McLAREN ARTURA SPIDER

Convertible's arrival coincides with major mechanical revisions for PHEV supercar

- MATT SAUNDERS

TESTED 6.6.24, MONACO

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Michael Leiters wants to take McLaren's cars back towards its motorsport roots; to draw clearer and more evocative parallels between them and the racing machines for which it's even more widely known.

That sounds sensible, but the two years he's had in the job of CEO is a short time in product development terms. Isn't it too early to try to judge any Leiter's effect? Well, perhaps it isn't. The 750S certainly shows signs of a shift in priorities towards the wild, expressive and dramatic (see p46), and now we know that its little sibling, the revised Artura plug-in hybrid supercar, does too.

'Revised' might be the wrong term, actually. It feels more as if the Artura's launch has been reset. Leiters came to the chair in Woking around the time of the Artura's delayed and troubled arrival. Significant technical revisions followed, but sales have been slow to do likewise, executives admit.

So, in addition to a drop-top body-style, McLaren has given the Artura powertrain, suspension and interior updates for the 2025 model year. It's not a night-and-day-different sort of mid-engined supercar, but it is more forthcoming in its persona, firmer-riding; more urgent-feeling and more powerful in how it gets down the road.