2023 McLaren Artura review

"Back and left-hand down, back and left-hand down!” are the words hurtling into the McLaren Artura’s cabin as I straddle the centre line with reverse refusing to engage. ‘Charge level too low’ insists the digital instrument cluster, despite showing 13 percent battery.

The Artura is McLaren’s first-ever series-production hybrid model (the 2013 P1 was limited to just 375 examples, so it doesn’t count) and is the first clean-sheet design since the 2011 MP4-12C. That means all-new architecture and engine, a rather spacious cabin, and an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox.

A 7.4kWh lithium-ion battery bestows the Artura with 31km of hushed electric driving range so you’d expect McLaren’s new supercar to weigh a bit. The battery itself is 88kg, while a 15.4kg electric motor, inverters, and cooling gubbins adds 130kg worth of high-voltage equipment.

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Yet the Artura hits the scales at 1498kg with driver and fuel onboard – a mere 46kg heavier than the outgoing 570S coupe.

McLaren has managed to keep pork down with a combination of its new ‘MCLA’ carbon chassis (that cuts kilos by 10 percent), a compact 430kW 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 engine, and an eight-speed ’box that ditches the reverse ratio, relying instead on the 70kW/130Nm motor for backward momentum … which is what has landed me in this predicament.

Mercifully, I’m not stranded. I’d heard about reverse issues in the Artura’s initial road tests (and other electronic issues that thankfully didn’t present themselves), so I left space to drive out.

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To charge the battery without a cable (doing so with one takes 2.5 hours) you can toggle the Artura into either Charge or Track modes and simply drive, using the V6 as a generator. It’s the perfect excuse for a quick blat up the Old Pacific Highway.

Cut sharply into Sydney’s sandstone, the ‘Old Pac’s’ cliffs bounce the dry-sumped V6’s vibrations back into the Artura’s cabin. The sound isn’t comparable to a V12 shriek or a full-bodied V8 snarl, but the Artura’s functional motorsport bark makes for plenty of aural enjoyment approaching its impressive 8500rpm redline.

The medium registers at partial throttle openings are more intriguing than flat-out. The V6’s coarse timbre changes through different pockets, fluctuating with throttle input to remind you this isn’t synthesised fakery.

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We’re heading northwest through the lower Hunter to our halfway point at one of Australia’s coal power hotspots

Speaking of the right pedal, its long travel and heavy weight are in perfect harmony with the Artura’s other controls, making it easy to apply just the right amount of grunt. Despite multiple power sources at play, it never feels clumsy, either.

Battery levels recuperated, I’m able to place the Artura for Wielecki to work his magic while I plan the rest of the day. We’re heading northwest through the picturesque lower Hunter – ‘convict country’ – to our halfway point at one of Australia’s coal-power hotspots.

It’s a big outing and requires some freeway slogging, for which the Artura is rather well equipped. Although the GT is McLaren’s everyday model, this Artura still packs adaptive cruise, lane-departure warning, and speed-sign recognition to ease long slogs.

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Enabled by McLaren’s new ethernet-based electronics, the systems work well enough. There’s still the issue of ever-present road and engine noise but who buys a supercar and doesn’t expect some measure of practical compromise?

Trading coastal beauty and smooth hotmix for the thin, scrubby gums and ratty asphalt of George Downes Drive should provide the first real challenge.

Regularly pummelled by coal-packed semi-trailers, the Artura’s excellent damping provides support and pliancy in equal measure as it skims the broken asphalt. The steering wheel writhes more fervently in my hands, reminding me the Artura retains a hydraulically assisted power steering rack.

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With no annoying touchscreens to concern us, it’s elementary dialling in my ‘Goldilocks’ mode

Past the township of Kulnura, the bumps become less severe and invite me to fiddle with the Artura’s drive modes. Powertrain settings are on the right toggle above the cluster and Chassis on the left.

With no annoying touchscreens to concern us, it’s elementary dialling in my ‘Goldilocks’ mode, with the right switch in Sport to prime the throttle and open the Artura’s lungs – Track is a little angrier again, but we’ll save that for later. Experimenting with the dampers, I find Sport isn’t overly harsh (for a supercar) and helpfully sharpens the body’s responses.

Usually the domain of nimble hot hatches with plenty of suspension stroke, the low-slung McLaren proves wieldy and exploitable through a favourite set of testing bends.

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Communicative steering and supportive suspension goad me into attacking a tightening off-camber left-hander, trailing the reassuring brake pedal to lock the Artura’s nose on course.

Building throttle pressure to neutralise the chassis, I notice the E-Diff locking under power and continue committing to test the tyres’ resolve. A little too far and the steering weight lightens, but a light lift is enough to tuck the Artura’s front Pirellis back in.

Pulling into Wollombi, the Artura’s predatorial bodywork stands in stark contrast to the car du jour (Subaru’s third-gen Forester), its Volcano Yellow paintwork accentuating the shapely air intakes.

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This particular car is fitted with a black styling pack, roof, and satin black 19-inch front and 20-inch rear alloy wheels that really make the Duco pop.

Yet the Artura undersells its ground-up novelty; to the casual observer, its proportions and details aren’t radically different from the 570S it replaces.

After lunch our support car departs, leaving us with all of Thomas’s camera gear to fit inside. The McLaren’s capacious frunk obliges, though opening it does draw our attention to some less-than-stellar finishing: the shut lines are variable across the panels with the bonnet especially sitting lower than the arches, unintentionally parlaying the Artura’s handmade nature.

There’s a similar feeling inside. The materials are decent with this TechLux spec’s mix of leather and Alcantara upholstery.

But the door card’s leather appointment is curiously interrupted by a stitch that runs from the window rubber to the grab handle halfway along – it’s almost like McLaren couldn’t find a big enough cow for a seamless application.

The Upper Hunter is a proverbial canary down the coal mine for climate change, with residents treated to near-apocalyptic events in recent memory. In 2020, the wine-growing region dumped nearly an entire grape harvest due to bushfire and smoke damage, yet just two years later it was inundated with the opposite – a freezing, wet winter and historic floods.

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The traces of these events remain on Payne’s Crossing Road. The broken (and half-missing) surface draws grimaces as we crawl along at 40km/h with the Artura’s standard nose-lift activated.

Even at this pace, it’s not long before the road mercifully smoothes out and vehicles near our citrón supercar change from derelict single-cab utes and luxury SUVs to mining-fleet Hiluxes and dust-covered B-Doubles.

Between Broke Road, the Golden Highway and our halfway point, we pass no less than five sprawling open-cut sites where mechanical giants sift through dirt in search of black carbon deposits that still makes up 70 percent of NSW’s energy mix.

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Even with cheap, local coal providing the lion’s share of power generation in the state, there’s more than Australia needs in the ground so the rest is shipped out at Newcastle.

With more renewables in the mix, we don’t need so much local generation either – even to charge our supercars.

The first casualty of that is what’s brought us four hours from Sydney in the Artura: to the left of the New England Highway are the broad cooling towers of the operational Bayswater power station; on the right are Liddell’s comparatively svelte stacks.

More than a third of NSW’s electricity was generated by this pair at one point, though smaller Liddell was decommissioned in April after 52 years to make way for a future renewable energy hub. There’ll be hydro generation, arrays of solar panels, geothermal, and massive batteries to store any excess generated energy.

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Before all that happens, we get to step inside a church of horsepower.

Like entering a place of worship, there’s an eerie quietude with no clanging from coal being atomised in crushers, no roiling steam being transferred from the boilers as they spin up Liddell’s quartet of five-megawatt generators, and there never will be again. The only sounds in Liddell’s belly come from the Artura hybrid’s gently ticking exhaust pipes and the sci-fi hiss of its electric motors.

It’s odd driving such a visually loud supercar through the town of Singleton with little more than the electric motor whirring away in the background. We still have to brim it with fuel; always an exercise with a supercar.

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One bloke in particular is taken by it, descending from a bin truck index finger aimed at the car, asking if it’s a 650S.

Pretty good knowledge, I reply, before educating old mate that it’s an Artura – McLaren’s all-new hybrid supercar – and fill him in on various specs as he grabs an ice-cold energy drink from the fridge and a lukewarm Four’N Twenty from the pie shelf.

“Give it a rev, would ya!”

I oblige, only to find a limp limiter at 4500rpm, much to the disappointment of the crowd of local young-uns who chase us out of the servo on their BMXs with camera phones in hand.

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Tank full and egos inflated, we’re off to sniff out the best tarmac within a day’s drive of Sydney – Putty Road. All 154km is good, but the 30km heading south from Milbrodale through Howe’s Valley is truly premium tarmac.

After cruising through about a kilometre of traffic-light-controlled roadworks, it’s time to turn up the Artura’s wick and feel what it’s all about with the chassis in Sport (after finding Track too uncompromising) and powertrain in full-attack mode.

Putty’s unpredictable corners open, tighten and change cambers like a rollercoaster track, though an abrasive surface offers plenty of forgiveness.

Clicking the single-rocker paddle-shifter, I whip through the acquiescent eight-speed dual-clutch transmission from fifth down to second approaching a tight switchback, with each new cog accompanied by a staccato V6 bark.

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Accelerating out, there’s a gentle (and deliberate) thump into third reminding you of the Artura’s mechanical nature.

I’ve become accustomed to the quality in the touchpoints, but the Artura is still growing on me with its poise and consistency. Though separate businesses, Woking’s automotive division takes inspiration from the Formula 1 team. Case in point being the Artura’s rear suspension – it’s a version of double wishbone with a split lower arm and a tie-rod in front of the axle line to increase ‘anti-squat’.

The concept is similar to the ground effect ‘MCL60’ F1 car: keep the body as flat as possible to maximise the diffuser’s effect while minimising fore-aft pitch. It means the Artura can run lower rear spring rates for greater independence across the axle and more grip (as well as a better ride) without promoting front-end push under power.

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I’m tuning into the Artura’s capability and the flow of the section of Putty now, carrying the brake pedal deeper and getting on the throttle sooner to egg the mid-engined Artura into moving around beneath me.

But even with its clever ESC – that’s getting information about temperature and pressure from Pirelli’s smart Cyber Tyre – in Dynamic mode, the 295mm-wide rear tyres retain their purchase on the tarmac.

For all the electronic trickery, complexity, and F1-inspired chassis design, the Artura holds onto a uniquely physical connection between the driver and tarmac: that hydraulically assisted power steering.

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The flat-bottomed wheel communicates the tarmac’s grip level in high definition – great for driver confidence – but it also means the Artura is nearly as engaging gently flowing through bends as it is at full attack.

Adding to the Artura’s charm is its powertrain. The heavily boosted M630 V6 develops its power (7500rpm) at the top of the rev range and, while peak torque is spread from 2250-7000rpm, the electric motor fills any turbo lag at lower revs and delivers a searing punch when the ICE is on song.

Despite all the moving parts, the Artura replies to commands from the throttle with consistency, and if the boost-by-gear antics editor Enright noted in his drive of Ferrari’s edgier 296 GTB (Wheels July 2023) are happening in the Artura, they’re far more subtle.

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Performance figures? All bar top speed comfortably eclipse the McLaren F1

McLaren’s latest doesn’t create awe through fear, then, though that’s not for a lack of firepower.

With 500kW and 720Nm, the Artura is capable of completing the now almost irrelevant 0-100km/h sprint in 3.0 seconds, hitting 200km/h in 8.3 seconds and going onto 300km/h in 21.5 seconds before topping out at 330km/h. All bar top speed comfortably eclipse the McLaren F1’s acceleration figures, but fall shy of the 296 GTB.

Despite the two cars sharing so much on paper (the plug-in hybrid and their unique 120-degree-angle V6s), it remains up to McLaren’s 750S to beat the 296 at the lunacy game until Woking turns up the Artura’s theatrics, potentially with a future Long Tail variant.

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Thirteen hours have elapsed since our first coffee and the low winter sun is igniting the pearlescent yellow paint as we make our way home.

Clouds rumble through the valley, dropping saturating rain for a brief few minutes. Far from dampening the spirit, the Artura’s rooster tail of spray illustrates its aero trickery.

With the sun at rest, I’m left blinded by the 8.0-inch touchscreen. There’s no simple setting to adjust the brightness and the high-contrast software is distracting in the pitch black. The screen does at least house creature comforts like wired Apple CarPlay and navigation, as well as fun touches such as the brand’s Track Telemetry and Variable Drift Control information.

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The McLaren has proven a comfortable beast despite its Clubsport seats not offering typical adjustment.

Another gripe is the TechLux Artura’s sound system. On paper, it should sound fantastic with a subwoofer built into the carbonfibre tub and 11 additional speakers from Bowers & Wilkins, yet even at full volume it has to compete with too much tyre, engine and wind noise.

The McLaren has proven a comfortable beast despite its Clubsport seats not offering typical adjustment. Instead, the fixed-back buckets slide manually and ‘pivot through an elliptical arc’ with power control that tweaks the backrest angle and under-thigh support in one.

The driving position is impeccable and suits taller drivers who are able to fully stretch their legs out and have the power-adjust steering wheel (with its anchored binnacle) up, down, in, or out.

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As I open the Artura’s sexy dihedral door and clamber over the low-set sill for the final time, I pause to consider the Artura’s place.

It’s not quite the future – the bulk of its momentum is still generated by immaculately controlled micro-explosions. Is it the missing link? A product of an engineering boom-time not dissimilar to the turn of the 20th century when engineers competed for the ‘perfect’ solution?

And anyway, does someone in the market for a $449,500 supercar really care about their occasional-use supercar’s CO2 emissions? I’d argue not, but there’s a certain righteousness in stalking through Sydney’s environmentally conscious Inner West on electric power knowing exactly how many times I’ve kissed the 8500rpm redline.

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This car wasn’t constructed to save the environment at all. Instead, the Artura is built by enthusiasts and engineers with the aim of implementing as much technology as possible without creating an anodyne monster.

Long gone are Chairman Ron’s hollow boasts of objective superiority. The artful and precise blending of both power sources for either maximum efficiency or devastating effectiveness underlines the potential of the Artura’s oily, carbon and electrical bits.

More than an involving supercar, the once-troubled Artura emerges as a bright star for the future of McLaren Automotive.

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What's in a name?

Making a more memorable McLaren

Alphanumerics be damned, McLaren’s most tech-packed car to date swaps toner cartridge serial numbers for a cogent word. But what does it mean? It apparently has nothing to do with the female name that means either ‘she-bear’ in Celtic or ‘guardian of the bear’ in ancient Greek.

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McLaren denies it’s a cheesy portmanteau of ‘Art’ and ‘Future’, yet the brand does admit it represents “the art of design and future technology”.

Instead, they’ll point to the fact that the Artura’s name represents a step change in what McLaren stands for.

You can define the company’s eras by product: Pre F1, the F1 glory days, rebirth with MP4-12C, and the next generation that the Artura promises to usher in. Expect the new MCLA architecture, ethernet-based electronics and plug-in hybrid 3.0-litre V6 to stick around for some time.