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Saturday, Nov 09, 2024

Mclaren Artura : The Pioneering Hybrid Supercar

Ben Bach
The beautiful lines of a futuristic new design language. The instant power of a pioneering hybrid engine. Advanced carbon fiber engineering combines with ultra-modern interior design.

This is new. Not as in new-improved, but new as in new. The first MP4-12C was 25,000 McLarens ago, and every model since has basically been new-improved, or new-cut-price. They run different versions of the same V8 engine with more or less power and sometimes hybrid boost, the same seven-speed transmission, basically the same suspension, different versions of the same composite tub (well, except the three-seat Speedtail).

The Artura chucks away all that the hardware, while, you've got to hope, embodying the knowledge gained in a decade of ceaseless optimisation. Every single one of the systems I listed in that first paragraph has been swapped out for something entirely fresh. New as in new.

It's a plug-in hybrid. The Artura's 671bhp falls some way short of the McLaren's original hybrid, the 903bhp P1, though its £182,500 sticker is a whole lot less. You’ll remember that the P1, along with the Porsche 918 and LaFerrari, elevated the hypercar bar so high that none of those manufacturers has been ready with a successor in the eight years since.

Anyway we have moved, haven't we, beyond the time when adding hybrid boost to a fast car would bring out the pitchfork mob. A quick ogle at the world's supercar-dealer websites – if you can have a quick ogle without getting snagged into endless fantasy diversions – reveals that P1s are advertised at about £1.5 million these days, and Sennas, which are supposed to lap roughly as fast but don't have hybrid, are half that. OK the P1 is the rarer, prettier and more collectable of the pair, but I think my point stands: the market doesn't distain hybrids.



Up to now, the hybrids – P1 and Speedtail – have been the apex of McLaren's range at squillionaire prices. No longer. The Artura is in effect a replacement for the 570S. You know, the McLaren for the people. The GT will continue, and the 720S. The Artura's price and power output neatly split those two. McLaren has a habit when it introduces any new supercar of claiming (and usually delivering) that it can combine the dynamics of the last-gen harum-scarum LT model with the comfort and usability of one of the core cars. Same this time. We're told the Artura is as much fun as a 600LT. If it is, then we are very much game on. It has similar performance numbers too.

Those numbers are 0-62mph in 3.0 seconds, and 0-125 in 8.3, en route to 205mph. You might possibly feel a mild deficit between that kinda thrust and what you get by paying more for a 720S or indeed Ferrari F8. But what I'm expecting is something more striking: a different kind of thrust development. "We knew we had homework to do on throttle response," admitted an engineer. Perhaps because we've been telling you for years that McLaren’s V8 is sizzling near the red-line but laggy in the mid-revs. So the new V6's instant-responding electric motor is claimed to cut that delay in half, and that'll surely make things more controllable in corners as well as straights.

The electric motor is a disc-shaped axial-flux unit just 65mm thick, sandwiched in the clutch housing, and as it turns at crank speed you can simply add its output to the engine's. Which means 577bhp from the V6 and 94 from the motor equals 671. For torque you can't add them because the motor's peak torque is at lower revs than the engine's. It's 431lb ft from the engine, and a total of 530. The motor's peak is 166lb ft, and it arrives the moment you ask.


Engine


The Artura uses an all-new 2,993 cc (3.0 L; 182.6 cu in) twin-turbocharged V6 engine paired with an electric motor to produce a combined output of 680 PS; 671 hp (500 kW) at 7,500 rpm and 720 N⋅m (531 lb⋅ft) of torque at 2,250 rpm. On its own, the engine produces 585 PS; 577 hp (430 kW) and 584 N⋅m (431 lb⋅ft) of torque. The all-aluminum engine has a bank angle of 120 degrees, a world first for a production V6 engine. This is to accommodate a hot-vee layout, where the two turbochargers are placed in the vee of the engine. Power is sent to the rear wheels through an all-new 8 speed dual-clutch transmission. Redline is at 8,500 rpm.


Electric motor


The electric motor used in the Artura produces 95 PS (94 hp; 70 kW) and 225 N⋅m (166 ft⋅lb) of torque. The combined torque peak is less than the sum of both sides as the output is limited to "optimize powertrain drivability characteristics." The 7.4-kWh lithium-ion battery pack weighs 88 kg (194 lb) and is positioned under the rear of the passenger compartment. McLaren claims a 2.5-hour time for an 80 percent charge using an EVSE cable and a 19-mile (30.6 Km) electric range under European testing methodology. This motor replaces the reverse gear, similar to the Ferrari SF90 Stradale. The total mass of all electrical components is 130 kg (287 lb), which means that the Artura has a kerb weight only 46 kg (102 lb) more than that of its predecessor, the McLaren 570S.


Performance


According to McLaren, the Artura can accelerate to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds, to 200 km/h (124 mph) in 8.3 seconds, can achieve a maximum speed of 330 km/h (205 mph), and has a 1⁄4 mile (402 m) time of 10.7 seconds

Price starts at 225,000$

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