The words “McLaren” and supercar are synonymous in today’s automobile market. The brand has a knack for producing quintessential supercars that not only look fast but also perform exceptionally well on the road.
Recently, the brand released the Artura, a slick new hybrid supercar that features classic McLaren sweeping lines and, of course, an electric motor. Here are some things that you need to know about the vehicle.
The Interior Is The Same As The 720S
Let’s start with some slightly disappointing news: the interior on the Artura is essentially the same as that of the 720S.
That is to say, it has a great interior. But McLaren hasn’t redesigned it in the way that many ardent followers of the brand might hope.
McLaren isn’t being lazy, though. In fact, the company says that 98 percent of the materials used to construct the vehicle are actually different. The Artura, therefore, isn’t a chimaera made by stitching together components from other vehicles. In a pure engineering sense, it is brand new.
With that said, the interior does look very familiar. These are some cosmetic changes compared to the 570S, but other than that, you can’t really tell that you’re in a brand new vehicle.
The Rear Suspension Is Brand New
Some 570S drivers complained that the rear suspension on the vehicle wasn’t quite up to standard for a sports car in its price range. Because of this, McLaren went back to the drawing board and looked for ways to improve it. The company eventually decided on a combination of a wishbone on the top and a multi-link setup below. The brand hopes that the new arrangement will improve stability on the racetrack and performance under heavy braking at the same time.
If you buy the car, you may still need to hire a car accident lawyer. But thanks to this subtle new safety feature, drivers have much more control.
It Won’t Run Out Of Charge
Another tremendous benefit of Artura is the fact that the vehicle will never run out of charge. The electric range is only around 19 miles (because the battery is quite small). But the car uses an axial-flux e-motor which means that the regular gas-powered engine can charge the batteries. This system means that the electric motor itself will never run out of charge.
For convenience, McLaren says that drivers can charge the battery to 80 percent in 2.5 hours.
The Gearbox Features Some Bleeding-Edge Technology
Most people don’t get excited about car gearboxes. But McLaren says that it is fitting the Altura with a “tri-clutch” – meaning that the car has three clutches.
Why would you need three clutches? Well, you need two for accurately shifting up and down the gears. The third clutch is there to make it easy for the car to transfer from gas operation to electric car mode.
This setup means that the vehicle will easily transition between modes when required. It will also use battery energy in conjunction with regular motor power.
The gearbox is sophisticated for another reason: McLaren doesn’t equip it with a traditional reverse gear. Instead, when the driver wants to reverse, they simply put the car into electric mode and use the electric motor alone. This feature is similar to Ferrari’s SF90 Stradale.
It’s Super Light
The first generation of hybrid sports cars was quite heavy because of the extra weight of the battery and electric motors. But McLaren has found a way around these problems to make the Altura one of the lightest cars on the market. McLaren says that the vehicle is more than 46 kg lighter than the 570S even though that car didn’t have any hybrid additions.
The main reason the car is so light is the all-new carbon fibre chassis which McLaren calls the “McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture.” The addition of carbon fibre gives the car more strength and rigidity than before at a much lower weight. It’s allowed designers to actually build more safety features into the vehicle at the same time.
Weight saving, however, doesn’t finish with the chassis, though. McLaren says that it is using a new “zonal” wiring architecture. This reduces the weight of the wires running to all the sensors planted around the vehicle. The result is a car that weighs around 1,400 kg which is substantially less than rivals such as the Aston Martin DB11.
Overall, therefore, the Artura is shaping up to be a very impressive car indeed. Looks-wise, it is similar to what’s come before. But the materials technology to make the car is vastly improved.
