The McLaren Artura Exists Merely for Its Own Entertainment

There’s an idea in Confucianism that placing your feet above somebody’s head is a sign of great disrespect—and I agree. The ground is filthy. A person's face is the window to the soul. The McLaren Artura, however, seemingly does not care about this because every time you open one of its butterfly doors, the side skirt caked in whatever filth you’ve been driving in will meet you at eye level. The gall.

Another lowkey gesture of disrespect? The Artura is a plug-in hybrid which means, here in Ontario at least, it’s eligible for Green Vehicle plates. This means it’s allowed to travel in HOV lanes, a system intended to cut carbon emissions by encouraging carpooling and the purchase of eco-friendly hybrids and EVs. Because a mid-engined supercar capable of 205 mph is on the right side of environmental history, y'know. 

At every turn, the McLaren Artura drops subtle hints that it doesn’t really care about you or indeed anybody else—and that its on-road talents, as great as they are, exist ultimately for its own entertainment. 

This stubbornly insular attitude can be seen in the way it looks. Where Ferrari and Lamborghini have long, precious aesthetic legacies to protect, McLaren has no such baggage. Hence, its cars are mostly shaped by science. The Artura, like most other McLarens, looks like an open-wheel racer that's had liquid sheet metal draped over it in a wind tunnel. The entire rear end looks like one big diffuser. It's lean, low, slippery, and… not exactly what I'd call classically beautiful. But in person, it is extremely striking—AI-generated exotic car vibes.

This lack-of-actual-styling-as-its-own-flavor-of-styling continues inside. Surfaces look as if they've been melted onto minimalist frames. An 8.0-inch touchscreen (small in the context of modern luxury cars) is canted toward the driver and floats in place while a set of gear and hazard buttons sit simply and conveniently below, topped by a glowing red engine start button. There are no buttons on the skeletal steering wheel and drive modes relating to power and handling sit at the corners of the gauge cluster, reachable without ever taking your hands off the wheel. It's a purposeful cabin made of carbon