Memphis is a medium-sized city with a small-town car culture. Our car scene mostly consists of modern and classic American metal with a few imports thrown in there. As the fourth-poorest city in the USA, the 901 has pretty dull traffic. You aren’t likely to come across much more than a Corvette on your commute. Although small, Memphis does have a growing exotic car scene most Memphians don’t even know about. Thanks to a very generous friend, I was allowed to drive one of Memphis’ elusive exotics for a week. The car was a McLaren 570S Spider, and it was awesome.
I live in Germantown and commute Downtown five days a week. It’s a boring ride to say the least. We all know a McLaren will be fun on a good twisty road, but would it be able to make a dreary commute delightful, or will it just be stressful and hard to see out of? The answer is yes! It’s a little stressful to be driving something that costs more than the average house price in Memphis, but wow what an experience! Just seeing the joy this car brought to the faces of fellow commuters was so great. Some cool cars only appeal to car people; this car appeals to everyone. It’s like driving a spaceship while everyone else is in a carriage.
A little more about the car itself: It’s a 2018 McLaren 570S Spider. 570 horsepower from a 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 running through a seven-speed dual clutch to the rear wheels. Zero to 60 mph happens in around 3 seconds and it can hit 204 mph. All that to say, it’s quicker than the 2004 Lexus SUV I usually commute in. Just to give you an idea of how crazy the people at McLaren are: This is their slowest car. Kinda hard to imagine.
Is it rough and loud on I-40 in a supercar? Nope. The engine is tame when you want it to be and the suspension is likewise calm and compliant. It’s no Rolls-Royce Phantom, but it’s quite civilized. I left it in the softest suspension setting and usually kept the engine in sport. I got on I-40, set cruise control at 70, and it drove just like a normal car. This car masks speed, and it’s easy to find yourself well over the 65 mph limit, so I kept the speeds down and pretended like I wasn’t champing at the bit to put my right foot down. Every now and again some space would open up and I would drop a couple gears and give it 3/4 throttle, and the numbers on the dash reached … some numbers.
A coworker asked, “I have a really dumb question. Is it any different to drive than a normal car?” And that was a very un-dumb question! That’s what I wanted this article to address. Are these cars really all that different? Are they really worth twice as much as an already expensive Porsche 911 Carrera S? Oh yes. This was one of the best weeks of my life, and the only thing that was different was the car I commuted in. It definitely transforms a boring drive into a fun drive, a normal commute into an exceptional commute, and a mundane grocery run into a momentary escape. The amount of smiles this car brought to the faces of Memphians used to Altima after Altima was a joy to watch. I didn’t see people filled with jealousy or anger at the rich; I saw people whose days were made just by seeing this spaceship pass them on Poplar.
Yes, you can get quicker acceleration for less money, but those cars don’t offer anything like the supercar experience. Numbers tell only a tiny piece of the story. You can even get something like a brand-new Porsche 911 Carrera S for half the money or a C8 Corvette for even less than half the money, yet they don’t scratch the same itch even though the numbers are similar. I love this car and Memphis loves this car. So, if you need me, I’ll be in Tunica trying to turn $23 into $200K.
Wish me luck!
Jon Luke Cave runs Cars on Main Memphis, Memphis Driven Exotics, and Memphis Offroad Excursions. Find him on Facebook and Instagram @cars.on.main.
