Did the retina-searing supercar reveal its true colours in our six months together?
Why we ran it: To see if the most important McLaren in a dozen years was as easy to live with as it was fun to drive
Month 1 – Month 2 – Month 3 – Month 4 – Month 5 – Final report – Specs
Life with a McLaren Artura: Final report
Did the retina-searing supercar reveal its true colours in our six months together?
I don’t know either way, but it would be understandable if there had been a few crossed fingers down Woking way the day an Ember Orange McLaren Artura headed out to spend the next half year as my daily driver.
After all, the car’s introduction had been delayed. Then, after some well-documented issues on its press launch, it got delayed some more.
This time out, the car simply had to be right not for a few hours on the road and a few laps of a race track but thousands of miles accrued month after month.
So let’s look that straight in the eye right now. Well, in that time, three things happened that required McLaren’s attention, which, on the surface, doesn’t sound too great.
But one of them was that it was delivered with the standard passive cruise control stalk, not the one with the button that should have allowed the active system fitted to vary the distance to the car in front. The cruise still worked perfectly well and, clearly, this was a simple oversight, which I think can be forgiven.
The other ‘fault’ was really more mine than the car’s, for not seeing a pothole big enough to swallow a small horse. The wheel and tyre banged in so hard that I’d not have been surprised to have taken the corner off the car.
The fact that the only damage was to the sensor in the Pirelli tyre that tells the car its temperature and pressure is actually a stunning example of just how well this thing’s been built. It didn’t even knock the tracking out.
This leaves the only genuine failure being a seal under the car that gave up the struggle against the relentlessly wet winter and allowed water into the car, soaking the passenger footwell carpet. Not good.
McLaren could have said it was a one-off, but actually they had seen it on another car too. Is it disappointing? A bit. Would it, were this my car, make me want to chuck it back at McLaren and demand a refund?
Of course not. Because otherwise, the car has been flawless. And utterly brilliant.
But I’m not going to dwell on the punch that results from putting a 671bhp powertrain in a tonne and a half of carbon-tubbed supercar, nor the astonishing grip, poise and balance of the tyres, nor the lucidity of the still hydraulically power-assisted steering, because that’s all the stuff you get to find out in road tests.
For these purposes, I am far more interested professionally at least) in what this ultra-low-volume supercar was like to live with, day in, day out, in fair weather and – as it turned out – mostly foul. Because if it worked for me like that, it should work for almost anyone, almost anywhere.
And work it did. A few things to point out under the ‘boring but important’ column. The fact that it will run in silence made creeping past the neighbours en route to catch the red-eye of out Heathrow far less excruciating a process than it has hitherto been.
It will demist a front screen entombed in frost and warm the cabin in seconds on sub-zero mornings because it doesn’t have to wait for an internal combustion engine to warm before delivering heat to the cabin.
You can see out of it, in all directions, every bit as well as you can the 2+2 Porsche 911 that has now replaced it outside my house. You can now reach the individual switches that control the chassis and powertrain modes without taking your hands off the wheel.
And Apple CarPlay is standard, which I know shouldn’t be a big deal but, as any former or current McLaren owner used to the company’s own attempts at infotainment, absolutely is. It has a far larger boot than the 911 and useful space behind the seats, though no glovebox and insufficient oddment storage space on board.
Another hidden bonus of the car’s hydraulic steering is that it is literally unable to steer for you, so sparing you that particular misery. It will still bleat if you stray out of lane but – and here’s the important bit – only if you’re such a terrible driver that you’re likely to want a system to let you know you’re unintentionally wandering all over the road. In which case I wonder if this or, indeed, any car is really the one for you. Unlike any other new car I can recall driving of late, this one defaults to off.
Sadly, time ran out before I could get the 20bhp power hike that comes as standard with the 2025-model-year car (and will be retrofitted for free to all earlier Arturas) but I can’t see it adding much. Apart from when the traction control held the engine back in the wet, I never once found myself wishing it had any more power.
This will not be a car for everyone after a €200,000-or-so supercar. Its looks are too derivative of earlier McLarens and insufficiently dramatic to make you the centre of attention everywhere you go.
The cabin won’t make you feel like Tom Cruise in Top Gun and there are no herbivorous ungulates on its badge, like those of its Italian rivals. Nor even a small antipodean flightless bird, which may be missing a trick.
No, the only people to whom this McLaren is really likely to appeal are those who adore and appreciate the simple business of driving, so much so they want to do it in a car that is endlessly rewarding, yet fall-off-a-log easy to live with.
The Artura is that car and I just hope that, after a slow and faltering beginning, it now starts to be recognised as the landmark everyday supercar it so clearly is.
Second Opinion
I’m delighted Andrew’s experiment with the Artura went so well. This car fully deserves commercial success – and I can see only good things for it ahead. The facelifted version has some extra noise and drama but still wields all the advantages of electrification without suffering the usual costs.
Matt Saunders
Love it:
Powertrain Choice to downsize and add hybrid totally vindicated. More pace, better sound, less fuel, silent running.
Handling prowess Nothing else remotely similar steers like a McLaren these days. Brilliantly resolved chassis.
Easy usability Fab visibility, excellent ergonomics and now standard CarPlay make this a place you won’t want to leave
Loathe it:
Exit strategy If you’re middle-aged and a touch overweight, it’s nothing like as easy or dignified as it should be.
Space invaders It’s not as bad as a Ferrari, but I grew sick of morons on motorways invading the safe space around it.
Final mileage: 5911
Life with a McLaren Artura: Month 5
No regenerative braking is said to boost driver appeal – 22 May
McLaren decided against brake regen on the Artura for fear of affecting pedal feel. That illustrates the firm’s desire to provide as pure a driving experience as possible, but it does limit EV range a little. I don’t know how much the superb pedal feel would have been compromised – but for McLaren, any amount would have been too much.
Mileage: 5994
The Artura’s cabin warms up at supercar speed… – 15 May
One of the least rated, most useful by-products of the Artura’s plug-in hybrid system is its ability to heat a stone-cold cabin without having to wait for the engine to get up to temperature. I can climb into an icy cocoon and two minutes later be regretting that I didn’t take off my jumper first. It’s an absolute whizz at windscreen demisting too. These may seem like small details, but out there in the real world, they really count.
Mileage: 5888
Our car’s back up to full speed, but can it chase down a 750S? – 8 May
I said last time that something unexpected had happened to the Artura when its winter Pirelli tyres were swapped for the P Zero rubber the car wears as standard. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t that unexpected because I had been here before.
It was 2019 and I was running a 720S upon which a similar switcheroo was visited. And with it came what felt like another 200 horsepower. This car which had hitherto felt bracingly fast, swiftly offered up performance bordering on the unhinged. And we’ve just had an action replay with the Artura.
Its acceleration has never been exactly weak but I had put down the fact that sometimes it wasn’t quite inclined to pull my face off to the level of charge in the hybrid system. Turns out, however, it’s all down to traction. Or a lack thereof.
Even so, I was sufficiently surprised by the fact that the Artura now feels quite gloriously maniacal at the top end to call McLaren. I already knew the car was aware it had been on winter tyres: it will tell you as much in one of the sub-menus, and it’s information it needs to limit its top speed to prevent people exceeding the winters’ speed rating.
But I also thought it was probably getting information from its spies on the front line, in the form of the sensors in the Pirelli ‘Cyber’ tyres, which feed all manner of information about temperatures and pressure back to the car.
But the technical team came back and said ‘no’. The traction and stability control systems are not differently mapped according to what tyre the car is wearing as both have more than enough bandwidth to cope with all likely scenarios.
But why was I not aware of the stability systems cutting in? First, the light that alerts you is tiny and sometimes obscured by the wheel, but also because their intervention is almost too good – subtle enough to feel like nothing more or less than the engine losing power.
I can remember seeing the same light in a Senna, and turning off said controls just to see what difference it made. One experience of what happened next was enough for me to turn them straight back on again.
It’s not quite that violent in the Artura, but the now fully uncorked motor is still strong enough to make you gasp. I have also had the chance to spend some time in a 750S and drive the two back to back.
It makes for an interesting comparison. The lighter, even more powerful 750 lives in a performance category beyond the Artura’s reach, but so too is it beyond – way beyond, in fact – what can be safely deployed on the public road, so the real-world advantage is marginal at best.
But you can feel the fact the 750S weighs over 100kg less in the clarity of the steering and its desire to change direction. The driving experience it offers is therefore even more pure and memorable as a result.
But would I swap, even if there was not a £60k price difference between the two? Probably not: soft-bottomed middle-aged bloke that I am, I appreciate the Artura’s less aggressive ride, its quieter, sweeter voice and the fact I don’t wake up the entire village every time I go for an early-morning blast. So I’d stick with the Artura, if it were all the same.
Sadly, it’s not. Its time with me is nearly up, and I have only a few weeks left to savour its liberated performance. Believe me: I shall be making the most of them.
Love it
Force awakens
It’s now as fast as anyone could possibly want a road car to be.
Loathe it
Phantom menace
The passenger belt alarm sounds even with just a bag of shopping on the seat.
Mileage: 5488
Life with a McLaren Artura: Month 4
Finally, sunshine after the rain – but not before some of it got inside our supercar – 24 April
Things have happened to the Artura since last we met: one planned and good, the other neither of the above.
So we will deal with that first. If you think we’ve had quite a wet start to the year, you don’t live in South Wales. To call the first quarter of this year quite wet is to call the Atacama Desert quite dry.
We’ve been deluged, drenched and drowned relentlessly for months. And through it all, this low-volume, rather exotic, carbonfibre-shelled supercar has sat out in it.
One morning, nicely aboard and about to set off somewhere, I extended a digit to give the screen a single wipe to clear the thin film of water that lay thereupon, but it had no effect. I tried again, fulfilling the insanity criterion that defines it as doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.There was none.
Briefly I thought something must be wrong with the wiper mechanism so the blade was no longer in contact with the screen. Only then did I see something that I hadn’t previously noticed: the water was on the inside of the screen.
Without time to investigate further, I tasked the Artura’s excellent heating and ventilation system with blow-drying said screen, which it did in a matter of seconds, and I thought no more about it. Until two days later, when the dampness returned.
Scratching around trying to figure out what was going on, I put a hand on the passenger floor carpet and found it was wet, which provided the source of the problem but not the reason. The car was already due to go back to McLaren for reasons I will get to in a minute, so I asked them to investigate.
They could have said anything, blamed me for leaving a window open or come up with a number of excuses, but commendably didn’t. Instead they told me the water had come through a faulty seal on what they described as the eVac unit.
This is a passive vent under the car, designed to equalise pressure in the cabin when the air conditioning is being used. And under constant high-speed bombardment on sopping roads, it had failed. They didn’t even make out it was a one-off ‘never seen anything like that before, honest guv: it’s known to have happened on one other car.
But it has now been resealed, the carpets dried out (there was a little moisture on the driver’s side too and the car returned The reason the visit was already scheduled was to swap the Pirelli” Sotto Zero winter tyres that have been my saviours these past four months for the standard P Zero that is the Artura’s default tyre.
I will extemporise further on one curious (and entirely positive) aspect of this change next time, but as you might expect, the already pretty superb steering feels purer still and grip levels are now beyond anything you could possibly want to deploy on a public road, banishing the mild understeering stance of the Sottos to history.
Unless you’re really thinking if going on tractat toure fitting an even softer tyre like the Pirelli Corsa, because all it Will do is provide dry-road grip that you don’t need (and can’t use) at the expense of wet-road grip that you absolutely do.
In the meantime, I have to accept that my time with the endlessly interesting, extraordinarily rapid, fabulously easy to live with and, until now, entirely faultless Artura is drawing to a close.
But with a new set of boots and, at long bloody last, a half-decent long weather forecast, you can be assured I will be making the absolute most of what little time we have together remains.
Love it
Rubbered in
The grip and steering response of the standard Pirelli P Zero tyres is a game-changer.
Loathe it
Despite its all-new monocoque, the Artura is no easier to get out of than any other McLaren.
Mileage: 5201
The Artura is good, but the Porsche 911R still shows its class – 10 April
I met up with a friend who has owned a few McLarens, including a 570GT, a 675LT and his current 720S, so he was naturally keen to try the Artura. That meant I had to drive back in his Porsche 911 R. The things I do for my mates… His verdict? “The Artura is very, very impressive, easy to drive really fast, even if doesn’t quite have the 720S’s punch up top.” I don’t disagree. And the R? Fabulous.
Mileage: 4921
Life with a McLaren Artura: Month 3
A supercar that can do 1285 miles on one tank of fuel? Maybe after the update… – 20 March
It seems strange having seemingly just got hold of the Artura to discover the car is already being updated. Now it is entirely normal for companies to fractionally change their cars with each new model year, but this is no minor cosmetic tweak: it’s a major mechanical upgrade.
Because it coincides with the arrival of the Spider version, it might be easy to miss that the revised Artura comes with another 20bhp, 25% quicker shift times, electronic dampers that react 90% faster, a new exhaust system to make the most of the V6’s natural tones, a wheelspin mode to the launch control to maximise gravel-spitting getaway drama and even a couple of additional miles added to its electric-only range.
What should current Artura owners think of this? Largely, I think they should rejoice because the exciting part, that extra 20bhp, will be bequeathed upon their car too the very next time it visits a dealership. So you will drive in with a 671bhp Artura, and drive out with a 691bhp Artura, or 700PS as McLaren likes to call it. The price?No pounds and no pence.
Talking of progress, one of the greatest advances made by McLaren Automotive during the 13 years in which it has been selling cars is in its infotainment system and we should not underestimate just how important a component of the buying decision this can be.
From the early MP4-12Cs that were delivered with navigation controls but no actual navigation, to McLaren’s dreadful home-grown IRIS system, to the better but not brilliant Android-based system that replaced it, to what we have in the Artura today – fully functioning Apple CarPlay – the transformation has been extraordinary.
And while you might rightly point out that CarPlay is now available in some of the cheapest cars on sale, to climb into something as exotic as this and for it to just work exactly the way you want it to is an absolute godsend.
And anyone who has ever spent time wrestling with the hideously clunky systems that have so often been fitted in the cabins of genuine low-volume supercars will know of what I speak.
Meanwhile, for those waiting for it to go wrong, your ordeal continues. I will concede that the range display is almost meaningless after one fill, it briefly suggested I could go 1285 miles on that tank, which I think would mean averaging something like 80mpg-but I can remember the 720S I ran a while back doing exactly the same.
I know they all do that, sir is the lamest excuse, but in the interests of accuracy, it’s worth pointing out. Of course, when I came to photograph this nonsense to illustrate my point, it flashed up an entirely plausible 285 miles. Other faults or quirks?
One morning when the car was frozen solid, it took a bit of a yank to open a door because the window momentarily refused to drop. But beyond that, I’m really struggling.
There is something else I am a little diffident to point out as I have no empirical evidence to back it up. While it is fabulously fast and undoubtedly one of those cars that always feels like it’s going slower than it actually is, it’s not quite tearing my face off when I give it full beans, or at least not until quite a head of speed has already been accrued.
And I have a theory about this, which goes as follows: the car knows it’s on winter tyres not just because the tyres contain microchips that constantly post messages on the car’s electronic bulletin board, but also because the car itself is set to winter tyre mode.
And I think this holds back performance until the car is absolutely assured of total traction, which in the wet in a car like this can be a fairly illegal speed.
I often see the little traction light glowing away. I also remember exactly the same happening with the 720S – despite it not having ‘cybertyres’ and it going absolutely berserk the moment I strapped on some summer rubber.
Which is what I’m anticipating will happen with the Artura, especially if it gains another 20bhp in the process, which, I am told, it will. I cannot wait.
Like it
An Apple a day…
With standard CarPlay, the single biggest bar to daily usage of a McLaren has been removed.
Loathe it
Get a grip
Bogus range claims and needlessly early traction control intervention on winter tyres are minor gripes.
Mileage: 4554
Life with a McLaren Artura: Month 2
Bicester show car has come under fire, verbally and physically – 7 February
The other day, I was at the Bicester Heritage sunday Scramble, a brilliant, classless event for petrolheads and even electroheads (if such creatures there may be) of every description.
I was there with the Artura, which formed part of a small display. As a result, I spent most of my day talking to people about it.
And while it is true that most of the comments were flattering to the car (they like the look, even if it is too similar to previous McLarens, the £4400 Ember Orange paint job and the idea of its downsized V6 plug-in hybrid powertrain), so too were there one or two more pointed conversations to be had.
The first went: “Yeah, it’s all very well, but it’s not as good as a Ferrari 296 GTB, is it?” To which the answer was: “That isn’t a fair comparison, because while both are indeed powered by 120deg, twin-turbo, hybrid-assisted engines, the Ferrari costs £65,000 more than the Artura and over £10,000 more even than the new McLaren 750S, which, while less powerful, has a better power-to-weight ratio than the Ferrari.”
The second conversation- and I had it a few times that day – started with a question and a smirk: “Has it gone wrong yet?” To which the answer was: “Save having the incorrect cruise control wand fitted, since corrected, it has not yet even looked like going wrong.” It’s early days and that should be nothing to crow about, but it shows what McLaren is up against in some people’s perceptions.
Which is not to say nothing’s broken. A couple of weeks ago, I was driving home in the dark on one of those foul days we’ve been lumbered with of late and I dropped a wheel into what I thought was a puddle which turned out to be a water-filled pothole – a deep, sharp-edged pothole with vertiginous sides.
There was a bang followed by a bong and I knew at once whence both came. The bang was the tyre puncturing and the wheel buckling, the bong the car telling me as much. Except I was wrong. To my utter amazement, given the noise and the jolt, the wheel and tyre looked absolutely fine.
The bong was a warning that the car had lost its ability to monitor its tyre pressure. It turns out these Sottozero winter boots are also what Pirelli calls ‘cyber tyres’ and inside each is a sensor that lets the car know its temperature and pressure.
Very clever. Unless, that is, you’re unlucky enough for the tyre to be impacted hard right on the point of its circumference where the sensor is located. Which is precisely what happened to me. The tyre itself was undamaged, but the sensor had been knocked out and the only way to clear the warning on the dash was for it to be replaced.
Even so, I wouldn’t replace those Sottos for anything. Pirelli’s track-day rubber isn’t the greatest, and I have even felt in the past that some of McLaren’s more extreme products have been held back by it (the Senna in particular), but if there’s a better grim-weather tyre than this, I’ve not driven on it.
Like it
Come rain or shine
It offers effortless all-weather performance on its Pirelli winter tyres, with almost no deterioration in feel or ride quality.
Loathe it
Energy shortage
In EV mode, the engine can start up before the battery is empty, limiting further the already quite short electric-only range. In EV mode, the engine can start up before the battery is empty, limiting further the already quite short electric-only range.
Mileage: 3673
Life with a McLaren Artura: Month 1
Who says supercars aren’t practical? – 31 January
Because I have beer-swilling family and friends, every year I do the bulk of my Christmas shopping at the fabulous Wye Valley Brewery. I was a bit nervous about trying to fit eight mini kegs of its best and most famed brew, Butty Bach, in the nose of the Artura (that is 72 pints, after all), but in the event it would have probably swallowed a dozen. Who says such cars aren’t practical?
Mileage: 3299
Welcoming the Artura to the fleet – 17 January 2024
It has, it should be said, been a while. We first drove the McLaren Artura in the summer of 2022 at a launch that had itself been delayed from the autumn of 2021.
And even then, the car wasn’t ready. As road test editor Matt Saunders put it at the time: “The Artura will be a fine car, I expect, once its maker has finally and fully answered the challenges associated with its armoury of new technology, among which number a completely new carbonfibre chassis tub; a new electrical architecture; an all-new V6 engine and eight-speed transmission; a new generation of infotainment system; and all of its plug-in hybrid componentry. But the Artura’s time of readiness, I fear, may not be quite here yet.”
Sometimes I goggle at the sheer ambition of this project, just as I did a few years back when another comparatively tiny car maker called Aston Martin decided to create an all-new platform for its all-new SUV and build it in an all-new factory.
Just delivering the Artura’s engine to market, emissions-compliant and fully homologated right around the world, would have been a task to make Hercules think he’d got off lightly.
When Aston tried the same, the whole thing ended up in the bin. And that electrical architecture, faster, lighter and fit for McLarens for generations to come though it is, would have been no less of a headache. No wonder there were teething troubles.
But this particular Artura is the real deal, or at least it needs to be. Unlike the launch cars, it’s no pre-production prototype but a customer-specification one for which no excuse should be needed or made – nicely run in, on the button, ready to go.
And for the next few months, through weather fair and most likely foul, it’s going to be my daily driver.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited by the prospect. I know we should be all gimlet-eyed over such things, but if you can manage that when someone lobs you the keys to a sub-1500kg, 671bhp supercar and doesn’t want them back for a while, it’s possible that you’re in the wrong line of work – or play.
I could have had a lot more say in its specification, but so busy is McLaren filling existing orders that a new car wouldn’t have arrived until the summer, and while I might enjoy it even more then, I don’t think anyone wants to wait any longer – and besides, a cold, wet winter is a far sterner challenge. If it can prove itself to be an all-season, all-reason kind of supercar, that will be a potent point in its favour.
All I asked for was a car with comfort seats, because I intend to drive it a long way, and a nose lift to enable it to get down my drive. What turned up was a car with an option spend of over £30,000, which may sound a lot but which I expect is fairly typical, perhaps even slightly modest.
I was a little concerned when I heard it was orange (I’m a dark grey or blue don’t-look-at-me kind of guy), but this is the darkest of four oranges, and I think it looks great.
The Performance Pack adds nappa leather, some titanium finishes, Alcantara surfacing and so on, while the Technology Pack adds a 12-speaker audio upgrade, adaptive cruise control, parking cameras and lane departure warning – which defaults to off, where it will remain.
The only other chunky costs were the sports exhaust, which I wouldn’t have unless someone told me it were essential for resale value, and gorgeous 10-spoke, ultra-lightweight forged alloy wheels.
I’m mildly amused by the Practicality Pack, which adds the nose lift, parking sensors and soft-close doors – amused because it’s a no-cost option and I’d be interested to see if McLaren could supply a car without it.
Why not just make it standard? I’m not sure, but my inner cynic isn’t blind to the fact that were it made so, the car’s kerb weight would be fractionally over, not under, the magic 1500kg mark…
First impressions? Wrong cruise control stalk aside (it lacks the button that varies the distance to the vehicle ahead but otherwise works just fine), the car is perfect. Fit and finish is exactly what you would hope it would be for such a car and those electronics have as yet not dropped so much as a stitch.
And I’m already a huge fan of the electric side. The power it brings, the lag it eliminates and so on are for later reports, but right now, as I get to know the car, I treat it like a civility mode.
It allows me to creep away from the house at appalling hours in the morning without disturbing my neighbours, I waft silently through towns and villages with any prior announcement of my arrival and on journeys that come within its 19-mile range, it makes this supercar cheaper to run than my 1.5-litre Volkswagen Golf.
These are early days for the Artura and me, but if the idea was to make up for lost time, it could hardly be doing it better than this.
Second Opinion
Being a supercar, the Artura has clear appeal, but it’s its specific flavour of supercar-ness that I find especially compelling. It may be a hybrid and supremely complex, but it has an organic, subtly gritty manner about it that you don’t find elsewhere. The comfort seats are a good idea, too.
Richard Lane
McLaren Artura specification
Prices: List price new £189,200 List price now £190,460 (2025 model year £202,660) Price as tested £221,400
Options: Technology Pack £6800, sports exhaust £4700, super-lightweight forged alloy wheels £4500, performance interior £4400, Ember Orange elite paint £4400, powered and heated comfort seats with memory £3300, Black Pack £2000, gloss black interior finish £1100, Stealth exhaust finish £1000, Practicality Pack £0
Fuel consumption and range: Claimed economy 61.5mpg Fuel tank 66 litres Test average 30.3mpg Test best 32.1mpg Test worst 19.4mpg Real-world range 440 miles
Tech highlights: 0-62mph3.0sec Top speed 205mph Engine V6, 2993cc, twin-turbo, petrol, plus electric motor Max power 671bhp at 7100rpm Max torque 531lb ft at 2250rpm Transmission 8-spd dual-clutch auto Boot capacity 160 litres Wheels 9.0Jx19in (f), 11.0Jx20in (r) Tyres 235/35 R19 (f), 295/35 R20 (r) Kerb weight 1498kg
Service and running costs: Contract hire rate N/A CO2 104g/km Service costs None Other costs None Fuel costs £1093 Running costs inc fuel £1093 (plus a small but unspecified amount of electricity) Cost per mile 22.1p, not including electricity Faults Incorrect cruise control stalk fitted; failed seal under car, allowing water ingress; failed sensor in Pirelli tyre
Source: Autocar
