Why we ran it: To see if the most important McLaren in a dozen years was as easy to live with as it was fun to drive
Month 1 - Month 2 - Month 3 - Month 4 - Month 5 - Final report - Specs
Life with a McLaren Artura: Final report
Did the retina-searing supercar reveal its true colours in our six months together?
I don't know either way, but it would be understandable if there had been a few crossed fingers down Woking way the day an Ember Orange McLaren Artura headed out to spend the next half year as my daily driver.
After all, the car's introduction had been delayed. Then, after some well-documented issues on its press launch, it got delayed some more.
This time out, the car simply had to be right not for a few hours on the road and a few laps of a race track but thousands of miles accrued month after month.
So let's look that straight in the eye right now. Well, in that time, three things happened that required McLaren's attention, which, on the surface, doesn't sound too great.
But one of them was that it was delivered with the standard passive cruise control stalk, not the one with the button that should have allowed the active system fitted to vary the distance to the car in front. The cruise still worked perfectly well and, clearly, this was a simple oversight, which I think can be forgiven.
The other 'fault' was really more mine than the car's, for not seeing a pothole big enough to swallow a small horse. The wheel and tyre banged in so hard that I'd not have been surprised to have taken the corner off the car.
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Great car, but looks 10 years behind in design.
Most important comment to me is "but so busy is McLaren filling existing orders that a new car wouldn't have arrived until the summer." Hope this means happy days ahead at Woking.
Some assignments are better than others! Hard to belive this hand-built work of mechanical art costs less than some mass-produced VWs. What an epic achievement.