THE GREEN SUPERCAR
McLaren’s latest model has low emissions but still hits 205mph... just another landmark for this bold brand with a racy history
Woking might not be renowned as the most glamorous of towns, but it is home to one of the country’s sleekest car makers. And at the headquarters of legendary British sports car firm McLaren, i was about to step into one of the most cutting-edge hybrid supercars on the planet.
The Artura will cost close to a whopping £200,000 and hit 205 mph — all while retaining some green credentials. First customer deliveries will be from next month.
AT THE WHEEL
IT’S a scintillating drive, but curiously not at all intimidating, A two-seater everyday supercar for when you win the lottery — with two swing-up doors looking like raised insect wings.
Priced from £189,200, McLaren has hailed it as the start of ‘a new era in supercar technology and performance’. But with a huge palette of added extras, most cars will sell for comfortably in excess of £200,000.
And despite being able to accelerate from rest to 62 mph in just three seconds, the super-lightweight Artura is remarkably eco-friendly. Claimed fuel economy is 61.5 mpg and carbon dioxide emissions are just 104 g/km — on a par with some superminis.
In electric- only zero- emissions mode, it will cover up to 19 miles at speeds of up to 81 mph. But that’s not the end of the story. As a hybrid, it generates and harvests extra electric power from braking and cruising en route, helping to achieve an average fuel economy in excess of 60 mpg.
It is powered by a petrol-electric hybrid powertrain combining a 585 horse-power 3.0-litre (2,993 cc) twin-turbo- charged V6 petrol engine with a 95 horse-power electric motor generating a combined 680 horse-power — equivalent to nearly seven Ford Fiestas — and linked to an 8- speed ssg transmission. Reversing is via the electric motor — so saves a gear.
The new mid-engined Artura is also the first model to be built on the firm’s lightweight carbon architecture, created in-house at the company’s new £50 million McLaren Composites Technology Centre near sheffield.
it’s certainly an exciting, if challenging time for McLaren Automotive which employs 3,000 people and pre-pandemic sold about 4,500 cars a year.
McLaren is soon expected to launch its first high-performance sUV into the growing crossover market — with an electric version likely. it has just appointed a new boss — chief executive Michael Leiters — whose previous track record at Porsche and Ferrari has included launching supercar sUVs and crossovers.
And the brand has been at the centre of takeover speculation — with Audi being named as a potential suitor.
BACK TO THE START
McLARen Automotive began life as a standalone operation in 2011 with the launch of the radical McLaren 12C supercar and the opening of a state-of-the-art factory — the McLaren Production Centre — in Woking where it was to be built.
A decade of innovation later, parent McLaren group was formed of McLaren Automotive and a majority stake in McLaren Racing which competes in Formula 1 and indyCar. Another arm, McLaren Applied, was sold last year.
But the story goes back much further. The brand was the brainchild of new Zealander Bruce McLaren, who brought his gift for building and racing cars to europe in 1958. He made an immediate impact by winning the 1959 U.s.
Grand Prix aged 22 years, 80 days, at that time the youngest Grand Prix winner. He went on to win three more.
He started his own team — Bruce McLaren Motor Racing Ltd — in 1963, designing, engineering, building and racing successful cars from Formula 1 to IndyCar and beyond.
He planned to build the world’s highest specification road car — creating a prototype M6GT, but was tragically killed during testing at Goodwood in 1970, aged 32, before it could make production.
However, nearly two decades later that dream began to be realised. A conversation on the way back from the 1988 Italian Grand Prix between McLaren’s then boss Ron Dennis, F1 tycoon Mansour Ojjeh and legendary race- car designer Gordon Murray resulted in a pledge to build the world’s finest drivers’ car.
What emerged was the McLaren F1 — a Formula 1inspired supercar with a lightweight carbon-fibre chassis and a three- seat cockpit which placed the driver in the centre of the car. It proved an immediate sensation.
With only 106 built between 1992 and 1998, owners have included Elon Musk and the late Beatle George Harrison.
At its heart was a BMW 627 horse-power V12 engine giving it a top speed of 240.1 mph — still the fastest for a naturally aspirated production car. It also won Le Mans at the first attempt. But it required careful handling. In 1995 the then BMW boss Bernd Pischetsrieder managed to roll one in Bavaria with two female passengers, though all escaped relatively unharmed.
ON THE ROAD
BUT there have also been plenty of McLaren road cars — for those lucky enough to afford them.
Typically these vehicles have big V8 engines, hit 60 mph in about three seconds and claim to be world firsts (such as the 2019 Speedtail which was the first ‘ Hyper- GT’ reaching speeds of 250 mph).
Other notables include the 12 C and the 720S — described as a ‘true coming of age moment’ for the brand due to a 4.0-litre twin turbo V8 engine and 720 horse-power.
Actor, writer and comedian Rowan Atkinson was another early high-profile customer and long-time McLaren fan. In 2011, the Mr Bean star escaped with an injured shoulder after crashing his F1 into a tree and road sign, before it caught fire near Peterborough in Cambridgeshire.
When I met my fellow Northumbrian at the Frankfurt Motor Show that year and asked him if it had been fixed, he told me: ‘I haven’t had the estimate ... But I have had the estimate for the estimate.’ ‘I can’t blame the car. It was wet,’ he added.
Atkinson’s insurers eventually settled a repair bill of a thenrecord £ 910,000 for the incident.
It was his second prang with the muchloved car he’d driven regularly and in excess of 37,000 miles.
Back in 1999 he was involved in a collision with a Rover Metro, causing damage to the supercar’s bonnet.
He eventually sold it at auction in 2015 for $12.2 million (then about £8 million) — a huge increase on the estimated £640,000 he paid for it with extras back in 1997.
Last August a McLaren F1 sold for $20.456 million at auction in California.
Let’s hope McLaren’s brave new chapter with the Artura goes more smoothly.