what's the orange pipe infront of the engine? the weakest link?
Artura Third Party Reviews
Jethro Bovingdon (Top Gear co-host) just posted on IG: "It’s been way too long since I’ve visited Spain. To be honest, one week not being here is too long! Love the place. Here for the new McLaren Artura on road and at the Ascari Race Resort." His IG is here: Login • Instagram Thus, it appears that third party reviews are just around the corner. Bovingdon posted this photo:
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why not lando norris?
The new 2023 McLaren Artura hybrid supercar is a head-turning exotic coupe, and we drove it through Nevada’s Valley of Fire
A new McLaren is news for anyone who loves great cars. The McLaren Artura hybrid supercar goes up to 205 mph and it only costs—well, who cares what it costs?www.marketwatch.com
"Overall, the Artura was an absolute joy to drive on the winding desert roads. Thanks to the selectable driving modes, its versatility proved to be one of its strongest virtues, revealing a far more athletic persona when the roads and driver demanded it and a smoother, more restrained demeanor on the busier city streets."
"While the Artura was excellent during the street drive, the course at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was where the McLaren truly shined. It felt almost ninja-like in the most challenging corners and intuitive enough to allow rookie drivers to feel like Daniel Ricciardo, if just for a second."
LAST WEEK, for the first time this winter, it snowed in Woking, in southern England. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the artificial lake in front of the McLaren Technology Centre was steaming and fringed with ice, the cattails frozen stiff. Groundskeepers were out spreading grit on the campus roadways—a reasonable precaution, as McLarens aren’t generally hailed for their all-weather traction.
Designed by Norman Foster and built in the glory days of Rome (2004) under Emperor Ron Dennis, the former chairman, the MTC receives guests at a sally-port on the far side of the pond, with a covered roundabout. There—warm, dry and defrosted—waited our test car, a McLaren Artura, frocked in a glittery, wintry white. Poor thing, I thought. You won’t be pretty for long.
I sometimes forget to register these moments, the 500 milliseconds or so when I, or anyone, sees a new car for the first time: the incontrovertible flash of judgment, the collapsing of a waveform into either love or not-love. In that instant I imprinted a few things about Artura. As compared to previous Makkas, the exterior has lower surface tension overall, with lighter and more artful lines and a leaner musculature. Compare/contrast with the sleeve-busting jacked-ness of the McLaren 720S. Your codpiece, sir?
I can’t quite reconcile the boomerang-shaped voids at the front corners (enclosing LED headlights, running lights, and brake cooling ducts) with the rounded intakes behind the doors. But if McLaren will just loan me the car for a few years, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.
STEALTH IS WEALTH The McLaren Artura PHEV offers a few minutes of low-speed electric operation (Electric mode). In the Comfort mode, the powertrain responds very much like rolling stop/start engine cycling, with the engine falling silent when it can, under light throttle, while coasting or decelerating. The Artura’s nominal all-electric range is 19 miles.PHOTO: STAN PAPIOR/MCLAREN![image]()
The Artura is: a two-seat, mid-engine, rear-drive sports coupe, with a carbon-composite and aluminum structure and body panels, powered by a hybrid-enhanced twin-turbo 3.0-liter V6—in a “hot-V” layout, with the turbos in the space between the cylinder banks. Downstream, an axial-flux e-motor (94 hp/166 lb-ft) is integrated into the housing of the eight-speed automatic transmission and thence to an electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential. The fully outraged maximum comes in at 671 hp and 531 lb-ft, pitted against a vehicle curb weight of 3,303 pounds
Thus leveraged up, the Artura can spring to 60 mph in 3 seconds, says the factory; to 124 mph in 8.3 seconds; to 186 mph in 21.5 seconds; and, finally, to an ecstatic, over-the-top top speed of 205 mph, at which point your fillings will burst into flame, only to be extinguished by your tears of joy.
I’m guessing. As sleet gusted against the MTC’s panoramic curtain walls, I could tell my day wasn’t going to be one of those days. I only prayed I would keep the Artura out of the ivy.
“Sooo, what kind of tires do we have?” I asked, not wanting to seem alarmed. While usually shod with Pirelli P Zeroes, our test car had its winter boots on, the Pirelli Sottozero. That’s something, anyway.
The Artura is McLaren’s first V6-powered car, but its second plug-in hybrid, or maybe third. The first was the rarefied P1 hypercar (2013) that boasted a top speed of 217 mph and price north of $1.3 million. I drove it. It was OK. The luminous Speedtail (2020) was also hybridized, but it used inductive charging, not a plug.
With its cylinders banked at 120 degrees, the Artura’s V6 sits low and compactly in the engine bay—almost invisible under the heat-shielding. Yet despite the smaller power plant, the Artura’s overall length is comparable to previous V8-powered coupes such as the 600LT. According to Artura’s chief engineer, Geoff Grose, whatever packaging space the smaller engine opened up was spoken for by the hybrid hardware, including the 7.8-kWh battery pack, and other generational changes. Example: The axial-flux e-motor, itself a pretty slim component, uses clutch packs at either end to mediate between the engine and transmission. The gasoline particulate filter, now required equipment in Europe, also needed a home.
Under the Artura’s swan-wing doors and across the surprisingly low and accessible door threshold, the stitched-leather interior is a spare, technical, organized and purposeful space. Reprised here are the world’s best steering wheel and paddle shifters. Forward sightlines are tremendous. Controls for the chassis and powertrain preferences are situated in heavy toggles integrated into the instrument binnacle, easily reached in the heat of action. Daddy like.
SWANNING ABOUT The McLaren Artura debuts the company’s latest carbon-composite and aluminum monocoque, called the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture. The MCLA accommodates the company’s signature swan doors (with dihedral hinges) as well as low door thresholds for easier access.PHOTO: PATRICK GOSLING/MCLAREN![image]()
Between the bloody weather, the tie-ups and shut downs, my test route was more like a 100-mile school zone. But I had time to explore the Artura’s subtler charms. Here’s something you might not hear from your average McLaren owner, because shut up, Brian. In either Comfort or Electric mode, the Artura is unbelievably refined and supple at around-town speeds, falling into ghostly electric mode as often as the battery and conditions allow. When the V6 relights, it does so gingerly and engages seamlessly, with an uncanny lack of vibration. The pair of cooperating clutches flanking the e-motor help these watchworks synchronize more or less instantly.
The transmission operates in one of four selectable drive modes (Electric, Comfort, Sport and Track), in order of belligerence, as well as paddle-shifted manual control. As the day wore on and conditions on the motorway improved I was able to drop it into Sport mode and punch it up past 100 mph a few times. No surprises there. It was like cracking a wet whip. All hail to the Sottozeros.
You know who really appreciates the Artura? The British. While its all-electric range of 19 miles doesn’t sound like much to us in the States, it’s just enough for the car to motor in and out of quaint English villages on battery power alone, moving more or less silently, if not magically, through the narrow streets. No sleeping cats were disturbed in the making of this column.
In the rearview, I watched several of the local gentry turn to look with a smile on their faces. Welcome to the future, I thought. Sorry about the weather.
2023 McLaren Artura
FLEET FEAT With a maximum output of 671 hp pitted against a curb weight of 3,303 pounds, the rear-drive Artura can accelerate from a standstill to 186 mph in 21.5 seconds and reach an electronically limited top speed of 205 mph, according to the company.PHOTO: PATRICK GOSLING/MCLAREN![image]()
Base price: $233,000
Price, as tested: $263,550
Powertrain: Plug-in electric hybrid, with a twin-turbocharged DOHC 3.0-liter, 120-degree V6, integrated axial-flux e-motor (94 hp/166 lb-ft) and eight-speed automatic transmission with decoupling clutch, manual-shifting and multiple drive modes; 7.8-kWh lithium battery pack; electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential.
System max power/torque: 671 hp at 6,500 rpm/531 lb-ft at 2,250 rpm
Curb weight: 3,303 pounds
Length/wheelbase/height/width: 179/104/47/82 inches (with mirrors)
0-60 mph: 3.0 seconds
0-186 mph: 21.5 seconds
Electric range: 19 miles
Average fuel economy: 39 MPGe/18 mpg
Luggage capacity: 5.3 cu. ft.
I thought I was reading an English murder mystery novel. Did he actually drive the car considering the weather conditions?
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