Please take a moment to prepare the world’s smallest violin. There are points with some of these cars where you begin to wonder, will I be bored by this car? The spec sheets can blend into one: loads of power, plenty more power from a battery, normalised 0-60mph times which should make your head spin but don’t, supported by outlandish aesthetics. It’s a well written and well produced playbook. Do they begin to blend into one, separated only by their badge? I pondered this question before collecting the McLaren Artura Spider.
The numbers are outright bonkers. 690bhp (95 from the e-motor) and 720Nm of torque (220 from said e-motor). 0-60mph takes 3.0secs, 0-100mph just 6.1secs. Then you start to realise, this could never be boring. Throw in a twin-turbo charged 3.0ltr V6 and you’ve got a car that will do a good job of staying on the heels of our Car of the Year 2024, the McLaren 750S.
Then you hit your first twisty bit of road, swallow a brave pill and thread the McLaren Artura Spider along it. You soon realise that the brave pill was unnecessary. Unless you’re Lando Norris, whatever you can throw at this thing isn’t enough to unsettle it. The poise through sudden directional changes is immense, the hydraulic steering near perfect and the howl of the V6 sonorous. My existential crisis was soon over. Bored? You don’t have time to be bored in the McLaren Artura Spider.
There are a few upgrades over the original coupe version of the McLaren Artura (now on the coupe, too) which I reviewed a couple of summers ago. More power, a removable roof, chassis upgrades but, perhaps crucially, an added sense of refinement. McLaren clearly believes in the Artura, even after its tricky inception. Here’s the proof.
Living with the McLaren Artura Spider
In the coupe I tested, the exhaust note at idle was insufferable. It meant the major benefit of hybridisation was the ability to switch to electric mode and shut it up in traffic. That’s gone, replaced with an electric whine which intensifies as speed rises. It means you need to be clever about how you provoke the powertrain. I found it best to use electric mode in traffic and to get the McLaren Artura Spider moving, before switching to V6 propulsion.
This is easily done with the rocker switches placed above the steering wheel. Switch to Sport or Track and the V6 bursts into life (and recharges the battery).
The McLaren Artura Spider retains the theatre created by the dihedral doors. Lift them up and you have an Alcantara-clad cockpit to slide into. The sport seats are embracing and finding the perfect driving position, as with every McLaren, is easy. The thin, Alcantara-lined steering wheel remains free of physical buttons, supported by a branch of stalks behind it. It’s the antithesis of Ferrari.
On the suspension, you’re best leaving it in comfort on UK roads. Combined with the optional nose lift feature – a box well worth ticking – it deals with urban environments easily. So easily and so silently, in fact, that you forget what you’re driving. The glances from other drivers and pedestrians soon remind you. You’re never fully incognito in a tanzanite blue McLaren Artura Spider.
Dial the suspension up to Sport and it’s too firm. Move to Track and it’s unbearable on the road. It does, however, give the car three succinct ride characteristics, with a dedicated track mode which should be treated as such.
So, here’s an easy car to live with, wherever you find yourself. You didn’t buy it to be a GT, though…
What’s the McLaren Artura Spider like to drive?
Your involvement is essential to what you get from the McLaren Artura Spider. You must be very deliberate with the throttle, which is delightful to modulate. The eight-speed gearbox responds more aggressively depending on your drive mode, but with the vast well of torque and horsepower it’s never anything short of brisk.
It’s when you dial it up to track, select manual, drop it down a few cogs and plant your right foot that the McLaren Artura Spider bursts into life. It races towards its 8500rpm redline, the dash lights up green, amber then red to prompt you to pull on the right paddle and it surges forwards with scarcely believable haste. The battery torque-fills on upshifts to maintain linear performance delivery. It’s clinical and precise.
This extends to the handling. The steering, a hallmark of McLarens, is a delight. Brimming with feedback and accuracy, it flies the flag for a hydraulic setup. It also removes the possibility of nagging lane keep assist. In fact, the McLaren Artura Spider doesn’t incessantly bong at you at all. There were a couple, but mostly when the speed limit changes. Fine.
Anyway, the steering really connects you to the Artura. The one thing that everyone who I drove in it commented on (you suddenly have a lot of friends when you have a McLaren Artura Spider) was the way it tackled roundabouts.
You line it up, throw it in and it just sticks. No tyre squeal, no understeer; just grip. It also stays perfectly balanced with absolutely minimal body roll. It’s an impressive trick that leaves you yearning for a racetrack. It’s so capable that you barely scratch the surface of its abilities on the road. Yet, you don’t need to be Lando Norris to enjoy this thing.
Conclusion
And that’s what I’ve loved most about every McLaren I’ve been fortune enough to drive – you don’t need to be an F1 driver or attempt to mimic one to enjoy them. The McLaren Artura Spider is no different. You can easily get into a flow and enjoy the precision of your inputs at any speed.
What the McLaren Artura Spider does so well – as do most of its stablemates – is to take preposterous performance and make it seem simple. The Artura normalises the exceptional. Attacking roundabouts just feels like the most natural thing in the world. With so much propulsion and stopping power (50-0mph in an eye bulging 21 metres) you’re always well within the limits of what’s possible in this thing on the road.
It’s like watching Lionel Messi slalom through a defence and dink one over the keeper for the umpteenth time. It’s just what you came to expect from him. Supreme, clinical handling and outright power are just what we’ve come to expect from McLaren.
Perhaps that’s why I feared it might become dull. Like watching Messi, however, it never does. It’s simultaneously normal and exceptional, but you’re well aware that few can do it.
Then it performs a passable impression of a GT and doesn’t wake your neighbours when you start it up in electric mode. Slide away, lower the roof, turn up the fantastic Bowers & Wilkins stereo and you can cruise around comfortably. Find a decent B-road and the McLaren Artura Spider really comes to life. There’s not much this car can’t do.
The updates have certainly elevated the Artura and it makes a compelling case for hybridisation. It makes a compelling car full stop. After a tricky start, the Artura means business.
