First Drive: Can McLaren’s Artura Spider achieve drop-top excellence?
By Jack Evans, PA Motoring Reporter
What is it?
McLaren is hot-footing it to update its entire range. Its bombastic 720S has been given a power boost and transformed into the 750S, while the cross-continent GT has been updated into the GTS.The Artura, which was only recently introduced, is also getting a freshen-up to coincide with the release of this model – the Artura Spider. Rather than just lopping off the roof, this Artura has been given a range of modifications and upgrades over the original car and they’ve been applied to all Artura models built from now on, too.We’ve been out to drive it in the south of France to see what’s what.
What’s new?
The Artura was a car plagued with difficulties in its early stages, but McLaren has looked to finesse the formula with both the Spider and the equivalent coupe. It’s not just a couple of visual tweaks, either; the hybrid powertrain has gained a power boost – more on that later – the transmission has been revised for faster shifts while the suspension and damping has gained a big revision to make the Artura even sharper to drive than before. As always, McLaren’s focus with the Artura has been weight – or lack of it.At 1,560kg with fluids, it’s incredibly light. It’s no mean feat, either, given the complex folding metal roof system that raises or lowers in 11 seconds at speeds of up to 31mph.You can even specify the roof with electrochromatic glass which can go opaque or transparent at the touch of a button.
What’s under the bonnet?
As before, the Artura uses a combination of V6 petrol power and an electric motor. However, McLaren has managed to squeeze some extra boost from that engine, bringing the Artura Spider’s total output to 690bhp, up from 671bhp previously.The good news is that if you’re an existing Artura owner, McLaren will upgrade your car to this power output for free. Performance, as you might expect, is impressive. Zero to 60mph comes in three seconds flat while McLaren claims a top speed of 205mph. However, with an electric-only range of up to 21 miles, it’s still very usable in battery-powered mode and when combined with the petrol engine, McLaren claims that you could get up to 58.9mpg. Unlike other hybrid models, there’s no regenerative braking – McLaren says it didn’t want to go down that route – with the petrol engine being the primary source of charge for the battery.
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