2025 McLaren Artura Spider First Drive: Meet Me in Monaco

• The Spider drops the top on McLaren's Artura hybrid supercar.
• There's great performance on offer: 690 horsepower, 531 lb-ft of torque, 0 to 60 in 3 seconds.
• Pricing starts at $278,800, including a $5,000(!) destination charge.

Along came a Spider

Like the Artura coupe, the Spider has proper poster-on-your-bedroom-wall supercar appeal. Itsy-bitsy Spider tweaks include clear-glazed rear buttresses that McLaren says improve visibility, but I'm not exactly sure how since the chonky roll bars behind the driver and passenger seats still create mega blind spots. Nevertheless, those see-through bits of external architecture also include air inlets that direct cool air toward cooling ducts above the engine. The Spider's roof panel is slightly different than the one on the coupe, too, all for the sake of better airflow. Peep the tiny upticks at the top of the Spider's windshield pillar; those are there to send air up over the cockpit and back down onto the rear deck.

The power-folding hardtop neatly stows just behind the cockpit, and takes just 11 seconds to open or close using logical controls mounted by the dome light. You can operate the top while driving at speeds up to 31 mph — incredibly helpful when the fog ahead turns out to be rain — and the roof can be fitted with electrochromic glass, which actually tints dark enough so you won't get fried on a sunny day.

A little more shove

The Spider introduces a few more changes to the Artura range, but they aren't specific to the drop-top. For 2025, all Arturas make slightly more power than before; the 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 gas engine now offers 597 horsepower and 431 lb-ft of torque, supplemented by an extra 94 hp and 166 lb-ft from the electric motor. Total system output is a healthy 690 hp and 531 lb-ft. With the e-motor running in tandem with the V6, the rear-wheel-drive Artura Spider will accelerate to 60 mph in 3 seconds, on its way to a 205-mph v-max — just like the coupe.

You can drive at speeds up to 81 mph in fully electric power, but it takes forever and a day to get there. The Artura's EV mode is best suited for slow-speed city driving, and besides, you only get 11 miles of fully electric range. I'll admit, it's super cool to wind along the Monaco GP course in fully silent operation, not that this suddenly puts a bright orange supercar into stealth mode. Kick the throttle while driving in Comfort mode and that V6 will fire right up. That'll drop a jaw or two.

All Arturas have new powertrain mounts and retuned suspension software, all designed to make the Spider (and coupe) stiffer and more agile. Interestingly, the Spider requires no additional body strengthening compared to the coupe — cutting off the roof is normally a nightmare for body rigidity — and in fact, the convertible only has a 136-pound weight penalty over the hardtop. That's, like, one thin friend.

Bliss in the Alps

Blasting up French mountainsides, the Artura is absolutely superb. Keeping the powertrain in its Sport or Track setting ensures the V6 is always on boil, with the e-motor ready to supplement torque as needed while the turbos spool up. The engine revs higher than you think, all the way up to 8,500 rpm. And if you're the type of person who shifts by sound while using the big carbon-fiber steering-wheel-mounted paddles, I won't fault you for accidentally short-shifting. This engine winds up with a high-pitched roar that'll make you think you're running out of gear, but the rev ceiling is a lot higher than you think. A quick glance at the tach will confirm you're pulling the right paddle at 6,000 rpm more often than not. Keep your foot in the throttle. Trust me, the sound and fury of that extra 2,500 rpm is worth it.

The suspension's most hardcore Track mode continues to feel a little stiff for street use, especially on more pockmarked sections of cute little French towns tucked quaintly into the Alps. Staggered 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels are wrapped in Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires (a $1,750 option over the standard P Zeroes), which are also unfriendly to haggard surfaces. But at least the carbon-ceramic brakes are easy to modulate at lower speeds, which isn't often the case. Don't look for any regenerative braking action in this hybrid, though; the Artura does not use a brake-by-wire setup.

McLaren retuned the adaptive dampers for 2025; they're now 90% quicker to react than before. This doesn't really change the Artura's behavior — all McLarens strike a great balance of firmness and comfort on smooth roads and are shockingly amicable to dealing with rougher surfaces. Instead, the added benefit is increased steering feel, something the Artura didn't really need, if I'm honest (not that I'm complaining). McLaren employs hydraulic steering in the Artura, and its tuning doesn't change across the different drive settings since the company prefers the car to have a consistent behavior no matter the situation.

Full of weight and feedback, the Artura's steering is as close to perfect as you'll experience in a supercar. The mid-engine layout reduces weight over the front axle, making the Artura eager to turn in, while an electronic rear differential manages torque across the rear wheels. Both understeer and oversteer are virtually nonexistent, though admittedly it's tough to push too hard on the narrower, more technical sections of Alpine roads. For the sort of weekend-warrior canyon-carving convertible supercars are best suited for, I can't imagine you'll ever find fault with the Artura.

More creature comforts

The Spider's interior matches the coupe's, aside from those convertible top controls in the middle of the windshield pillar. The Sport buckets aren't exactly all-day comfortable — I'd love to be able to adjust the seatback to make it slightly more upright — but comfort seats are available as an option.

For 2025, lane departure warning is now standard, though the gotta-have-it blind-spot monitoring option is still paywalled in a $8,350 Driving Assistant package that includes adaptive cruise control, rear cross-traffic alert, and automatic high-beam headlights. At least the aptly named Practicality pack is standard on all U.S.-spec Arturas, giving you parking sensors, a rearview camera, soft-close doors, and heated door mirrors that dip when you put the transmission in reverse.

Perhaps most importantly for a convertible, though, the Artura Spider's cabin isn't blustery as all get-out when you're cruising at high speeds; it's easy to keep a conversation going with a passenger, or enjoy some tunes from the Bowers & Wilkins surround-sound stereo. McLaren's 8-inch center screen will let you run Apple CarPlay if you choose, which is a good thing since the native software is a little finicky. Too bad the screen gets totally washed out in the sunlight when the top is down. First-world convertible problems, I suppose.

Edmunds says

The Artura Spider continues to offer a best-of-both-worlds approach to supercar motoring: incredible V6 power when you need it, and low-speed electric assist when you're just trying to get through Monaco without making a scene. Not that the latter is truly possible, of course. Even in a ritzy locale like the French Riviera, McLaren's newest Spider is a standout star.