The series I had the most fun watching in 2016 wasn’t a big worldwide championship. It was the plucky little Continental Tire Sports Car Series—which is the step under the WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Next year, we’ll see one of the coolest cars on the planet there: the McLaren 570S GT4. I can’t wait.
I fell in love with the road-going McLaren 570S when I got to drive it earlier this year. It’s a nimble little missile! The GT4-spec 570S is even more hardcore, adding all the required safety gear for racing and a few key improvements, like that big honkin’ wing out back.
The McLaren 570S GT4 is the first carbon fiber chassis car in the GT4 category, and the first two cars off McLaren’s new dedicated GT4 production line are going to CTSCC effort Volt Racing, IMSA announced today. The car won’t be hard to miss, either, with this eye-searingly neon livery.
Series veterans Automatic Racing will run the Volt Racing McLaren program alongside their two Aston Martin GT4s, all of which run in CTSCC’s GS class. Drivers Alan Brynjolfsson and Chris Hall will pilot the Volt car for the full 2017 season.
The big season-opening Daytona weekend supporting the Rolex 24 will be both the 570S’ first race as well as Brynjolfsson’s professional racing debut. He’s also the founder and CEO of team sponsor Volt Lighting, so needless to say, he’s got the check if things go wrong.
Between the shorter, couple-hour enduro format and the fact that there’s always a few good battles to watch, something about the CTSCC just works. Adding this car to the grid is going to be a whole lot of fun to watch.
The Volt cars arrive this week, so all we have are the gorgeous livery renders for now. In the meantime, here’s some up-close footage of another 570S GT4 testing in all its 3.8-liter turbocharged V8 glory to enjoy, just to show what the car looks and sounds like in the carbon-fiber “flesh”:
Nice.