IT feels quite bizarre to describe the McLaren Artura Spider as “entry level”.
After all, it’s one of the most beautiful cars I’ve ever driven. It’s a supercar through and through with serious motoring chops, a stunning body, and comes packed with loads of top tech.
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But the Artura – a hybrid powerhouse that’s now about four years old – really is the gateway vehicle to the McLaren universe. So yes, it’s technically entry-level.
The Artura Spider is the newer version. It’s the one with the roof that goes down. Much, much more on that later.
It starts at £221,000, which is the price of a house in many parts of the country. And it started to feel like a house to me, because I spent most of my five-day road test inside the car. I felt sad handing the keys back.
This is an impossibly beautiful car. It gets looks everywhere you go. Children whoop and cheer. Adults do too.
Grown humans stopped me in pub car parks and petrol station forecourts to talk about how brilliant it looked.
It’s like the car is a celebrity. And rightly so, given the hefty stack of cash you have to hand over to own one.
And then you put the roof down, and that star power gets turned up to 11.
Then it goes off the charts when you open the gullwing doors to get out.
If it was a work of art before, well, now it belongs in the Louvre.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
HI-TECH STUNNER
The Artura Spider is a hybrid supercar designed and built in Britain by McLaren.
The hybrid part means you can start this car up silently (your neighbours will thank you, if they don’t already hate you out of pure jealousy), and drive away just like it was an EV.
But it also packs a tremendously musical 3-litre twin-turbo V6 engine that sounds incredible.
Stick the car in Sport mode before hitting McLaren’s big orange Start button and it roars to life, letting everyone within a three mile radius know you’re about to pop to Tesco.
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This car will go from zero to 60mph in three seconds flat. Its pace is incredible. The speedo climbs effortlessly upwards at breakneck speed.
It’ll do a quarter mile in 10.8 seconds, and has a top speed of 205mph.
The car weighs between 1,450 and 1,550 kilos depending on fuel, made feathery light thanks to vast amounts of carbon fibre and hyper-efficient British engineering.
It serves up 690 brake horsepower, comes fitted with carbon ceramic brake discs, and a full set of Pirelli P Zero tyres.
The Artura glides around corners with minimal sway, and tears across the tarmac with striking stability. It feels like you’re part of the road.
As expected, it’s fun to drive.
And it’s made all the more fun by the roof coming down.
It retracts electronically in under 11 seconds, which is impressively speedy.
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And it even works at speeds of up to 31mph. It’s a great feeling as it goes back while cruising along.
But what’s even better is when you’re walking up to the car and retract the roof with a button press. It makes getting into the car feel like an event.
TECH A LOOK AT THIS
Inside, you’ve got a classic McLaren cabin, which is all about the driver.
The car I drove had a plush tan interior, which was set beautifully against the Tempest Blue exterior paint job (a new colour option for 2026).
It’s compact, but you’re comfortable. There’s no loads of storage, but you’ve got a decent sized front trunk (or frunk) that fits a weekend bag, and a few cubbies inside the cabin.
There’s a fairly easy-to-navigate infotainment tablet that lets you control music, navigation, and adjust the interior lighting.
And it also supports Apple CarPlay (but wired only).
A nice touch is the vertical wireless phone charger that keeps your mobile locked in place.
MCLAREN ARTURA SPIDER SPECS
The tech specs on the model tested by The Sun…
- Engine: M630 3.0 litre twin-turbo V6
- Power: 690bhp
- Chassis: MCLA carbon fibre monocoque
- Brakes: Carbon Ceramic Discs (390mm front, 380mm rear)
- Tyres: Pirello P Zero
- Length: 4,539mm
- Wheelbase: 2,640mm
- Height: 1,193mm
- Width: 2,080mm
- 0-60mph: 3.0 seconds
- 1/4 mile: 10.8 seconds
- Max speed: 205mph (electronically limited)
- EV range: 21 miles
Picture Credit: McLaren
So that’ll stop your iPhone flying across the cabin when you’re driving around…spiritedly.
There’s a 12-speaker sound system created by Bowers & Wilkins.
And right behind your head is a high-frequency speaker that only activates when the roof is down.
That’ll let you hear those typically-drowned highs while driving with the top down.
The seats are 10-way electrically adjustable, with the option to set and save driver profiles.
There’s adaptive cruise control, which I hardly bothered with. I think that’s a sign of a good car. If you want the car to drive for you, why are you buying a McLaren?
Anyway, it works fine – but I was glad to switch it off and get back to driving properly.
You’ve got parking sensors and a rear camera, plus a top-down 360-camera view that is very useful for not scratching your posh motor.
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I know I’ve banged on about the roof a lot already, but it gets even better.
The car also had a sun roof with suspended particle technology that can dim and brighten with a touch.
So you can let in more sunlight or block it out just by pressing an overhead button, and the transformation is instant.
The steering wheel is attached to a single adjustable instrument binnacle that can go up and down – and forwards and back – using an easy electronic control.
It packs in the speedo and other instruments, your gear paddles (which pivot so either side can be used to go up or down a gear), and rocker switches for swapping the powertrain and handling modes.
You’ve got Comfort, Sport, and Track, plus an EV mode with a maximum range of 19 to 21 miles.
I had the most fun in Sport. Track isn’t really for daily driving, and Comfort is nice for a peaceful trip. But Sport is where you get the thrills.
The Artura Spider is a hi-tech supercar that ticks all the right boxes in terms of design, gadgets, and performance.
The worst thing about it? Handing the keys back to McLaren.
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