"THE MCLAREN 12C SPIDER is awesome. I came by this knowledge through experience—hurtling around the Ascari racetrack in southern Spain on a recent, sun-kissed, not-so-bad day at work. My statement is therefore evidence-based, or a posteriori.
But, really, the awesomeness thing is a priori. We always assumed that if McLaren—the legendary Formula One constructor and technology company in Woking, Surrey—threw its whole intellectual weight against the problem of building a carbon-chassis, midengine sports car for the modern age, it would pretty much crush the assignment. Right? Could it be otherwise? No, it could not. Subnominal awesomeness is not how McLaren does business.
When the 12C coupe, the closed car, debuted 20 months ago, the company's reputation might actually have contributed to rather soft enthusiasm. People—I mean really jaded car snobs, like me—kind of dreaded the styling. It wasn't 100% baked. There's a discontinuity of the car's volumes, front and rear, making either the front look over-tapered or the rear too broadly hipped, depending on the light and angle. There are a thousand technical reasons why the car looks the way it does, and still I say no, you're McLaren, do better. There's also a good reason for the car's chilly, overcivilized sound: The turbos absorb much of the exhaust energy that would otherwise be rattling your neighbor's windows. I called the coupe "the best sports car in the world," by the numbers, but noted the MP4-12C (the first car's unwieldy nomenclature) wasn't as visually or aurally compelling as the Ferrari 458 Itali
This wasn't critical overreach. A child would tell you the same.
However, the new-for-2013, open-top 12C Spider—with its delicate, watchlike retractable hardtop mechanism and power rear glass—introduces a radical element to the 12C experience: air. Whereas in the closed cabin of the coupe it's hard for the engine and exhaust sounds to reach you, in the Spider, these notes slosh grandly into the open cockpit. What a difference a few decibels make.
It turns out this car has had a great-sounding engine all along: a dry-sump, flat-crank, twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 that spools up like a great surf-casting reel, if surf-casting reels burned 93-octane and glowed a dull red. Thanks to a broad powertrain-software upgrade, which McLaren is also offering to 2012-model owners, the engine now produces an additional 25 horsepower, to 616 hp. Torque remains at 442 pound-feet (3,000-7,000 rpm) and fuel economy is likewise stable, at a claimed 24.2 miles per gallon, combined. Zero to 60 miles per hour is still 3.1 seconds, on the good Pirellis, and top speed is a scalp-massaging 204 mph.
So, no increase in fury over the coupe, but more sound. For instance, the technicians have rejiggered the car's unfortunately named "Intake Sound Generator": Picture acoustic tubing that runs from the engine compartment to the cabin, with a three-position device that allows in increasing levels of sound—"aural drama," the company actually calls it. Before, sound levels were part of the prepackaged "Sport" and "Race" settings for the adaptive dynamics system. For 2013, the sound levels are driver-selectable.
Translation: Now you can crawl around town with the car set on "loud."
Also, the retractable rear glass works independently of the roof, so that you can lower the glass partially (as a wind blocker) or completely, letting all the sound in, regardless of weather. Except maybe hail. I wouldn't recommend it in hail.
Software notwithstanding, the only part of the engine that's different is the revised exhaust headers, which apparently have an acoustic profile "to suit the harmonics of the 12C Spider body shape." Whatever. Can we just say it's louder?
The point is, when you add up all the ear-scaping—the revised exhaust, the sound-tube thing, the rear-glass—it's clear that, when McLaren heard people knocking the 12C for its uninvolving sound, McLaren did something amazing: It listened.
Not "it," actually, but he: Antony Sheriff, McLaren's preternaturally calm and focused managing director. F1 magnate Ron Dennis is the executive chairman of McLaren, but the road-car business is Mr. Sheriff's ball to carry. He and his team have spent the past 20 months processing customer comments, sometimes with gritted teeth, I'm sure. The Spider launch is the occasion to roll out some fairly fine-grain adjustments in the driver experience. See the full review: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203630604578074942883102394.html
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