CarBrandLogos archive · McLaren · 2021

McLarenMcLaren Artura

An all-new platform, a new V6 and a battery: Woking's hardest reinvention yet.

Photo: Liam Walker · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in McLaren history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the McLaren Artura, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

For over a decade every McLaren road car had used a version of the same carbon tub and the same twin-turbo V8. The Artura threw both out. It introduced the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture, a new tub designed from the start to house a battery pack, and the M630 engine: a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged V6 with an unusually wide 120-degree vee angle, which let the turbochargers sit inside the vee and lowered the centre of gravity.

McLaren Artura IAA 2021 1X7A0135 · Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

An axial-flux electric motor is packed into the bell housing of the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox — a design dense enough to add meaningful power and torque for very little mass — and does duty as the reverse gear, so the transmission needs no reverse ratio at all. The car will run some distance on battery alone, which is mostly useful for leaving early in the morning without waking the street.

McLaren Artura IAA 2021 1X7A0137 · Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

The launch did not go smoothly. Software problems delayed customer deliveries by the better part of a year and early cars needed recalls, at a point when McLaren's finances were already strained. Once sorted, the reviews were strong, and a 2024 update raised output and sharpened the gearbox.

MIA McLaren WGI23 01 · SmackJam · CC BY-SA 4.0

Legacy

It replaced the 570S at the entry point of the range, and it is the platform on which McLaren's next decade of series-production cars is built.

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2022–present

Engine

2993 cc M630 twin-turbocharged 120º V6

Designer

Rob Melville

Body

2-door coupé

Technical specification

The McLaren Artura, in detail.

Production: 2022–present
Class: Sports car (S)
Body style: 2-door coupé; 2-door roadster
Layout: Rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive
Engine: 2993 cc M630 twin-turbocharged 120º V6
Transmission: 8-speed SSG-Seamless Shift Gearbox dual-clutch + E-Reverse gear
Designer: Rob Melville
Assembly: United Kingdom: Woking, Surrey, England
Manufacturer: McLaren Automotive