The McLaren supercar evolves
When McLaren’s founder was in his pomp, the idea of a plug-in hybrid supercar was as out-there as a cloned sheep. Would he approve of the Artura, McLaren’s all-new PHEV?
McLaren is well able to talk at length about precisely what it is that makes its very best cars special. (And let’s be clear, one or two have been very special indeed, notably the P1, the 720S and the 675LT.)
But what does McLaren mean to you? Because almost regardless of your answer, positive or negative, the Artura, which represents a hard reset for the Woking car maker (new carbon tub, new electrical architecture, new infotainment, new powertrain) looks like progress of the positive kind.
If you’ve never understood McLaren’s range, the Artura should bring clarity. Most obviously it has a name, not a number, and the baffling old Super Series/Sports Series classifications are gone. Going forward, McLaren will offer GTs like, erm, the GT, supercars (for now a two-car range, the existing 720S and the new Artura) and flagship Ultimate Series cars, just as Ferrari offers ‘normal’ cars and silly-money masterpieces like the LaFerrari. Simple. And just as every post-12C car was a remix of that machine’s basic ingredients, so the Artura’s technology will underpin a whole generation (and decade) of new models, all of them electrified.
If you admired the old twin-turbo V8 but never warmed to either its voice (industrial) or its methods (brutally effective but short on soul) then, again, the Artura looks like good news. It debuts McLaren’s first series-production hybrid powertrain (the P1 and Speedtail were Ultimate Series cars, and used an entirely different system). It comprises an all-new, twin-turbo 3.0-litre V6 engine with a wide-open vee angle, a 7.4kWh lithium-ion battery and a compact, 94bhp axial-flux electric motor embedded neatly within the gearbox.
We must wait to see if it can bring an engine note to pucker your forearms to goosebumps. V6s have a mixed track record, from the uninspiring NSX to the bombastic Alfa Quadrifoglio. But the new powertrain is rich in potential. It offers serious power and torque (the 671bhp system total is well clear of the 570S, the car the Artura effectively kills off, and not far off the ferocious 720S), the ability to run silently on e-power alone for up to 19 miles, and an ultra-sharp throttle response (thanks to the e-motor’s instant shove, which can cover for the V6 when it’s off-boost or off-cam). Yes, the new powertrain brings with it a weight gain, but it’s impressively modest. The new engine is 40kg lighter than the old V8, and the hybrid system (including the 88kg battery and 15.4kg e-motor) weighs 130kg, for a net 90kg penalty. ⊲
WHAT DOES McLAREN MEAN TO YOU? ALMOST REGARDLESS OF YOUR ANSWER, THE ARTURA LOOKS LIKE THE RIGHT KIND OF PROGRESS
So, if you have McLaren reservations, the Artura looks ready to counter them. And if you’re a fan? Well, if you’re fortunate enough to have driven one or more of its cars, and found yourself spellbound by its agility, apparent weightlessness and mesmerising steering, there’s further good news. These babies – a product of several McLaren trademarks, notably its electro-hydraulic power steering, exotic chassis structures and focus on low weight – have, despite the all-new powertrain and tub design, survived the ejection of the bathwater.
A ferociously quick, easier-to-use, easier-tounderstand and future-proofed McLaren with the timeless quality of truly great steering – too good to be true?
A PHEV TO CONVINCE THE SCEPTICS Until the Artura’s existence was confirmed, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt used to answer every electrification question with the same answer: we’ll do it, but it can’t weigh two tonnes.
When this project began, then, you imagine the second objective scrawled on the whiteboard just beneath the first – ‘Create a series-production hybrid’ – was ‘Keep it light’. There’s evidence of this all-consuming drive to reduce mass all over the Artura, from its new tub through its lightweight wheels to its stumpy wheelbase. Why a short wheelbase? In part because it helps a car feel more agile, but primarily because, as head of electric drive Dr Sunoj George puts it, ‘When you shrink the wheelbase you effectively also take a slice out of the car – structure, body, cooling system, wiring – and reduce weight.’
If a wheelbase shorter than the outgoing, V8-engined 570S and a dry weight of 1395kg (1498kg DIN) look conspicuously like success, it’s because that focus never wavered. For example, the McLaren is resolutely rear-driven, unlike the triple-motor Ferrari SF90 or ⊲
MESMERISING STEERING IS ONE BABY THAT LOOKS TO HAVE SURVIVED THE EJECTION OF THE BATHWATER
Honda NSX. So, where those cars offer allwheel drive and positive front-axle torque manipulation, the Artura cannot.
But the Artura’s lighter, purer, and somehow more McLaren. Dr George: ‘More powered axles mean more weight. The NSX is not light. And while a powered front axle brings options, it also brings a lack of continuity in torque delivery. That corrupts the drivability, which we consider really important. We’ve kept the powertrain simple, relatively speaking, while still providing the driver with the best experience possible.’
So, while the Artura heralds a new age (we’re expecting similar V6-engined PHEVs from the likes of Ferrari and possibly Aston in due course), it promises – unless you’re in E-mode – to drive like a fit McLaren; no torque-steer, no front-axle wheelspin, purity intact.
Fit? Combined outputs of 671bhp and 531lb ft make for a set of numbers more hypercar than supercar: 0-62mph in 3.0sec (0.2sec faster than the 570S), 0-124mph in 8.3sec (more than a second quicker than the 570S), 205mph and, on the flipside, that 19-mile e-only range and some outlandishly good economy and CO2 figures.
The detail engineering is deliciously logical. The 577bhp V6’s 120° vee angle gives plenty of space between the cylinder banks for the big hot-in-vee turbos, while also reducing the centre of gravity and optimising the intake and exhaust plumbing. A balance shaft down the centre of the engine smooths the 3.0-litre unit and, together with the layout’s short, exceptionally stiff crank, lets it spin to a heady 8500rpm and make more power than the old 3.8-litre V8 in 570S trim. All this while being physically shorter and lighter, and ready for the 2030 ban nine years early…
The e-motor, engine and transmission are so tightly integrated they’re best considered as a single drive unit, rather than three discrete entities. Indeed they’re so integrated they share bearings, and because the e-motor can provide reverse drive, the gearbox can lose its reverse gear and move from seven forward speeds to eight without adding weight. McLaren ran simulations of a gearbox with seven speeds versus eight but ultimately plumped for the latter largely on grounds of its increased sense of driver engagement. Like a Hollywood chase scene, the more you work the paddles, the more breathlessly invested you are. Which bodes well for an emotive, rather than an unrelentingly violent but unaffecting, driving experience.
Last but by no means least is the e-differential, a first for McLaren, which promises to bring the same level of intimacy to your relationship with the rear axle that McLaren’s trademark steering set-ups have routinely fostered with the fronts.
DO WE THINK THERE’LL BE MAGIC? Picture the scene. It’s warm – T-shirt warm – and the Mediterranean sun bathes the world in a perfect zenithal luminescence. A circuit – empty, dry, yours – awaits. You approach your McLaren, captivated by its proportions; low, short, small and cab-forward, like a turbo-era F1 car in a 21st century carapace.
Swing open the dihedral door, climb in – easier now that the carbon sill is less obstructive. If you like your supercars extrovert, obtuse and punishing, you will not be happy in the Artura. But everyone else will be delighted. The steering wheel remains free of controls. There is no head-up display, because the Artura’s engineers didn’t fancy packaging the required shoebox in the dashboard or putting anything – even a projected digital image – between you and the blacktop you’re driving.
The driver’s display is now mounted to the steering wheel, sliding and adjusting with it for a perfect driving position. Its binnacle is also home to the new drive-mode controls: two Elva-style toggles to be toyed with on the fly by your fingertips, hands on the wheel. Flit ⊲
LOW AND CAB-FORWARD, LIKE A TURBO-ERA F1 CAR IN A 21ST CENTURY CARAPACE
between powertrain – E-mode, Comfort, Sport and Track – and chassis modes, which adjust the adaptive dampers’ pliancy, among other things. Choose also from three ESC settings: on, off and dynamic.
‘Our cooker-knob mode controls worked well in the past. But because they were less accessible you tended to latch them and leave them alone,’ explains McLaren’s user experience guru Mike Duxbury. ‘The fact that you also then had to prod the active button made it more of an event but, again, less accessible. Now, because we have the hybrid powertrain, you’ll switch more, using them almost as you do gearshift paddles.’ Like a modern Formula 1 pilot you’ll be resource manager as well as driver, juggling state of charge and performance to ensure you can simultaneously shatter lap records and pull onto your driveway in silence.
For meaty infotainment tasks there’s a central touchscreen, with volume knob and home button, but most things can be accomplished on the multi-function driver’s display, toggled using the lower left-hand stalk. In there you’ll find launch control and a Saab nightmode-inspired Stealth setting, which darkens all non-essential information.
Start the car, roll out of the pits in E-mode. (The lithium-ion battery, which sits in its own structural safety cell, always maintains a reserve for starting and reversing, and can charge either from the mains or by harvesting from the combustion engine.) The only sounds are the ping of sticky Pirellis flinging stray stones into the wheel wells and the whir of the distant electric motor (which is less than half the weight of the P1’s e-motor yet 33 per cent more power-dense).
But we’re not here to drive a £200k, 94bhp EV. Switch modes, utter a prayer, nail it.
What the Artura actually feels like to drive we don’t yet know. But if it’s lacklustre we’d be surprised. The specification, from the ultra-rigid tub through the double-wishbone suspension (informed in its geometry in part by recent LT development) to the carbon-ceramic brakes, is flawless. And then there’s the evidence elsewhere of the same ruthless focus that informed the engineering of the powertrain, not least an electro-hydraulic power steering, as opposed to an electrically-assisted set-up, the industry norm.
‘Steering feel is so, so important for us,’ explains chief engineer Geoff Grose. ‘We have a light steering feel but it’s also very precise; we have that texture of feedback. Key to that is the electro-hydraulic steering. We really wanted to keep that – it’s been very important. Fans of our cars won’t be disappointed.’
Neither, we suspect, would founder Bruce.
WHAT THE ARTURA FEELS LIKE TO DRIVE WE DON’T YET KNOW. BUT IF IT’S LACKLUSTRE WE’D BE SURPRISED