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How do you differentiate a supercar from a wealth of competent competitors, in a time when the performance car envelope is so advanced? For McLaren Automotive, that differentiation is to hold to a fastidious, fanatical focus on weight and technology. Reducing weight will always reign high in the performance car process and in a world of continued adoption of battery-electric use, welcome to McLaren’s latest lightweight supercar, the performance-hybrid Artura Spider.
The new Artura Spider isn’t just a follow-on from the Artura launched midway through 2023, but it’s the pretext of an update to the whole Artura range. To start, this new Artura range develops more power, a stonking combined output of 515kW now and for those of you who have bought an Artura before seeing this, don’t fret. McLaren will offer this power ramp up on all earlier Artura models free of charge.
That said, the Spider is now the poster-child offering supercar levels of performance with open-air amusement. The new retractable hardtop takes just 11-seconds from speeds of up to 50km/h to transform the Artura from coupe to convertible. Eight electric motors are responsible for the operation that can be requested either from an overhead button or from the key fob. The Spider’s standard roof configuration is a carbon fibre composite roof panel but our test car is fitted with an electrochromic glass panel that works as a sunroof that went to private school. The panel can appear see-through, allowing you a full view of the sky above you, but at the touch of a button, it can also block out 99% of the light should you not want the brightness filling the cabin. If you’re concerned about heat, this panel’s technology will also block out 96% of the heat.
As I open the dihedral door and lower myself into the driving seat, the first operation is to open the roof and rear window before firing up the engine. As the roof does its dance, I’m taken by the openly visible carbon fibre detailing of the inside of the rear tonneau cover and my mind casts back to the engineer’s notes about the poly-carbonate buttresses behind the seats that channel air into the engine bay. These two sharp details are symbols of how Artura Spider has been envisioned. To be ruthless in maximising airflow and reducing weight.
Every part of the Artura Spider’s design is a function of moving air to a specific area. From the front, the grille apertures and side intakes gulp in air for purpose. The central air intake uses air specifically for the HVAC system whilst the side strakes harvest air down the flanks, split into two separate channels. At the same time, airflow over the roof and through the rear buttresses also finds its way into the engine bay for cooling on either side of the central engine chimney. The resultant thermal management is vastly improved and as an aside, the smart channelling of hot air also protects the paintwork directly behind the chimney.
The Artura Spider tips the scales at 62kg more than the coupe. With a dry weight of 1,457kg, McLaren has been relentless in finding smart, safe and performance-assisting ways to keep the weight down. Like the Artura coupe, the Spider is built on the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA) platform with a carbon tub to which aluminium subframes are then attached. This new architecture was purpose-built to input hybrid powertrains. Further weight saving has been found in clever packaging of the hybrid system. The electric motor itself is packaged within the transmission bell housing and instead of a mechanical gear for reverse, that is instead replaced by the use of the e-motor. Using an ethernet electrical architecture now, the Artura benefits from faster data speeds and capacity but also from a reduction in wiring and cabling by 25%. It’s this keen extreme focus on weight saving that results in a car that packs major firepower into a small, lightweight design package.
You may have some opinions about the design of the Artura Spider in that it remains quite similar in its ilk as the other Macs. You’d be right of course but it doesn’t necessarily mean the Spider lacks that supercar presence, especially in a Mantis Green optional colour with 10-spoke Super Lightweight Forged Dynamo alloys wheels.
It’s been billed as a driver’s car and indeed, its entire ethos seems to speak that loudly. The steering remains button-free, with two metallic shift paddles behind the Alcantara wheel. The engine mode and damper rocker switches sit on either side of the instrument binnacle, and they’re genuinely genius. You can select modes without the need to look at the switches nor the need to take your eyes off the road.
In terms of driver focus, the rest of the interior is sparse in the way McLaren chooses to do things. The 8-inch portrait display is angled towards the driver and it’s as intuitive and easy as they come, partly because it isn’t hugely endowed with menu upon menu of functions. It contains all of the information you need on the HD touchscreen display, with an actual home button on the side of the panel. Also new on Artura now, is a wireless charging cradle that holds one’s phone well enough that it doesn’t slide around even if you’re doing hair-raising or hair-tussling speeds, as I may have been doing.
Lighting up the start button doesn’t quite go the way I had planned. With the roof retracted, I stupidly imagined a throaty scream from the TT V6. Instead, the sound of electric car silence is a loud reminder that this is indeed, a hybrid vehicle that starts the day with compassion for the neighbours. Artura starts in electric mode and so I opt to leave the McLaren Technology Centre in sustainable silence. From this Electric mode, there are three more driving modes from which to choose: Comfort adds the combustion engine into the mix for a leisurely drive, focusing on efficiency and comfort in the damper, steering and engine responses. Coaxing a R7-Million supercar out of a small English town is best done in Electric or Comfort mode and it’s in this environment that Artura Spider convinces me that McLaren has made the car quite palatable day- to-day. The ride is quite comfortable by supercar standards. Electric mode heightens that sense, but it’s a short-lived use as the battery drains relatively quickly. McLaren quotes a 33km electric-only range which also makes the car an option for daily and short travels to and from work. Switch to Sport mode and there’s an instant character shift. After getting out of town in electric and comfort mode, I find a typical English B-road that, thankfully contains plenty corners, click the rocker panel to Sport and turn things up a notch.
Artura Spider in Sport mode is razor sharp and wickedly engaging. It willingly revs to 8,500rpm before snapping up through the gears. There’s quite a technically brilliant quality to the powertrain and how it serves up power. The delivery from your foot to the car’s behaviour is nearly telepathic and despite some worries about dispersing too much power to these relatively damp B-roads, the Artura has been programmed to be really usable.
The electro-hydraulic steering setup is absolutely spot-on for driver feel. This is important, instead of a fully electric steering where feel can be compromised or indeed contrived, this Artura setup has race car levels of feel with the heightened assistance around circles and in parking lots. In the same manner, the brakes feel solid and well-weighted. McLaren has opted not to include any regenerative braking into this hybrid system, specifically because of how that would change the braking feel from the large carbon ceramics discs (390mm and the front and 380mm at the rear.)
It’s these sorts of decisions that make the Artura quite likeable but there’s a few more things to add concerning the other occasional McLaren criticism which is the engine note. Certainly from the Spider’s pews, the Artura hybrid powertrain is softer than I expected and this is from a car fitted with the optional sports exhaust system. But hear me on this, it isn’t soft that it’s not exhilarating. Plant the loud pedal and in very short time, Artura is belting out a hearty roar that enters the cabin with thrilling satisfaction. It’s not the best sounding supercar on the road, but don’t make the mistake of thinking the hybrid system has destroyed the voice of that V6.
To put the technically minded out of their misery, the e-motor generates 70kW and 225Nm of torque with a usable capacity from the battery of 7.4kWh. The battery and e-motor add 130kg to the overall weight. Coupled to the V6 engine, the Artura will shift from 0 – 200km/h in 8,4-seconds, and then onto 300km/h in 21,6-seconds before running out of steam at 330km/h. Artura is brisk indeed and though I’m not able to adequately test these figures on English country roads, it certainly feels up to those quoted numbers.
The Artura Spider seems far more accomplished than the Artura that launched before it. Most of the gremlins from the initial market entry have been fixed and or improved and this new batch of models should build on the confidence of customers or potential customers. There’s a politeness to the way it conducts itself in day-to-day environments and that includes its electric mode ability, its sound and its ride comfort. Yet, at the push of a rocker switch, it can command a legion of performance to become a technically brilliant supercar.
Its biggest threats remain the exotics from Maranello namely in 296 GTS guise as well as those from the newly-bouyed Aston Martin stable. In South Africa, that almost means from within its own stable, with Daytona responsible for both of these performance brands. From a pure performance point of view, Artura is certainly a top-draw contender and hopefully, the McLaren's status and therefore desirability will be propped by the brand's F1 resurgence.
At R7,450,000, the Artura Spider is introduced right under the Ferrari 296 GTS, a car that is similar in nature and layout. At that level though, the price also casts your eye to a few other competitors that may not be hybridised and in fact deliver less speed in a more fun package, at a significant cut of the Artura’s price. Aston Martin Vantage is an example.
How do you differentiate yourself in this class of car? It’s no easy feat but I commend McLaren for its adherence to self. Its ethos of doing things their own way is something that you can feel within Artura Spider. Another example of this, a point on which I will end, is a new feature on the Artura called ‘Spinning Wheel Pull-Away’. This is a feature to make you look as hooligan as ever, which deactivates the traction control and allows you to launch the Artura Spider in a hail of drama, smoke and elevens…with the roof open. I didn’t try this feature though….I promise. Gotta love it though.
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