Mark Richardson leans on the 2025 McLaren Artura Spider overlooking Monaco.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
There aren’t many places in the world where a car like the McLaren Artura Spider blends in. Certainly, nowhere in Canada. Some people like that; some do not.
The last time I drove a McLaren in Ontario, a bright orange 720S, drivers would film the car as they passed on the highway, others would speed up for a closer look. When I stopped at a Tim Hortons, a crowd gathered when the butterfly doors went up and I limboed out of the low-slung missile, trying my damnedest to not look like an overweight, middle-aged guy with too much access to money. I rarely succeeded.
Here in Monaco, however, nobody cares about the fancy doors, the open roof or the logo on the hood. I’m just another spoiled second son of a CEO. Traffic doesn’t part for me like the Red Sea, which is too bad because there really is a lot of traffic. When cars grind to a halt in the congestion, the Artura grinds to a halt too. So. Many. Cars.
Can you tell I’m bitter? I handed over the Volcano Blue supercar to the hotel valet and strode to my room with a slight hop because I was trapped away from a washroom for too long. Congestion is the great equalizer. I should have been sitting in the rarefied air of the $400,000 Artura (after all the options and taxes) and thinking about its three-litre twin-turbo engine – officially a V6 but with the cylinder banks stretched to a flatter 120 degrees. I should have been thinking about the swift drive from France to get here on some of the finest roads in Provence, and appreciating the wonderful touch of the slim, Alcantara-covered steering wheel, totally unencumbered by buttons and dials. Just a big horn button in the middle, like the good old days. But no. I cursed the navigation system that kept showing the way to roads temporarily closed to all vehicles – even to McLarens – and thinking only about my bladder.
The sport bucket seats are adjustable only up and down, front and back.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
Actually, that’s not quite true. Sometimes, I thought of how narrow those alternative side roads were, and I wondered: When I turned onto those narrow roads, if I were to hit the first in the line of dozens of parked scooters and motorcycles and make them all topple over like dominoes, would the cost of that little tap be greater for the damage to the Artura’s carbon-fibre body panels and diamond-cut wheels, or to the dozens of dented scooters and motorcycles? Probably the Artura. Probably me too, from angry French bikers.
And I also wondered, when I strayed onto the red-and-white corner cambering of Monaco’s famous hairpin turn not yet removed just two weeks after the big Formula One race, if the multi-link rear suspension of the Artura felt anything like the suspension of Lando Norris’s racer. Probably not, and especially not at a stop-and-go crawl.
I also thought about the Artura’s 94-horsepower axial-flux electric motor, round like a dinner plate and cupped between the two banks of cylinders, that was propelling me silently and cleanly through all this traffic. I wondered if it would send me back to the future. When I first came through the tunnel that leads into Monaco, I had the hybrid car’s powertrain mode set to Sport and switched it to Track – my tester was fitted with the optional Sports exhaust with a symposer that makes it 20-per-cent louder and sounds terrific when the roof is down and you’re in a tunnel. Here in Monaco, they’re supposed to love the noise of screaming engines. I switched over to the planet-loving, all-electric motor at the end of the tunnel, in the sunshine. Maybe the noise would be more impressive with a thunderous V8, like the rest of the McLaren stable, but the symposer just made me feel like the poser I was. The Artura’s plug-in battery only has 18 kilometres of range, but it still had plenty of regenerated distance for cruising the tiny principality.
The interior of the 2025 McLaren Artura Spider.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
The electric motor is not there to save fuel, of course – it’s there to fill in the gaps when shifting the eight-speed transmission, now 25-per-cent quicker than last year’s Artura coupe that was already lightning fast. It also drives the completely electric reverse gear and helps boost total horsepower to 690, again up from last year’s 671, which is an increase gained solely through software. If you already own one of those pokey Artura coupes, you can take your car to the dealer and get the extra 19 horsepower added at its next service, no charge.
The convertible is new this year, after the introduction of the all-new coupe a couple of years ago, and McLaren says its performance is identical. The carbon-fibre tub, now made in-house in the U.K. (unlike last year’s Austrian-built tub, which was apparently not quite so light and strong), needs no additional strengthening for its open-air ambience. The roof is a solid panel and available with a panoramic “electrochromic glazed” sheet of glass, one of the costlier options at $10,240, which darkens the tint instantly at the press of a button. Its performance is as impressive as the rest of the car, opening and closing in just 11 seconds. I timed it.
The butterfly doors are a good way to attract attention in much of the world, but in Monaco, the McLaren mostly blends in.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
The removable roof adds about 62 kilograms to the Artura, which McLaren says makes it the lightest convertible supercar in its class. Its wet weight – which includes fuel, oil and coolants needed to operate – clocks in at 1,560 kilograms, which helps it hit 100 kilometres an hour from a standstill in three seconds, and 200 kilometres an hour in 8.4 seconds – a 10th of a second slower than the coupe. You can even hit 300 in 21.6 seconds, though not if your body-fat index is too high. The sport bucket seats are adjustable only up and down, front and back, but McLaren does offer wider, heated seats as an option for its more coddled clients. It prides itself on accommodating all sizes of people in its cars, unlike some more restrictive, mostly Italian, manufacturers.
There were a number of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Porsches on the roads up in Provence, escaping the traffic of Monaco and the crowded Cote d’Azur. We ignored each other studiously whenever we passed. Brand loyalty is everything with exotic cars, and although McLaren claims 60 years of racing heritage, it’s only been making production cars in any kind of number for the last 13. It’s looked down on a little by those serious collectors as having perhaps too much of a touch of theatre to its performance, what with the dihedral doors and the Spinning Wheel Pull-Away setting that lets you burn smoky rubber through all eight gears, and the brand-specific papaya-coloured start button. After all, even its own chief executive officer said the company’s new U.K. headquarters at Woking is 90-per-cent NASA and 10-per-cent Disney, and the same formula rubs off on the cars.
It’s a wonderful feeling to slip the thin steering wheel beneath your fingers, tapping on the gear paddles and even on the rocker switches of the instrument binnacle to change the handling and power modes. It’s fabulous to blow past slower traffic with a head-hitting surge, and then wiggle through the curves with just a touch of satisfying understeer when the Pirellis eventually allow some slip. Turn off all the electronic driver’s assistance features if you dare, or if you’re dumb, and they’ll stay off until you switch them back on. McLaren says its cars are about pure driving, and that’s why there’s an extra charge of $5,980, even in this price bracket, for a package with safety features like blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic detection. Yeah, right. I’m sure that’s why.
Of course, none of this means a thing in the stalled traffic of Monaco. I looked in the mirror, where the heat from the engine behind creates a mirage-like shimmer of air, and saw only the unimpressed face of a guy in his white Peugeot van, keeping pace with me through the congestion. I looked ahead and saw cars and people and buses and scooters, and shifted awkwardly in the bucket seat, distracted by one too many Evians. People looked at me and probably thought I was just another pampered member of the 1 per cent. Unfortunately, even when you get to live the dream, it’s often still just a dream.
The front storage space is enough for a couple of small bags.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail
Tech specs
2025 McLaren Artura Spider
- Base price/as tested: $311,380 / $367,640, plus $5,600 for freight and predelivery inspection, plus taxes including the luxury tax
- Engine: three-litre twin turbo V6, with electric motor
- Horsepower / torque (lb-ft): 690 / 531
- Transmission / drive: Eight-speed automatic / Rear-wheel drive
- Fuel consumption (litres per 100 kilometres): 12.4 combined (gas only)
- Alternatives: Porsche 911 Turbo S, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Ferrari 296 GTS, Lamborghini Huracan STO, Mercedes-AMG SL43
The writer was a guest of the auto maker. Content was not subject to approval.
Shopping for a new car? Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price.