We know, we know. You likely don’t have the $320,00 MSRP laying around to bop into your local McLaren dealer to score a 2025 McLaren Artura Spider. Neither do we but once you sit in one, run the thing through the gears, clip apexes on your favorite road, and enjoy the awe of wide eyed passengers like we did you’ll start to make plans, any plans, to find it. When it comes to driving modern super cars, let’s be real, it’s hard to sit here and find faults and issues. We were prepared to get into this car, experience a harsh ride, cramped cockpit, and various quirks owners would have to look past but the major issue was really the fact that none of those things actually existed. As totally wacko as it is to say, this is a car you could comfortably and easily drive every day. We’re guessing few, probably less than that, actually will but we were kind of awe struck as how this car acted from the moment we got in it to the moment the keys were pried from our hands.
Beyond the obvious, this car is gorgeous. Some have called the styling on the verge of being inspired by aliens and we can kind of see that. Most super cars fall into the same silhouette category, right? Long, low, wide, some wildly angular and some are curvaceous enough to make a guy seasick just looking at them. The Artura actually blends these disparate elements into one package that draws looks no matter where you are, no matter what others are driving, and no matter who’s next to you. The majority of owners buy these cars for the cache of the name and the visceral appeal of seeing and being seen in them. It’s a pretty intoxicating thing. It’s also kind of weird when you are just out doing normal things and the crowds gather every time you lift one of the vertically opening doors.
It’s an incredible driving experience but for everyone else, it’s also a show just to be near it.
Before we get into too much depth on the driving experience let’s talk about a few of the truly memorable design features. Our favorite were the amazing class buttresses that run from the back to the cockpit down to mid section of the car’s massive aft section. They are not just beautiful, they are also functional. There are the various air extractors that vent heat from the engine bay, the large exhaust pipes that exit the rear like the tail cones of a turbine engine. Those pipes let out a wonderful range of noise from the reserved tones of cruising in Comfort mode to the unbridled wail of full throttle acceleration in race mode. And no, these are not V8 noises, the Artura is powered by a V6…and electricity.
We’d show you that engine, a 3.0L twin turbocharged V6 but there’s an issue. You can’t really see it and you can’t really access it, especially if you are a journalist on a test drive for a couple of days. That engine makes more than 550hp on its own and it is bolstered by an electric motor that bumps the whole package to 690 total horsepower with instant torque and a seamless blending of the gas engine and the electric enhancer. The transmission is an eight speed dual clutch unit that shifts faster than anything we have ever experienced in any street car before. Saying that the shifts are instant would be underselling it by a bunch.
As much as dihedral doors have been a bit of a cliche on cars of this type and style, they are a dramatic and frankly awesome part of the 2025 McLaren Artura Spider. Who wants to own a car like this and NOT pop a door UP to get in and out of the machine? The very low roofline makes these doors a reasonable necessity as it allows a pretty graceful ingress and egress even for those of us who won’t soon be winning gold medals for gymnastics or trying out for a pro level sports team. Long story short, people of all shapes and sizes can get in and out of the Artura without making a scene of themselves but once those doors open, we guarantee people will be paying attention, even at your local cars and coffee.
Once you get in the real magic of the Artura gets to you. McLaren cars have always been known to have classy, simple, and driver designed interiors. This is absolutely the case here. The materials are of suede, various microfiber blends, leather, and of course carbon fiber but not so much as to be gaudy. To us the Artura is exceptionally classy while also being audacious. A tough balancing act but one that McLaren has pulled off with aplomb.
The small dash moves with the wheel when it is adjusted, the small and functional center screen is placed to be out of the way of knees, and the simplistic button selection in the center console is definitely classy minimalist to the max. There are a few well placed buttons for basic functions and then are well placed and easily accessible.
As you can see, the foot box is relatively narrow which is par for the course in a supercar like this. There was room for two footed driving in regular shoes and the seat is aligned nicely so you do not feel like you are trying to wedge your legs and feet into a space that they don’t really want to be. Then there are the seats.
These things are power adjustable, insanely comfortable, and they hold you EXACTLY the way you’d want to be gripped for a performance driving experience. This car can pull 1.08g on the skid-pad so lateral hold is a big need here and it exists and does so comfortably with multiple body types. We had NBA tall and skinny guys in here, some short stocky ones (hey why is everyone looking at me?) petite women, and more and all said the same thing in that the seats felt like they were personally tailored to them. That’s the magic of the Artura, it’s a usable car that wants to be driven and driven with the top down.
A press of a button and 11 seconds of mechanical ballet take place to make the roof disappear in such a fashion the car looks like it never left the factory with one in the first place. We’ve often talked over the years about how we prefer hard tops over convertibles and we’re not going back on that. The open topped driving experience in the car is wonderful because of how the exhaust sounds, how the air rushing over you feels and how it connects you to the greater world around you. Because of the windshield rake and the open tunnel like area between the two headrests, the air flows gracefully through the cockpit. Like everything else about the Artura, even the air has been scienced out. You are not sitting in a hurricane but a pleasant breeze when you rip down the road.
The view of the interior with the roof off certainly gives an even more clear picture of how simple, upscale, and elegant it is while being simple. It’s not about gadgets, it’s not about distractions, it’s about presenting the driver an environment to bond with the car and the passenger an environment to be comfortable while their senses are being stimulated in every possible way.
The spec sheet is a dazzling collection of numbers. 10 second quarter mile runs, 3-second 0-60 runs, rips over 100mph from a standing start in a little more than 5 seconds, and the 1+ G on the skid pad. The massive carbon brakes stop like nothing we have never driven as one can imagine.
Cars like the Artura show us what is possible when the focal point of a car is not just the specs but how it translates to the driver. All cars are compromises, even machines like the Artura. Their success or failure rides on how those compromises are managed and executed. There is no perfect car but boy, the Artura is damned close when it comes to the things all gear heads dream about in one package.
In some ways it ruins everything else and in others it makes one excited for the possibilities coming ahead.
