I’m a big fan of the car manufacturer and race team McLaren and love the story of how New Zealand race-car designer, driver engineer and inventor Bruce McLaren founded the team in 1963 and how it’s grown to become the second oldest active race team and second most successful Formula One team behind Ferrari. Over the years McLaren has won 182 F1 races, 12 Drivers Championships and 8 Constructors Championships, competed in American Open Wheel racing, won the Canadian-American Challenge Cup Championship, and I won’t even bother listing the number of famous butts that have sat in their cockpits.

However, in 1992 McLaren became more than just a race team when under the leadership of Ron Dennis, it produced its first road car, the three-seater McLaren F1. Over the next six years, they manufactured 106 cars and even though it’s been out of production for 22 years, to this day there are very few production cars that have a higher top speed.

Their latest release is an electrified hybrid supercar, the McLaren Artura,

This all-new McLaren isn’t cheap, priced around $450,000 plus on roads, which I reckon is a lot of money, but some will argue that compared to other supercars, what the Artura offers represents pretty good value.

According to McLaren, the Atura brief was to design an all-new ground-up platform to deliver an even better McLaren, and a new Supercar for a New Era. All-new architecture, all-new hybrid power train, all-new aero, increased cooling, improved visibility, optimized ergonomics, and exquisite design execution all whilst keeping weight to a minimum. They wanted to build on the experiences they learned from their previous high-performance hybrid powertrains in both the P1 and Speedtail and build a car that would underpin the next generation of McLaren models.

This Carsales article gives an overview of the new McLaren Artura:

The McLaren Artura – carsales.com.au

It’s no surprise that the Artura is a visually stunning car and aerodynamically it was always going to be as good as any other supercar, but it’s the all-new high-performance Hybrid power train that’s a standout.

Without getting too technical, its cutting-edge 3.0L V6 direct-injection hybrid system is all-new, with an entirely new, bespoke axial-flux e-motor, a lithium-ion energy-dense battery and an all-new hybrid drive 8-speed transmission.

The switch to a V6 with a specific power approaching 200PS per liter brings a different character to the V8 engines with no apparent drawbacks. The Artura accelerates from 0-200km/h in 8.3 seconds and doesn’t stop until it reaches an electronically limited 330km/h.

The Artura is purportedly twice as fast as their previous petrol models and compared to their first-generation hybrid platforms, it’s stronger, safer and lighter, only weighing 1498kg and 1395kg Dry.

Following is the official launch video for the Artura which incorporates a little of McLaren’s history as well as their new hybrid supercar:

Official Artura launch presentation

It will be interesting to see how many Artura’s make it onto Australian roads, but I can assure you that if you do get a chance to see it in the flesh, it really is a stunning piece of high-tech machinery.