McLaren has unveiled its first ‘clean sheet’ supercar since the game-changing 12C a decade ago, replacing almost every facet of its V8-engined Sports and Super Series models with an all-new design that provides early clues about how it will deal with the age of electrification.
The car, called the Artura and available to order now from £185,500, is a plugin hybrid with a governed 205mph top speed and 3.0sec 0-60mph acceleration.
In addition to the explosive performance, it can cruise for up to 19 miles on battery power alone and its combined fuel economy exceeds 50mpg.
At the kerb, the Artura weighs just 27kg more than a 720S even though its 671bhp powertrain consists of a newly designed twin-turbo V6 engine, a 92bhp electric motor and a 7.4kWh battery, all mated to a new eight-speed gearbox. The hybrid components weigh 130kg in their own right, showing the extent of McLaren’s weight-saving measures across the rest of the new car.
With the arrival of the Artura, McLaren is ditching its confusing policy of using numbers to distinguish its cars, in favour of names.
Also disappearing is the demarcation between Sports and Super Series models: the new car is positioned as a supercar, above the recently launched GT but below the £220,000 720S. McLaren has already confirmed that a full-electric model is under development and scheduled to hit the market “after 2025”.
Chassis and body design
The Artura has an all-new central carbonfibre tub that’s lighter than the one previous cars used, with aluminium crash beams front and rear and an aluminium rear subframe to support the engine and rear suspension. The ‘shrinkwrapped’ body panels are a combination of carbonfibre and Superformed aluminium.
The new passenger cell, made at McLaren’s Sheffield carbon works, weighs just 82kg, even though it extends further rearward than its predecessors to incorporate a super-stiff, crash-proof battery carrier.
It looks broadly similar to the outgoing components, but McLaren says the new chassis uses four new carbon materials, a new resin and a new structural core for greater stiffness. In addition, several bonded metal parts in the previous cars, including the windscreen surround, are replaced by carbon.
Although everything about the Artura’s structure is new, it seems there is an optimal size for a McLaren. Like the 570S and 720S, the Artura is a little over 4.5m in length and just under 2.0m wide but its 2640mm wheelbase shaves 30mm from that of the previous cars, aiding agility.
The Artura’s impressively low kerb weight of 1495kg results from a concerted weight-saving campaign that began four years ago. “Every drop of McLaren’s experience and expertise has been poured into Artura,” said McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt. “Its introduction is a landmark moment.”
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How about a version with no phev crap in, 150kg lighter and 20k cheaper then let the buyer decide.
Auto express have a video walk round, still not impressed with the looks, inside is better, and the price compared to say a Ferrari Tributo makes it a bargain in super car category.
Would be interesting to know more technical details of how the hybrid system works and how the car is packaged. But I think McLaren is right to pursue what is in effect the mild hybrid route. This keeps the weight low, while providing at least some pure electric range and nicely "cheating" the official fuel consumption / CO2 test figures. Mild hybrids don't have to be complicated and heavy and do at least offer some useful benefit in low speed stop start use.