McLaren Artura Spider for £50k off – save 23 per cent on the best junior supercar
A nearly new Artura Spider for £40,000 less than a new 911 Turbo S Cabriolet? That’s got our attention
Porsche’s new 911 Turbo S packs one hell of a punch - 701bhp thanks to its new twin-turbo charged flat-six and hybrid boost. Hooked up to Porsche’s near infallible four-wheel drive system it’s set to remain the greatest all-weather supercar you can buy now Nissan has finally called time on the R35 GT-R.
Porsche’s new 911 Turbo S will also knock the wind out of you when you take a look at its price: £199,100 for the coupe and a stonking £209,100 for the Cabriolet. Which is… strong for a 911 that hasn’t come from the GT department. This level of spend (don’t call buying a car an investment, you’ll only get upset when it comes to resale time) gets you in a bona fide supercar that’s barely turned a wheel, such as a 200 mile, six-month old McLaren Artura Spider for £169,000. To save you the Google search, that’s a little over £52,000 cheaper than list.
Unlike many new supercars the example we found at McLaren Manchester hasn’t suffered the full strength of MSO’s customisation capabilities, remaining rather pure as a result. Finished in Aurora blue metallic, its 15-spoke lightwheels have been finished in gloss black (a good negotiating opportunity to have them recoloured silver) and the standard Clubsport seats have been left alone. There’s no elaborate stitching or seatbelts colour-matched to the original commissioner’s 1980s grammar school tie.
More extrovert specifications have been created and are out there, and a two-seater mid-engined supercar does present some practicality issues when faced with a 2+2 911. But as Dickie Meaden summarised in our four-way supercar test, there are some things the Artura - any McLaren - are unbeatable at:
“The steering is an absolute masterpiece. Weight, response, your sense of connection and even the steering wheel itself are all perfectly judged. It gives you so much to work with, filtering distractions while faithfully relaying how hard the tyres and suspension are working. It paints a picture. Not with broad brushstrokes but in pixel-perfect detail.”
McLaren has had its struggles since its conception, and the Artura's launch was hampered by delays and reliability issues - a few of the latter are still present in some cars - but when you look at the McLaren as a pure driver’s car and the unfiltered experiences such cars offer few are more exciting this side of a Lotus Elise or a Caterham 7.
