Here’s How The 2025 McLaren Artura Spider Improves Upon Its Predecessor

Summary

• McLaren’s Artura features an upgraded Spider version with new power and performance, including a retractable roof and interior enhancements.
• The Artura now boasts 690 hp and 531 lb-ft of torque from tweaks to the V-6 electric motor hybrid setup, paired with a 3.0-l twin-turbo.
• With a focus on hybrids, McLaren continues to blend supercar performance with more accessibly-priced 2025 Artura models for enthusiasts.

British automaker, McLaren built its reputation as one of the premier supercar builders with the 618-horsepower V-12 McLaren F1 in 1992. Specializing in building what are essentially race cars for the street, the British manufacturer has turned out a series of amazing high-performance rides in extremely limited numbers with million-dollar-plus price tags. More recently, the company has added focus to also making more affordable “entry level” sports cars in the six-figure range, like the 570S and the Artura.

Introduced in 2022, the McLaren Artura was a radical departure for the company as a plug-in hybrid electric sports car. Another outlier for McLaren was that this impressive exotic came with the relatively low sticker price of $225,000. Due to some quality control issues, American customers didn’t start taking delivery on these bad boys until 2023, but everything was ironed out, and they are some of the most eye-catching speedsters on the road. The name may sound pseudo-Italian, but it’s simply a combination of the words “art” and “future” with an A at the end to probably sound Italian.

For 2025, McLaren has upgraded the Artura with a droptop Spider version. It’s not just the roof that’s different on the latest model either, as McLaren has upgraded the vehicle from bumper-to-bumper, including some extra horsepower. The nice thing about this power upgrade is that it will retroactively be applied to current Arturo owners for free at any McLaren dealership. While the Arturo may have been the perfect mid-level exotic sports car, the Arturo Spider drop-top has made it just a bit more perfect.

In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from various manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources, including McLaren, McLaren News Room, and Road & Track.

2025 McLaren Artura Spider Drop-Top

It’s hard to decide where to start on the exciting new 2025 McLaren Artua Spider upgrades, but since its more prominent feature is the retractable roof, design changes is the obvious place. The Spider looks identical to the coupe version, with the notable exception of the droptop, but there were a few changes that needed to be made to accommodate it.

2025 Artura Spider Dimensions

(Souce: McLaren)

The retractable roof required new glazed polycarbonate buttresses that both help with rear visibility and by directing air into the engine bay. The convertible top also required that the powertrain cooling vents be moved rearward. The intakes house both the cooling apertures for the engine and serve as roof storage, as well as being an outlet for hot air. McLaren also beefed up the Carbon Lightweight Architecture of the Spider, ensuring it is just as rigid as the coupe.

Stop Drop & Roll

Convertibles are undeniably cool, but there’s not much to them other than they have a roof that retracts. The Spider, on the other hand, has a wicked droptop that’s worth mentioning. The top retracts at the push of a button, and can even be activated outside the vehicle, when not in motion, via the key fob, and is powered by eight electric motors. It takes 11 seconds for the roof to retract, which is longer than it takes the Spider to run a quarter-mile. The top itself is a carbon-fiber composite panel, but there is an electrochroamatic glass option that goes from opaque to clear at the flip of a switch.

Inside The Spider’s Web

McLaren also bumped up the Spider’s interior with electrically adjustable, heated, memory function bucket seats coming standard. Related to the retractable roof, there is a heated rear screen that can be raised and lowered to make the climate more comfortable when the roof is down and muffle the engine noise when the roof is up. The Spider also gets a tech upgrade with wireless phone charging, lane-departure warning, road sign recognition, adaptive cruise control, blindspot monitoring, and rear cross-traffic detection.

Power Of The Artura Spider

The Artura coupe is a mid-engine high performer like all McLarens but differs in that it has a V-6, half the cylinders on the F1, that is mated to an electric motor. The V-6 is a twin-turbo 3.0-liter all-aluminum engine with a bank angle of 120 degrees. The “hot-vee” layout, a first for a production V-6, has the two turbochargers placed in the vee of the engine. The axial flux motor electric motor, not a Back to the Future flux capacitor, is positioned under the passenger side compartment and ties into the rear-wheel drive powertrain.

The V-6 engine, on its own, produces 577 horsepower and 431 pound-feet of torque. The electric motor generates 94 horsepower and 166 pound-feet of torque, but when it is mated to the gas engine, makes for a 671 horsepower, 531 pound-feet of torque street rocket. This powerful hybrid set-up is paired with an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, with an 8,500 RPM redline. While it doesn’t seem necessary, or possible to improve upon this amazing powertrain, McLaren pulled it off with the Spider.

Spider Power Upgrade

The V-6 electric motor hybrid setup is the same for the 2025 Spider, but it has been tweaked and tuned to put out 690 horsepower, a 29 ponies improvement over the Artura coupe. The torque remains the same at 531 pound-feet, but revised engine mapping has improved torque delivery.

The Spider also has the same eight-speed dual clutch transmission, but the gearbox has been bolstered to shorten shift speeds by 25 percent. This power upgrade is being made available to existing Artura owners, free of charge, at any McLaren retailer.

2025 Artura Spider Power and Performance

(Performance stats sourced from McLaren)

Another fun bit of upgrading comes with the “Spinning Wheel Pull-Away” feature that turns off the stability control to allow for raging, smokey burnouts. Additionally, McLaren claims they have improved the engine note with a new valved exhaust sytem that includes a tuned resonator. The piffy nuances of the improved mid-to-high engine rev sounds can be piped into the cabin with an optional symposer for a truly visceral driving experience.

Spider Performance Upgrades

The Spider’s power isn’t the only thing to get tweaked for 2025, as the overall handling and performance got an upgrade too. According to a McLaren press release, new powertrain mounts add stability and feel, while revised damper valving increases responsiveness by up to 90 percent, improving reaction to driver input and changes in the road surface. It also got some beefed up brakes, complete with new brake cooling ducts for better thermal management, because stopping a car this fast is white-hot business.

McLaren Hybrid Theory

McLaren is world-famous for their V-12 and supercharged V-8 supercars, but are carving out a nice niche for themselves with hybrids. In 2015, the company launched its three-tier product structure to expand its focus into the Sports Series, like the Artura, the Super Series with the 750S and the 12C, and the Ultimate Series for the likes of the F1 and the Speedtail.

While the Super and Ultimate cars are often built in small numbers and cost more than moderately-sized mansions, the Sports Series rides are more accessible and closer to a regular production vehicle, with the hybrids giving them the potential to go mainstream.

McLaren Limited Production Numbers

(Souce: McLaren)

McLaren P1

McLaren first dabbled in hybrids with the mid-engine P1 in 2015. Considered the successor to the F1, it featured a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V-8, mated with an electric motor, that produced a combined 903 horsepower. Granted, this was not something everyone could get behind the wheel of because of its limited production of just 375 units and its lofty price tag. The P1 GTR had a starting price of $7 Million, which is decidedly steep, even for an exotic supercar. The hybrid idea was, however, solid and McLaren would run with it in a more checkbook-friendly format.

McLaren Artura

As was mentioned earlier, the McLaren Artura got off to a rocky start, with deliveries being delayed for more than a year after its introduction in 2022. The company claimed they had to tighten up some quality control issues, but in practical terms, the hybrid sports car was a ticking time bomb. Road & Track reported that during a test drive, the Artura had a software malfunction and then caught on fire. Those issues were addressed and when the Arura finally began delivery, customers got themselves a gorgeous and powerful ride that has been running trouble-free ever since.

The Artura Spyder Leads A New Path For McLaren

All of these killer upgrades are available on both the 2025 Artura Spider and the Artura coupe, with the notable exception of the droptop. McLaren is already taking orders on the 2025 models, with the coupe starting at $256,308 and the base-model Spider going for $281,008. While that’s not exactly chicken scratch, those prices are a far cry from some of the multi-million dollar cars McLaren is known for. The hybrid Artura platform gives McLaren a more accessible vehicle in-line with Ferrari and Lamborghini and could be a new path for the exotic automaker.

There are no figures on how many Arturas will be produced or for how long it will be made, but it is definitely not a super-rare limited production car. Chances are, as long as people are buying them, McLaren will make them. McLaren has been averaging over 3,000 cars produced annually over the past few years according to McLaren, which is a huge leap from the single and double-digit yearly output of their early days. This major jump in sales is no doubt due to more mainstream rides like the 570S and the Artura, and could be the wave of the future for the company.