Our Cars: McLaren Artura

December. Mud, flood, snow and ice. Otherwise known as perfect conditions for getting to know one of the most enigmatic new supercars I can recall.

Well, new-ish. I’m not going to dwell too much on the storied history of the McLaren Artura because you already know the project was delayed, that the launch using pre-production cars did not go according to plan (to put it mildly) and that all this came against a backdrop of a small company having oversupplied the market with previous product, causing downward pressure on residuals, which had a less than enviable reputation for reliability, and all that before Covid hit. The result required refinancing of the company, a loss of a quarter of the workforce and the sale and subsequent leaseback of its iconic headquarters.

Even at the time it seemed such a shame all that obscured what McLaren was trying to achieve with the Artura, namely its first brand new car since the MP4-12C brought McLaren Automotive to life over a dozen years ago.