Lid comes off as McLaren debuts 765 LT Spider

Unveiled at the beginning of last year and billed as its lightest roadster ever made, McLaren has taken the roof off of the 765 LT to create 765 LT Spider.

Limited to the same 765 units as the coupe, the Spider – despite the removal of the roof – retains the lightweight aluminium and carbon fibre architecture with McLaren claiming a dry weight of 1 388 kg, 49 kg more than the hard-top, but 80 kg less than the comparative 720 S.

Centre of the Spider is the mentioned roof, which comprises a retractable carbon fibre hard-top that can be opened and closed in 11 seconds at speeds up to 50 km/h, and which is claimed to improve headroom when up as a result of lacking a central seal.

Developed around McLaren’s MonoCage II-S structure, the removal of the roof has, however, negated the use of additional body strengthen or bracing with the rear window, additionally, being able to retract with the roof up in order “to intensify the quadrophonic exhaust note“.

As with the coupe, the Spider receives the mentioned lightweight titanium exhaust system that reduces weight by 3kg with the option of upgrading to the full system that weighs 10.9 kg less.

ALSO READ: McLaren goes lightweight crazy with limited-run 765 LT

The weight saving extends to the titanium wheel nuts, the lighter by 22 kg 19-inch at the front and 20-inch at the rear forged alloy wheels wrapped in model specific Pirelli PZero Trofeo R tyres, removing the interior carpeting to save 2.4 kg and also getting rid of the air conditioning and sound systems to save 10 kg and 1.4 kg respectively. Both the latter features can, however, be fitted at no additional cost.

Also available, as an option, with the McLaren Senna designated super-lightweight carbon fire seats optionally trimmed in weight saving Alcantra and a lighter lithium-ion battery, the Woking-based firm has also done away with the carbon fibre door frame, but kept the rest, including the powertrain and specification, unchanged with motivation coming courtesy of a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8.

As evident by the nomenclature, the bent-eight pumps out 765 PS or 563 kW with the added 800 Nm of torque resulting in a top speed of 330 km/h, 0-100 km/h in 2.8 seconds and 0-200 km/h in 7.2 seconds. Drive is once again routed to the rear wheels via a seven-speed paddle-shift gearbox that boasts a specifically designed over-rev function.

Like the coupe, the Spider comes with a range of materials and fabrics for the cabin ranging from Alcantara and soft-grain leather, to different colours for the stitch work on the seats and dashboard as part of the McLaren Special Operations buyer personalisation division.

Now available to order, pricing in the UK kicks-off at £310 500 (R6.3 million) with delivery set to commence later this year. A local market launch date has however not been made at present.