Simply Abu Dhabi XXXV

2 4 9 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I M cLaren takes great pride in its motor racing heritage which comprises not just Formula One, but also the famed Le Mans 24-Hour sports car enduro and it’s this race which provided the inspiration for the new 600LT. LT is McLaren’s acronym for Long Tail which goes back to the company’s Le Mans days with the GordonMurray-designed F1 GTR and today, defines their most serious sports cars for the road. For the 1997 Le Mans race, designer Murray created a longer version of the F1 GTR race car as a way to keep it planted on the long Mulsanne Straight and against the odds of newer competition, the ageing car won which instantly propelled the McLaren to legend status. These days, LT-badged McLarens, while not being longer than the regular model, defines it as a faster, more track focused model and is a nice deviation from the generic “sports” or “GT” badges. After a few days with the 600LT Spider, I concluded that it’s not a car for everyone and I was happy to return it despite it being an enormously capable super car. However, it’s not a car you could use every day as I tried due to its impracticality but it makes for a sensationally decadent weekend toy. Fortunately for McLaren there are enough people who do enjoy its single- minded focus as the original 600LTCoupe sold out before it hit the showroom floor so we had to wait for the convertible Spider version to land before we could sample it.