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2023 McLaren Artura: Run Silent, Run Lean
I suppose you'll complain about the range.
LIFE & WORK | CARS | RUMBLE SEAT
2023 McLaren Artura: Run Silent, Run Lean
By Dan Neil
Auto Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
Dan.Neil@wsj.com
Jan. 26, 2023 5:00 pm ET
LAST WEEK, for the first time this winter, it snowed in Woking, in southern England. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the artificial lake in front of the McLaren Technology Centre was steaming and fringed with ice, the cattails frozen stiff. Groundskeepers were out spreading grit on the campus roadways—a reasonable precaution, as McLarens aren’t generally hailed for their all-weather traction.
Designed by Norman Foster and built in the glory days of Rome (2004) under Emperor Ron Dennis, the former chairman, the MTC receives guests at a sally-port on the far side of the pond, with a covered roundabout. There—warm, dry and defrosted—waited our test car, a McLaren Artura, frocked in a glittery, wintry white. Poor thing, I thought. You won’t be pretty for long.
I sometimes forget to register these moments, the 500 milliseconds or so when I, or anyone, sees a new car for the first time: the incontrovertible flash of judgment, the collapsing of a waveform into either love or not-love. In that instant I imprinted a few things about Artura. As compared to previous Makkas, the exterior has lower surface tension overall, with lighter and more artful lines and a leaner musculature. Compare/contrast with the sleeve-busting jacked-ness of the McLaren 720S. Your codpiece, sir?
{snip}
You know who really appreciates the Artura? The British. While its all-electric range of 19 miles doesn’t sound like much to us in the States, it’s just enough for the car to motor in and out of quaint English villages on battery power alone, moving more or less silently, if not magically, through the narrow streets. No sleeping cats were disturbed in the making of this column. ... In the rearview, I watched several of the local gentry turn to look with a smile on their faces. Welcome to the future, I thought. Sorry about the weather.
2023 McLaren Artura: Run Silent, Run Lean
By Dan Neil
Auto Columnist, The Wall Street Journal
Dan.Neil@wsj.com
Jan. 26, 2023 5:00 pm ET
LAST WEEK, for the first time this winter, it snowed in Woking, in southern England. At 9 a.m. on Tuesday, the artificial lake in front of the McLaren Technology Centre was steaming and fringed with ice, the cattails frozen stiff. Groundskeepers were out spreading grit on the campus roadways—a reasonable precaution, as McLarens aren’t generally hailed for their all-weather traction.
Designed by Norman Foster and built in the glory days of Rome (2004) under Emperor Ron Dennis, the former chairman, the MTC receives guests at a sally-port on the far side of the pond, with a covered roundabout. There—warm, dry and defrosted—waited our test car, a McLaren Artura, frocked in a glittery, wintry white. Poor thing, I thought. You won’t be pretty for long.
I sometimes forget to register these moments, the 500 milliseconds or so when I, or anyone, sees a new car for the first time: the incontrovertible flash of judgment, the collapsing of a waveform into either love or not-love. In that instant I imprinted a few things about Artura. As compared to previous Makkas, the exterior has lower surface tension overall, with lighter and more artful lines and a leaner musculature. Compare/contrast with the sleeve-busting jacked-ness of the McLaren 720S. Your codpiece, sir?
{snip}
You know who really appreciates the Artura? The British. While its all-electric range of 19 miles doesn’t sound like much to us in the States, it’s just enough for the car to motor in and out of quaint English villages on battery power alone, moving more or less silently, if not magically, through the narrow streets. No sleeping cats were disturbed in the making of this column. ... In the rearview, I watched several of the local gentry turn to look with a smile on their faces. Welcome to the future, I thought. Sorry about the weather.