four hour Continental Tire BMW Endurance Challenge.

Six examples of the 570S GT4 are set to contest the championship throughout the 2017 season, which commences at the famous 3.5-mile circuit in Florida. Customer teams VOLT Racing, C360R and Motorsports in Action will each field a pair of cars in the CTSC Grand Sport (GS) class. The category has attracted some of the world's best GT4 outfits, and features 20 cars on the entry list for the season-opening round.

This historic debut this weekend for the 570S GT4 continues the long-standing tradition of McLaren sportscars racing Stateside which dates back to 1966. McLaren has fielded cars in Can-Am, the FIA GT Series and most recently the Pirelli World Challenge, securing multiple race wins and championship titles since Bruce McLaren's Can-Am debut.

The four-hour Endurance Challenge is set to begin at 12:15 (UTC -5) this Friday, 27 January.

About McLaren Automotive:

McLaren Automotive is a British manufacturer of luxury, high-performance sports and super cars, located at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in Woking, Surrey. For the past 30 years, McLaren has pioneered the use of carbon fibre in vehicle production and since introducing a carbon chassis into racing and road cars with the 1981 McLaren MP4/1 and 1993 McLaren F1 respectively, McLaren has not built a car without a carbon fibre chassis.

Following the global launch of McLaren Automotive in 2010, the groundbreaking 12C was revealed in 2011, the 12C Spider in 2012, and the limited-run McLaren P1™ went into production in 2013. In keeping with its plan to introduce a new model each year, the company unveiled the 650S, in Coupé and Spider form in 2014, while 2015 proved to be a year of unprecedented growth of the product portfolio with five new models launched across the full range. The strictly limited edition 675LT Coupé premiered at the Geneva Motor Show alongside the track-only McLaren P1™ GTR which, with 1,000PS, became the most powerful model ever produced by the brand. The much-anticipated Sports Series became the third – and final – model tier in the McLaren range with the 570S Coupé and 540C Coupé debuting in New York and Shanghai respectively, less than one month apart. The end of 2015 saw the launch of the fifth model, the 675LT Spider, which was as a direct response to customer demand. The year also saw the end of production for the first model in the Ultimate Series as the 375th McLaren P1™ was completed, closing what had become a defining year for the British brand. 2016 continued where 2015 had left off with the introduction of the 570GT - a second bodystyle for the Sports Series and the most luxurious car McLaren has ever built, as well as the 570S GT4 and 570S Sprint track variants. 2016 also marked the introduction of the company's new business plan, Track22, which sees the company investing £1 billion in Research and Development to deliver 15 all new cars or derivatives by the end of 2022, of which at least 50 percent will feature hybrid technology. The uplift in sales in 2016 also saw the launch of the second shift at the McLaren Production Centre as well as the company's third year of profitability in just six years of trading.