30-05-2025
McLaren Calls Artura The 'Everyday Supercar.' How Does It Hold Up?
It'll catapult you towards the horizon, dole out near jet-fighter cornering Gs, and usually generate some kind of reaction from other road users and pedestrians wherever you go.
But then you'd expect that: it's a supercar. But I'm not going to regale you with all the usual supercar superlatives: I'll tell you what it's actually like to live with.
McLaren says the 671bhp, 205mph Artura is the "everyday supercar". It's one of those phrases easily dismissed... but this time, my first in a McLaren, it sets my cogs whirring.
Most supercars are simply not everyday-usable, whether for the amount of road space they occupy, 200mph-plus V-max, 3 seconds 0-60mph times, cruise liner turning circles, Boeing 777 fuel consumption, or, as I've experienced, cars you can't on occasion work out how to get into, out of, start or switch off.
Such traits can suit those who thrive on mastering the complex, but if you have a collection of hyper-vehicles, don't you want a day off every now and again...?
After all, how often can you use their full potential?
Putting The "Everyday" Claim To The Test
I decided to put the "everyday" claim to the test. And when I told McLaren my plan I expected "everyday" to be suddenly qualified with caveats.
But no: "I think you'll find it's a really useable supercar. We've customers in their 20s, but our oldest is 96; we're getting more female customers, and one customer has done 10,000 miles since he bought his three months ago," Marcus Snee of McLaren Manchester, England, tells me over a coffee.
"Everyday" is beginning to gather credibility.
However, first, there's no elegant way to get into most supercars; no pain, no gain, goes the saying. Marcus' colleague Dan Nunn slides in to the passenger seat, clearly well-practiced, to brief me on the Artura's controls.
I expected a marathon session going through all sorts of F-35 fighter jet-style screen menus and sub-menus, but two things provided a first impression: a manual lever-under-the-seat back-and-forth adjustment, and a button-free steering wheel. Wow. Not even a basic compact car goes without steering wheel buttons in 2025.
Meanwhile, the various power and handling modes are on rocker switches a finger's reach away, and…
... and, you know what, I'll leave describing the rest of the controls: this car is Ergonomics-R-Us. All very logical, you catch on very quickly.
Deploying The "T-Junction" Test
Cars of whatever status are transport, and you're not the only road user. Your progress depends upon fellow drivers, and some cars divide opinion, even provoking impeding of your movements by others.
So I've a simple test to judge other road users' attitude to cars: the "T-junction test".
If I pull up, in this case in the UK, to turn left into the traffic flow, will other drivers let me in? It's unscientific, but there's no doubt certain cars niggle fellow road users.
But an orange McLaren...? I'd say I was allowed out into traffic more easily than with just about any other car I've subjected to the T-junction test.
People smile at this car, maybe because it's a McLaren, possibly because of its color. They give way to it at obstructions, and while I'd deliberately crawl away from traffic signals, more often than not the car in the next lane waited for me to move first.
This is becoming potential psychology thesis content.…
Next, the supermarket parking lot test. UK and European parking spaces are smaller than in North America: the Artura's 1.913 metre width (75 inches, 4 inches narrower than a BMW X5) means it slots into standard UK bays, its vertically-opening doors a boon. But in reality, even if a $250,000 Artura is your least valuable car you're still going to be wary of door dings courtesy neighbouring car-parkers.
But will it go up my gravelled English drive, between gateposts that have been there since the 1700s? Easily; six inches to spare either side. But it's sloped. Slopes are expensive supercar carbon-fibre front splitter killers, but the McLaren, like many supercars, has a handy button to raise the front suspension an inch or so.
So why are other road users so friendly towards the Artura?
Car Hierarchy, And Being Let Out Of A Junction
Edmund King, President of the UK's AA (Automobile Association) says auto-psychology is an interesting subject.
"There's a hierarchy of cars based on whether that car is a challenge to us and our car," he says. For example, if you have a regular and popular car, say a Kia Sportage or Nissan Qashqai, then you don't feel challenged by a McLaren, so you let them out at junctions. But if a similar but smaller popular car is at the junction, then drivers are less likely to let them out."
So what's one owner's experience of the T-junction test?
Entrepreneur Richard Lishman, 53, from South Wales, could well be racking up miles in his silver Artura faster than anyone else in the world, around 3,000 a month - so he's well qualified to talk about day-to-day life on the road with a supercar.
"Other drivers in close proximity, such as T-junctions and the like, are very courteous," he says.
"I use my Artura daily, whether going to the supermarket six miles away, or on hour-long drives just for the pleasure of it, and tours around the UK with my wife. It's a cracking car; I smile just thinking about driving it.
"If I'm out on a drive and pass through a quiet town or village I just drop it into EV mode, then when I'm through and up to 40mph again the engine kicks back in.
'Cabin space is great, buttons all in the right place. Just a couple of things to be mindful of such as the tyres being very expensive and if you're parking when you open the door, because it opens vertically, you need to be careful not to catch your door mirror on the mirror of any car you've parked next to.'
I'd add to those points good visibility out of the car, a non-negotiable in McLaren design briefs, and a surprisingly tight turning circle. Many a supercar owner has had an awkward moment running out of steering lock in front of an audience…
Fuel consumption in engine-only mode was OK-ish at around 20 miles per UK gallon (mpg), but once you get your head around the hybrid features, on-the-move battery charging and using electric mode (it has a 21 mile electric-only range), McLaren claims nearly 60 mpg is achievable, although that's probably with a tippy-toes driving style. However, a did see a progressively rising 40 mpg on what I'd call an everyday 170 mile run, driving normally. In a 205mph supercar…
I did 700 miles on familiar routes, and once in the rhythm of the road I'd almost forget I was in the McLaren, whether in fast-moving traffic or crawling through a town.
An everyday supercar?
It's a work of Artura.
