McLaren Artura - New Hybrid

Not sure about the name, maybe it will grow on me

https://mclarenchat.com/forum/news/1412


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And here is more or less what it will look like

https://mclarenchat.com/forum/news/1390
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https://mclarenchat.com/forum/news/1485

Release is set for Feb 16!

 

Teaser video! Love the green color

 

Harry likes it! Better 'driving pleasure and feeling engaged' OVER the 296!

Jump to 16:20 for likes/dislikes



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Matt Farrah/Smoking Tire - he likes it. a LOT. Better overall than the 296. Not as fast, but almost $100k cheaper and better daily.

Jump to 3:45 to start



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Mine arrives in April/May. Did an extended test drive and was very impressed. Very nice car. Will be my daily driver.

 

Yum- When I bought my 458 Spider in 2019 I was sorely tempted by 570S but didnt like the looks and stayed loyal to Ferrari and love my 458- That said, this is tempting. Frankly I have zero desire for any "hybrid" but as loyal as I am to Ferrari just from a looks standpoint only this smokes the 296 and SF90 IMHO- I will be stricken with an Italian lightning bolt-

 

I just cancelled my Artura order. Not cause I dont like the car. I do. But Im about to close the deal on a 675 LT and its in white. I had ordered my Artura in white. My wife not a fan of white cars so if I put in another Artura order, it will now arrive end of the year which is when my 750 facelift car is going to come. So looks like no Artura for me.

 

Got 30 minutes of LV Strip, open service roads, freeway and back streets in a factory Artura today - my first McLaren drive. Very impressed.

I'll start by saying that the McLaren HQ rep Kurt was cool and let me push the car around after I had my bearings. Also important, we started reviewing my car experience (and which car review youtubers I watch) and he immediately began to explain things in Ferrari-comparison terms, and as a Car Guy. Sometimes you test drive and they're just reciting things from the press release and have no depth of knowledge.

The Highlights

• Really impressed with the rigidity of the carbon tub, the stability gives a lot of confidence
  
• The torque through second and third had me grinning, it really digs in and goes [Insert "Youtuber Gasping Face"/insert]
  
• Steering was right on for being sharp but not overly darty, nicely weighted - put another way, it did what I expected and I wasn't thinking about it and I got to push it on a couple of corkscrews and onramp/offramps.
• I liked the toggle switches on the top of the dash for suspension and transmission - again simple, worked fine and without the vagueness of touchpads

Downside:

• The exhaust sound is 'meh.' Not awful, actually pretty decent for a V6TT. Has some drone to it in the middle RPMs and a little muffled, Porsche-like. 296 has a much better crisper sound.
• Depreciation?

Other thoughts:

• I like the looks, especially that side intake which is quite Ferrari-like, and the wide flat rear decklid
  
• Far more leg room than expected, I actually had to move the seat forward an inch or two
• Laterally it's more snug, our arms and shoulders were a little close; smaller armrest area but comparable to 296
• Once moving, the size is just right for a "sportscar" - maybe slightly larger than a Cayman
  
• Like the 296 it started in EV mode. It's fine for traffic, but less peppy than the 296 EV FWIW (which is not really important to me)
  
• Fantastic little CF steering wheel and paddles. So refreshingly simple.
• Some learning curve with the paddles turning with the wheel - during a turn I accidentally pulled the windshield wiper spray stalk with my fingertips not realizing the paddle was 45º away
• After 5 minutes of manual shifting and getting my bearings on the shift points, I was comfortable in Track/Track for suspension and ride - that was intuitive coming from Ferrari systems
• There's a stereo volume knob on the side of the touch screen which is genius these days - an intuitive control that required no guesswork
  
• Bowers & Wilkins stereo had pleasant amount of bass and depth - if it's the typical $5-8k upgrade, I would for sure do that
• The chimney is a clever idea, wild to see the hot air coming up from a concentrated stream like that as opposed to the Ferrari grates, at a stop it distorts your vision in the rear view like a volcano of heat waves

Honestly it has me thinking... This is a fantastic car. 296 is $400k+, and this is high 200s [and might already have some incentives?], this feels like 90%+ of the 296 for 70% of the price. This also me want to try a 720S, which might be even better value for money.

I need more garage space. And money!

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Im sure it drives great, to look at meh, its a step backwards from the 600lt..

 

saw it in the flesh, looks meh.
If McLaren could get some great styling and engine sound, they'd really have something.

 

Compared to the 296 GTB it looks like any Mac made 10 years ago.

 

Except not as good, more bland.
If Mac made a car that looked something closer toa mc20 and sounded like a 296 thy'd really have something.
Mac has been an engineer focussed company since the MC12, what needs turning up is the emotional content that's part of any exotic, and just plain ol great styling.

the 600lt was definitely one of the good ones and the whole 570 shape was a step in the direction of techno meets curves and design. Then with the artura theyve abandoned that.
At the Lv concors the night before on the roof there were all the a McLaren's from Mp12 to Senna to Elva. I thought the p1 looked best, compact and neat. Im a senna fan simply cause its so out there, but while purposeful its clumsy as are the rest.

Imo if you really want to succeed in the exotic world you gotta have it all, styling for 1, great motor with great "vibes/sound", feedback for the driver, and performance metrics. Ferrari when its on its game aces all of these. The lambo Hurricane once it was developed/evolved had it all in spades too. The new NSX was a flop cause it had none, except maybe the metrics. MC 20 has the looks, but not enough fo the rest, it doesn't know what it wants to be, but imo could be easily fixed.

Vette gets away with some childish and disjointed styling because of price, and also because it has presence like a big lambo, never fails to grab the eye when approaching head on, and they're doing different versions, lux Gt to wild and wilder.. Thats the Porche 911 playbook and something the mc 20 should adopts, without going all ridiculous on appendages.

A new BMW M2 for 65k does it all really well, so of you're going to sell and exotic it needs styling sound and feel, to go with reasonable useability.

 

If I remember correctly from interviews with Mac people when the car came out, this "blandness" was intentional on their part. They thought the Autura, being a hybrid, was going to be a daily driver and people didn't want it "too flashy" as they drove around it in every day.

IMO, a mistake. While I understand that, they also took out the excitement.

Ferrari did id correctly and decided to make something different from the previous car before it -- and really attractive. The 296 would never be confused with the F8 but the Autura would with several other Macs.

 

if Mac did that intentionally, after flubbing the Mp12 for the same reasons (and improving on the 570) then blowing it on the Gt, then they really should go out of business for stupidity. An exotic does not have to outre, but it needs to be appealing and stylish. Designing a bland daily exoitc, that the failure of the NSX which they had writ large to follow, not to mention their own gt..

A competitor to ferrari they clearly are not.

 

That’s a bit harsh, clearly the 720S/750S and 765LT are wild, Ferrari-competitive exotics.

The Artura is priced right at the Roma, the cheapest Ferrari. McLaren has their GT at nearly 30% less than a Roma.

Aside from maintenance/reliability hesitancy, Artura’s real threat is that a Turbo S is the same price. I think that is what buyers are cross shopping.

 

its designed to go against a Turbo S. Talk about bland. Arturo looks good. not spectacular but I like the looks.

 

Its not "bad" looking. It just looks like every other McLaren. They seem to keep blending in with each other. The 296 GTB is a completely new direction, even if it is a bit retro. But you would not confuse it with other modern F cars.

 

The Roma is more interesting to look at than the Artura. That's kinda what hurts it. Its just not very different where the Roma is.

 

a 3 yr old thread with hardly any comments. that speaks volumes about how its exciting people.

 

Porsche has a design language. Lambo has a design language. Mclaren has a design language.

Ferrari has a bunch of cars the look nothing like each other.

Different strokes for different folks. I think the 296 is fairly boring to look at. sf90 looks good.

 

You do realize they just recently merged the McLaren chat with Ferrari chat.

 

^ mchat was on fchat before it was separated. now rejoined. why not much chatter on mchat?
do we need ferrari owners to keep the discussion alive?