GTS

The most beautiful Sardinia is the one you drive through, not the one you photograph standing still. From Cagliari, the coast road drops towards Chia and then climbs along the Costa del Sud towards Teulada: cliffs, hidden coves, corners linking into one another for kilometres on end. On the far side of the gulf, the panoramic road to Villasimius closes the circle. It is an itinerary best savoured over two or three days, luggage on board — and that is precisely the job the GTS was born to do.

We have told that route kilometre by kilometre in our grand tourer itinerary from Cagliari to Villasimius. The GTS is McLaren's voice within our selection of grand tourers for hire in Sardinia: a supercar by the numbers, a travelling companion in its manners.

The 635 hp 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 carries a gentler calibration than its siblings in the range: at a cruise its voice stays in the background, the softer suspension tune absorbs the patched stretches of the interior, and the slightly raised ride height — together with the front-axle lifter — removes any anxiety over hotel ramps and village speed bumps. Then you pass four thousand rpm and the GTS reminds everyone of the surname it carries: 0–100 km/h in 3.2 seconds is not tourist arithmetic.

The carbon-fibre tub keeps it light, and you feel it: the steering communicates like that of very few grand tourers in the world, and the seven-speed dual-clutch slips from the elegant laziness of a cruise to the bite of Sport mode without a seam. After three hundred kilometres you step out rested — and ready for three hundred more.

Here the GTS plays a game of its own: beyond the front compartment, beneath the large opening rear glass sits a long, regular luggage bay that swallows two soft cases, weekend bags or even a golf bag. No other McLaren in the fleet lets you leave for a week without thinking in compromises.

Offered in a single coupé configuration, the GTS is our answer to anyone asking for a supercar they can genuinely live with on a full tour of the island. Delivery is wherever you choose: for the south, the most convenient collection is the McLaren with delivery in Cagliari, minutes from Elmas Airport. State your dates and itinerary in the form and we will build the quotation around your journey. Check availability.