McLaren Artura Spider Arrives With More Power, Less Roof

As we knew it eventually would, the drop-top Spider version of the plug-in hybrid McLaren Artura has arrived. Rather than just lop off the roof and call it a day, though, McLaren has taken the opportunity to tweak and refine the Artura platform as a whole, bringing updates that will also be applied to the Artura coupe.

Obviously, the big difference with the Spider is its… Spider-ness. As with all of McLaren’s convertible models, the roof is a retractable hardtop. It’ll open in 11 seconds, and when it’s up, you can drop the rear window to better enjoy the sound of the engine (more on that shortly) without messing up your expensive new haircut. As standard, it’s a painted carbon fibre and composite panel, but it can also be optioned with fancy electrochromatic glass, which can darken at the touch of a button.

McLaren’s convertibles tend to be almost as rigid and not much heavier than their coupe equivalents. The Artura Spider is no different: it has a kerb weight of 1560kg, which is 62kg more than the coupe.

In most cases, that would be that, but the arrival of the Spider heralds a significant update for the whole Artura range. McLaren has extracted another 20bhp from the Artura’s 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6, taking the combustion engine’s power to 597bhp. In league with the unchanged electric motor, peak combined power is now 690bhp, compared to 671 in the old car. Remember this is still McLaren’s entry-level car. Peak torque is unchanged from 531lb ft.

Despite the power uplift, the Spider’s (and presumably, the updated coupe’s) performance figures remain largely unchanged from the original car. The 0-62mph sprint takes just three seconds. You’ll hit 124mph after 8.4 seconds and 186 in 21.6 seconds. Top speed remains a limited 205mph.

Rounding off changes to the powerplant, the 7.4kWh battery now delivers a modest rise in the quoted electric range from 19 to 21 miles.

If you’ve already got an Artura, then you’re probably feeling a little short-changed by this. Don’t – you can take your car to any McLaren dealer, where they’ll give it the extra 20bhp, free of charge. Yeah, we can’t imagine too many people are going to turn that option down.

What you won’t get are the rest of the changes applied to the Artura range with this update. They include a retuned exhaust system with a revised resonator to create a “cleaner” sound, while an optional sports exhaust amps things up further.

Underneath, the damper tuning has been revised, and the adaptive Proactive Damping Control system now responds to surface changes up to 90 per cent faster than before. New brake cooling ducts should improve the longevity of the big carbon-ceramic discs, and the aluminium brake calipers have been enhanced. The stopping distance from 124mph is now a satisfying 124 metres thanks to the revised calibration of the ABS.

The Artura’s eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox has been tweaked, too: it has a new ‘pre-fill’ feature that pre-pressurises the gearbox’s hydraulic fluid to the point required for a shift so that when the paddle is pulled, the gearchange happens up to 25 per cent faster than before.

The redesigned rear end of the Spider incorporates an ‘aerothermal cooling system’, which features four separate ducting systems that channel cold air towards the powertrain. The Spider’s powertrain cooling elements have been moved back to allow for storage of the retracted roof, but it retains the coupe’s distinctive ‘chimneys’ that dissipate heat from the hot vee turbocharging setup.

This is all sounding very sciencey so far, but McLaren’s engineers have taken the opportunity to have some fun with the software, too: the Artura has a new ‘Spinning Wheel Pull-Away’ feature which will allow drivers to leave some rubber on the road when accelerating hard from a standstill – although it’s hard to see how this differs from just switching everything off and flooring it.

The interior is largely unchanged, although all Arturas now incorporate wireless phone charging. The Spider also gets an additional rear centre speaker. Lane departure warning is now standard, although thankfully McLaren recognises that most people are going to switch it off immediately, so the car remembers the driver’s preference.

Pricing for the Spider kicks off at £221,500, with three optional interior design themes – Performance, TechLux and Vision – costing an extra £5,050 each. McLaren doesn’t currently quote prices for the coupe, but a year ago, its RRP was £189,200. We’d expect that to creep up over the £200k mark, but come in below the Spider.

So, more than just a quick roof-off job, then. Would this overhaul tempt you out of a Ferrari 296 GTS?