The McLaren Artura Spider Makes the Coupe Irrelevant

What more do you need than a 690-horsepower McLaren Spider?

2025 McLaren Artura Spider First Drive Review

Alex Goy

By: Alex Goy

Jun 16, 2024 at 7:01pm ET

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McLaren's convertibles have always been a bit special. They look like they were part of the design plan from the beginning—often more stylish than their hardtop siblings. They also rarely suffer a performance penalty despite the extra weight a retractable roof adds. The 12C, 570S, 650S, 720S, and latest 750S Spiders (and their respective LTs) all look bang on, and you can hardly say they’re lacking in grunt.

Now it's the Artura's turn. McLaren's first full-production hybrid gets the Spider treatment. Not only that, but it comes alongside a raft of changes for the whole Artura lineup, including more power.

Quick Specs 2024 McLaren Artura Spider Engine Twin-Turbo 3.0-Liter V-6 Hybrid Output 690 Horsepower / 531 Pound-Feet 0-60 MPH 3.0 Seconds Weight 3,439 Pounds Price $273,800

The star of the Spider show is undoubtedly its folding hardtop, A single-piece carbon composite panel or fancy electrochromic glass panel that does its thing in just eleven seconds.

McLaren, to give as much rearward visibility as possible, has made the Artura’s flying buttresses see-through here as well. They look better than the solid ones on the coupe and are actually useful in traffic. If you, like McLaren, are worried about weight, the roof and its associated gubbins add 136 pounds, bringing the Spider’s total weight to 3,439 pounds.

Roof aside, the Artura Spider’s biggest trick is its new power output: 690 horsepower and 531 pound-feet of torque. It’s a pleasing bump from the original car’s 671 hp, and if you’ve already got an Artura on the way, McLaren will gladly give it the extra juice. If it seems odd that McLaren unlocked more power so soon after the car’s initial launch, remember that the 12C got the same treatment.

Existing Artura customers may be jazzed with more power, but they might be a touch irked when they hear about the other upgrades. The 2025 Artura has stiffer engine mounts, quicker Proactive Damping Control, a 25% quicker eight-speed gearbox, new brake cooling ducts to keep your stoppers fresher longer, a more tuneful exhaust, and it comes with a ‘Spinning Wheel Pull-Away’ mode. That’s British for ‘Burnout all the things.’ Oh, and the stop/start button is now papaya orange, not red.

Pros: Punishingly Quick, Sounds Great, Steers Beautifully, Excellent Cabin Design

With the extra power on board, you can expect 0-60 mph time of 3.0 seconds, 0-124 mph in 8.4 seconds, 0-186 mph in 21.6 seconds, and a top speed of 205 mph. As the weight difference between the coupe and Spider is so minimal, there’s only a 0.1-second difference in the 0-124 and 0-186 times in the hardtop’s favor.

Firing up the Artura in Electric mode is a strange affair if you haven’t been in a hybrid supercar before. Where others will whirr a starter motor and bark into life, the Artura’s papaya go switch leads to silence. You brace for action and get nothing. For this, your neighbors will thank you, so if you’re the type to rev loudly at every available opportunity you may want to look elsewhere.

It rolls off the line smoothly and silently. McLaren hasn’t added any artificial noises where they’re not necessary. Anything you hear comes straight from its motor—whirrs and buzzes—the usual EV stuff is served raw.

McLarens are known for their explosive performance, but in EV mode there’s only 94 hp to play with, which won’t blow your eyebrows off. Interestingly, battery power is routed via the eight-speed automatic to get the most out of it, though you don’t notice it shift often thanks to the smoothness of the ‘box, you can occasionally catch it doing its thing. You’ll get 11 miles of range out of its 7.4-kilowatt-hour battery before you need to press the engine into service or charge it back up.

The car’s handling and powertrain selectors are placed on top of the instrument cluster so you can easily clip them. Flip the powertrain mode selector over to Comfort and the Spider blends electric driving with the V-6 seamlessly and quietly. Comfort mode is perfect for puttering around town and still packs a punch.

Sport mode ups the ante rather wonderfully, and shows off how well integrated the hybrid powertrain is. With the instant torque offered by the electric motor combined with the low-down punch the V-6’s two turbochargers offer, the torque curve feels seamless, and power arrives accompanied by a decent soundtrack, too. The V-6’s song is higher pitched than you’d probably imagine, but it wails nicely under load. For anyone who thinks the supercar era is over because electrification is on the scene… you’re missing out.

2025 McLaren Artura Spider First Drive Review

Sport is fun to play in, but Track turns the wick all the way up, using the car’s powertrain to its fullest. 690 hp in a car that light is an awful lot when you think about it, and here every single horse is flogged to within an inch of its life.

Throttle response through all of the drivetrain modes is stellar, but every half millimeter of pressure has an effect. As you’re pressing on, the eight-speed leaps from ratio to ratio without any bother. It doesn't jar, instead gets on with its job, making sure you and the Artura Spider can go very, very fast indeed.

It’s here McLaren’s incredible steering comes into play—the feedback it offers is glorious, while steering effort feels perfectly weighted for high-speed heroics or noodling around town. A gentle tip-in will change direction smoothly and quickly, while the front tires will tell you exactly what they’re up to.

2025 McLaren Artura Spider First Drive Review

Cons: Occasionally Difficult Infotainment, Odd Brakes At Standstill, Renders Coupe Largely Pointless

McLaren’s ride witchcraft has been well known since the 12C, and it’s not lost a micron of its magic here. In its most inert drive setting, you’ll glide over lumps without issue, far more easily than you’d expect from a supercar. Sport toughens up each corner, but when the roads get even slightly bumpy you start to feel it up your spine, which, unless you’re 25 and keen to show off how hard your ass is, isn’t ideal.

Track… yeah. Only use that on a track so smooth it may as well be a mirror.

The brakes are excellent when you’re on the move—there’s little play to the pedal and just enough assistance to make you feel like you’re doing some work to slow down. When you’re trying to keep the thing still in traffic, though, they’re less fun. You have to keep the pedal pinned quite hard to stop the car creeping forward. Resting your foot lightly on the pedal as you would elsewhere won’t do much but surprise you. It’s almost certainly something you’ll get used to, but it’s irksome.

2025 McLaren Artura Spider First Drive Review

Speaking of irksome… McLaren’s built-in navigation was annoying, despite the Artura Spider’s 8.0-inch vertical touchscreen performing mostly brilliantly. Orienting and zooming in on the map wasn’t easy, and it occasionally didn’t know where junctions were. It’s not world-ending stuff, especially with smartphone connectivity, but it’s worth mentioning. Similarly, the instrument cluster comes with switchable menus (car info, nav, etc.), which is a neat feature but a bit slow. A pull on the relevant lever is eventually matched by movement on the screen.

McLaren’s ability to match form and function continues to beguile—the firm’s use of aerodynamics to make an aesthetically pleasing car and fire air to the right places is joyful. The fact the Artura looks better as a Spider… that’s perhaps dumb luck. The Artura’s interior is a pretty place to be, not over-encumbered with big flashy shiny things, but tastefully appointed in the right places.

2025 McLaren Artura Spider First Drive Review

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Comments

After a day with the Artura Spider you start to wonder what the point of the hardtop is. The Spider is barely slower to speeds you shouldn’t be hitting on the road, you can peel its roof off quickly if the weather’s good. It’s better-looking and with the top down you get to hear the Artura’s V-6 more clearly. The flaws will annoy you some of the time, but they’re broadly the kind of thing you’ll brush off the longer you have the car. The way the Artura blends battery and engine power is akin to magic.

This Spider offers a fantastic way to spend time under the sun. Better than a Ferrari, Maserati, or… other convertible supercars? That’ll require some thorough investigation. On an island.