2025 McLaren Artura Spider Drops the Top, Keeps All the Handling You Loved

• The 2025 McLaren Artura Spider arrives in the US later this summer, priced at $281,008.

• The new plug-in hybrid powertrain adds 19 hp, thanks to software tweaks.

• With 690 hp total and weighing a mere 3,439 pounds with all fluids on board, it corners like a glued cat. It’s also more comfortable than most other McLarens, so it’s the best of both worlds, if your world includes great roads.

What’s better than a McLaren Artura Coupe? A McLaren Artura Spider with a convertible top! The Artura Spider is almost exactly as much fun to drive as the Artura Coupe, but in 11 seconds you can be cruising top-down and reveling in the sunshine.

I know because I just spent a day driving the Spider in the South of France, along the mountainous Route Napolean and into the Principality of Monaco, where I took it down the pit straight of the grand prix course around Sainte-Dévote and up the hill to Casino Square, albeit in traffic but with the top down.

In fact, if you want to perform one of the Spider’s coolest parlor tricks, next time you’re in stop-and-go traffic in Monte Carlo (as one is), just hit the header switch and watch the hardtop flip open and stow in its rear compartment.

I swear cell phones were out among the tourists immediately as they no-doubt pondered which stock market I had just toppled and which of the yachts anchored offshore was mine. Or maybe they just liked the Artura.

I know I did.

The Artura Spider is the most affordable—after the Artura Coupe—and the second-most-comfortable—after the GTS—of the McLaren lineup. With a sticker price of an entirely reasonable $281,008, the average multimillionaire could almost afford it. The Artura Coupe slides in at a mere $256,308, so for an extra 25 Gs you are cruising in sunshine.

In addition to its new droptop option, both coupe and convertible Arturas get 19 more hp thanks to “engine recalibration,” which means software tweaks. These tweaks are available to all Arturas, old and new, but not over-the-air. You have to bring in your existing Artura to get the extra ponies. Total output of the hybrid powertrain is now 690 hp, or 700 PS if you’re in Europe.

Most of that juice, 596 hp of it, comes from the 120-degree 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6, which also makes 431 lb-ft of torque. The rest of the output—94 hp and 166 lb-ft—comes from McLaren’s “Axial Flux E-motor” sandwiched inside the bell housing of the eight-speed SSG transmission. An on-board battery allows 7.4-kWh of useable energy, enough to drive 11 miles in EV mode, according to EPA specs. The more liberal WLTP standard says 21 miles.

If that powertrain sounds suspiciously—almost exactly—like the Ferrari 296 that came out two years ago, it was just a coincidence, says McLaren. Both offer packaging and center-of-gravity advantages that made it the ideal configuration, McLaren says.

The automaker also says the increased output is all up at the top of the tach, from mid-range to the car’s 8,500-rpm redline. So don’t expect to feel more torque down low, not that anyone was missing any torque down low. An electric motor gets 100% of its torque as soon as it starts spinning, so you have that 166 electric lb-ft right off the line. The powerplant is impressive at just about any engine speed.

Getting off the line should be a little more fun to do, thanks to the new “Spinning Wheel Pull-Away” feature that McLaren added. It allows wheel spin “for a more dramatic alternative to launch control,” they say.

The powertrain also has a new, more lively and engaging sound thanks to a new “Symposer,” which routes intake sound into the cabin for a more natural tone, McLaren says. Exhaust has likewise been retuned. I didn’t like the result—it sounded too tinny, but buyers may find it appealing.

It rides on the latest version of MCLA, the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture. A new aluminum body structure is bolted to the carbon-fiber tub to make the Artura Spider the lightest convertible in the class, up to 183 pounds lighter, McLaren says.

It rides on a suspension with dampers that react 90% faster than those on the current Artura Coupe. Exterior aerodynamics improve cooling and reduce drag. There are even little “Gurney flaps” on the top outer edges of the windshield header to reduce turbulence inside the cabin when the top’s down.

All of the above improvements, except the Gurney flaps (named after ex-Formula 1 driver and team owner Dan Gurney), apply to the coupe, btw.

So what’s it like to drive? I hopped in and headed up Napolean’s return route through les Alpes Maritemes to find out. The whole car weighs just 3,439 pounds wet, with all fluids and with 90% of the gas in the tank, and I opened it up as soon as I found a stretch of road with no bicycles and no cheese delivery vans on it.

It was indeed powerful. Just pull back on the paddle a couple times and you’re at passing speed immediatement. Toggle the rocker switches on either side of the binnacle on the dash—one for suspension and one for powertrain—and the mood of the car changes.

These switches are much more handily located than those dinky little fumble dials McLaren used to have for these adjustments. You can change the settings without taking your hands off the wheel or your eyes off the road.

Flooring it releases that new sound McLaren was talking about and frankly, as I said, it offered too much treble, at least to my ear. Your ear may vary. V6 turbos don’t sound the same as naturally aspirated V8s.

Despite the disappointing sound, you don’t feel underpowered here. This 690 hp is still 690 hp, and those 3,439 pounds are nothing to the drivetrain’s power. With the electric motor scooping up torque at the low end, acceleration across the rev range is definitely not lacking.

McLaren quotes a 0-60 mph time of 3.0 seconds, but our colleagues at Car and Driver tested the Coupe at 2.6 seconds and this cabrio only weighs 138 pounds more, so it will certainly, easily, get to 60 in under three seconds. 0-124 mph comes up in 8.4 seconds and 0-186 mph in 21.6. Top speed is 205 howlin’ mph.

Through the gently curving, very narrow roads of les Alpes Maritimes, the Artura tracked true every time. The steering was perfectly set without being jumpy. It wasn’t as desperately immediate as that on the 750S or several other McLaren siblings have been. It was a little more comfortable in your hands while still maintaining most of the precision for which McLarens are beloved.

In fact, the whole experience was more comfortable than a 750S, 720S, or certainly way more comfortable than a track-terror Senna. The Artura is the McLaren that you could drive every day, bring your S.O., and still enjoy on a good road. Only the GTS is more comfortable. And maybe the coming—someday—McLaren SUV that they refuse to talk about but no longer flat-out deny.

If you want a cool car that you can drive to work, and if you happen to work in the Alpes, or at some other location with great roads, you should check out the Artura or Artura Spider, along with the Corvette Z06, Ferrari 296, or any number of Porsche 911 models. It’s an excellent compromise that doesn’t give up too much of anything, least of all handling.

If you were buying one of these, would you get the coupe or the convertible? Please comment below.