McLaren Artura review: Artful plug-in coupe that does it all
Mechanically, the plug-in hybrid McLaren Artura has it all. Little wonder it is a car that does it all
I’VE been kicked out of more places than I care to remember, but at least the guard who evicted me from OCBC Centre’s car park for snapping pics of the McLaren Artura there had the decency to tell me how much he admired the car.
Bystanders certainly have plenty to coo over. In a sea of hulking sport utility vehicles the Artura is irresistibly lithe, its skin stretched tight over a mechanical package that overflows with power but packs little bulk. Like a champion sprinter, it exudes speed, with an obvious muscularity in all the right places but no signs of surplus flab anywhere.
Fact is, there is plenty going on with the McLaren that the eye can’t see, even if you peer through the holes of the cheese-grater engine cover.
Instead of a big, revvy, shouty engine, the Artura has a compact twin-turbo V6 with a twin-clutch eight-speed gearbox, an electric motor between them, plus a 7.4 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack mounted somewhere behind the cabin.
It’s all bolted to the back of a two-seater cell made of carbon fibre (the stuff of Formula 1 racing cars), which has become the standard modern McLaren layout. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. The carbon fibre’s light weight is why, despite all the exotic hardware it carries, the Artura weighs just 1.5 tonnes.
The carbon cell’s tub shape also means those exotic scissor doors are completely necessary, if people are to enter or exit the car with any sort of dignity. And you thought they were just for show.
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Friday, 2 pm
Lifestyle
Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.
Working together, the petrol and electric hardware churn out a formidable 680 horsepower, and as you’d expect the Artura is quick enough to elicit a swear word the first time you nail the accelerator.
The motor does a wonderful double act with the V6, unleashing great gobs of torque in an instant so you can never catch the engine napping, even if its turbos haven’t spooled up. It’s not just fast, but savagely so.
Oddly enough, it feels friendly on the track despite the explosive acceleration. That’s likely down to the beautiful handling. The McLaren just feels like a perfectly calibrated tool in your hands, reacting to you with fast reflexes but without twitchiness, and letting you feel all the cornering loads build up as you slip gracefully through each bend. It makes a hot lap feel not just easy, but natural.
But any dummy could have told you that the Artura is a rocket. What’s unexpected is how easy it is to live with on a day-to-day basis. The boot is just 150 litres in size – so you’re never going to bring a Billy bookcase home from Ikea – but there’s some usable space behind the seats, which means a bit of shopping or a weekend getaway is doable.
The ride quality is better than I can remember for any McLaren, and despite the Artura’s well-planted attitude to corners, the suspension is surprisingly pliant. Even the controls are nice and easy, with a toggle switch for the engine’s various modes just a stretch of your fingers away and a simple central touchscreen taking care of the usual functions.
The engine does howl properly, but you can actually creep home in silence if you’re in the mood. That’s because the Artura is a plug-in hybrid, meaning it can waft around on motor power while the engine lays dormant. Plug it into a charger for a couple of hours, and there’s enough juice for the trudge to the office. Driven this way, the McLaren is surprisingly soothing to be in.
The plug-in tech probably allows the Artura to meet some kind of emissions threshold for McLaren, but ultimately it feels more like the electricity is in service of going fast, not going green. Pure petrolheads are probably suspicious, but the Artura doesn’t feel like a compromised car because it’s hybrid – it feels like a better one.
That’s much the same with the Ferrari 296 GTB, a car that inevitably draws comparisons because it has a similar layout and riffs off the same plug-in hybrid theme. Yet, the 296 GTB is a clear step above in terms of price and performance, so McLaren thinks of the Artura as a rival to Ferrari’s voluptuous Roma instead.
That car is no slouch, but it’s less of a trackday weapon than the McLaren, making it quite clear which of the two you should choose if you’re the sort of driver who lives by the stopwatch.
For this sort of money, though, you’re entitled to something that feels special. The Artura does tick that box, mostly from the way it blends petrol and electric power so artfully to deliver an experience that’s scintillating on the track yet relaxing off it.
I may have been ejected from OCBC Centre for it, but if you ask me, the Artura itself deserves to linger in the pantheon of motoring greats.
McLaren Artura
Engine 2,993 cc, twin-turbo V6
Power 585 hp at 7,500 rpm
Torque 585 Nm from 2,250 to 7,000 rpm
Electric motor 95 hp, 225 Nm
System power 680 hp
System torque 720 Nm
Gearbox 8-speed automatic
Battery Lithium-ion, 7.4 kWh
Charge time / Type 2.5 hours to 80 per cent / AC
Electric range 31 km
0-100 kmh 3.0 seconds
Top speed 330 kmh
Fuel efficiency 5.8 L / 100 km
Agent Eurokars Supersports Pte Ltd
Price S$1,334,000 with Certificate Of Entitlement
Available Now
Copyright SPH Media. All rights reserved.
