Supercar press loans run two or three days. If you’re lucky. You get the car, you do your drive, you shoot it, and it's gone before you've really gotten to know it. Fourteen days doesn't happen.
This one happened because McLaren heard I'd sold my RS4 and was waiting for my EV to arrive. They emailed and said, ‘you need a car, so take the Artura until the new one turns up’.
We said that sounds like a bloody good deal; gimme the car.
We headed to McLaren Sydney and picked up a 2026 Artura Coupe in Belize Blue. Black rims, orange calipers and black interior.
What McLaren has done here is balance a performance race car with something you can still drive every day, and two weeks was long enough to find out whether that holds up.
The First Days Are Always The HardestWe've already spent a fair bit of time in the Artura.
Late last year, we visited the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking and watched these cars being built by hand on the factory floor, which is pretty incredible to see up close. From there, we drove the Artura through the Cotswolds, past Oxford, before heading down to Woking and jumping on QF2 home.
Whenever you get into a new supercar you feel a bit like Bambi on ice, mostly because you're scared of doing something to it. This means habitually slowing right down for speed bumps. You put the nose up on the front lift going into driveways, then put it back down again. It’s a bit like dating. You’re getting to know the car.
By day two or three, you're getting more confident. By day five, you're really in tune with it, because you're driving it every day rather than for a photoshoot, and you've got a feel for the speed humps, the width, the length, parking it, the sensors, the turning circle.
You'd be surprised how quickly you get comfortable with having a supercar as a daily drive. You’ll also be surprised how much space we don’t need in our daily drives. If you’re smart, you can get from A to B, and never need to use the trunk.
Bondi To Redfern, Harris Farm, Tennis, Gym And The Endless AttentionOur fortnight looked like this. Bondi to the DMARGE offices in Redfern most mornings. Harris Farm for groceries. Airport runs, dropping friends off, giving friends rides. Multiple lunches. Croissants from The Bakery on Glenayr. The whole nine yards.
Photo: Romer Macapuno/DMARGE
There's a small part of anyone driving a car like the Artura. You appreciate people who appreciate cars. We treated it like our own car for the whole time. Really owned the moment. When people came up and asked about it, we told them about it.
Compare it to a 911, and they’re a little same-same, because the McLaren has that road presence and that aggressive ‘car poster on bedroom wall’ look. And we don't care what anyone says, scissor doors are the coolest thing ever. You can be a seven out of ten, but you've got scissor doors, so you're a ten out of ten. Everytime. That's the best analogy you can give it, and it’s what makes the Artura so damn cool.
In a McLaren, you’re not a wallflower. There's a MSO Bespoke Viola 750S that’s cruising around Sydney, and it gets noticed in a way you never once noticed a Porsche. Admittedly, Porsche people look at Porsches, but everyone looks at a McLaren.
The Hybrid Is The Bit Nobody Talks About, But They ShouldThe hybrid drivetrain is one of the most important features on this car, and it has almost nothing to do with performance.
Leaving home at six in the morning multiple times to go to the gym, you get all the way down the street without waking the entire neighbourhood with some obscenely loud, annoying V8 or V10 car. It’s whisper-quiet until you're well clear of home. That's a large part of why McLaren developed the Artura this way.
Photo: Romer Macapuno/DMARGE
People poo-poo the hybrid system because it adds weight. Rubbish. You will not notice the difference on the road. The electric motor fills in the turbo lag, and the battery gives you about 33km on its own and tops itself back up as you drive around the city. To recharge it, simply drop the car into track mode, and it will regenerate.
Fuel was another surprise. We did a lot of driving over the fortnight and only filled it twice, at around a hundred bucks a go. Some of that is the electric side doing the low-speed work, but most of it is the V6, which is genuinely efficient in the city.
Other cars in this price bracket simply don't offer any of this, and it's a big part of why the Artura is such a compelling buy.
The Artura Still Feels Like A Race CarNone of that makes it soft.
You get in low, pull the scissor doors down over you, and you're in a compartment rather than a seat. Alcantara everywhere. Bowers & Wilkins sound system. Eight-speed gearbox and a three-litre twin-turbo V6 behind your head.
The most annoying thing about this car is that it gets to 60 too quickly. Then 80. Then 100. It does 0-100km/h in three seconds flat because, underneath the daily-driver stuff, it is a race car made for everyday driving.
The McLaren Artua againt the backdrop of Sydney harbour. Photo: Romer Macapuno/DMARGE
Early one Sunday, we went up the Wyandee roads to West Head Lookout to give it a run. This is where the connection to the road shows up and where the daily driver argument stops being theoretical.
The throttle response is sharp, and the acceleration is linear, so the car feels alert even when you're flowing through a set of corners rather than attacking them. Nothing about it is nervous. You feel the road through the wheel rather than being told about it afterwards, and once you trust that, you stop managing the car and start driving it. That's the moment the last of the Bambi on ice disappears.
Two people in the car, getting it through the corners, really feeling what it can do on an open road, is quite incredible. The cyclists up at West Head can be real assholes, but weirdly on this trip they were all cheering us on, which is unheard of.
There's no drama to any of it, which is the strange part. It's a race car that lets you enjoy the road instead of fighting you for it. That feeling doesn't switch off when you get back into traffic either. It's why you take the long way home from Redfern.
A Porsche 911 GT3 on a two-day loan was one of the most uncomfortable cars ever, with those bucket seats and those racing seat belts. The Artura is the complete opposite. You get in, and you drive without your fillings rattling out. Even on Sydney's pothole-ridden roads.
Reliability Myth, And The Bad Rap It Doesn’t DeserveUnfortunately, McLaren gets a bad rap on reliability, and it doesn't survive a visit to where these cars are actually made.
The McLaren Technology Centre is a $300 million-plus facility, and everything about it reflects how the company thinks. It's precise. It's quiet. It's organised in a way that leaves no room for clutter or distraction. Watching Arturas come together by hand on that floor tells you more about how these cars are built than any Reddit thread ever will.
McLaren today is also a different company to the one that built its name on noise and outright speed. The focus now is refinement, usability and what happens long after the first drive. The Artura is the first car built for that shift, and a fortnight of commuting, groceries and airport runs is exactly the test it was designed to pass.
We wrote about the retiree Edward Ho who did more than 17,300 kilometres in his 750S right the way around Australia, across the Nullarbor, with no mechanical issues. The video on socials had over 700,000 views, and the comments? 95% positive.
Photo: Romer Macapuno/DMARGE
As many people have pointed out, the trouble arises when people modify the cars and install loud exhaust systems. Stock as a rock, they're fine. We had absolutely no dramas in two weeks of daily use. The bad rap comes from the media and from keyboard warriors on socials, not from the cars.
There Is More Australian Heritage Here Than You ThinkBruce McLaren was a Kiwi, born in Auckland, who started the team in 1963 and was at one point the youngest driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. He died testing one of his own cars at Goodwood in 1970, and the company still carries his name and still builds everything in Woking.
Since then, the brand has run through Prost and Senna, and more recently Lando Norris, who won the drivers' championship for McLaren in 2025.
Australia's Oscar Piastri currently racing for McLaren in Formula 1.
Daniel Ricciardo drove for them in 2021 and 2022 and won at Monza, which was McLaren's first Grand Prix win in nine years and a big deal for Australian fans at the time. Oscar Piastri is there now and was fighting for the drivers' title last season.
It's a British constructor founded by a New Zealander with an Australian in the car right now. Proving there's more of us in this brand's story than most people realise.
The Verdict On The One Car GarageThe limitation as a daily driver, compared to a wagon, is storage. You can't fit surfboards in it. But tennis rackets and tennis bags went in, luggage went in, airport runs were fine, and there's a fairly large frunk in the nose that took everything I threw at it, including the shopping. You just work around it.
You do become a bit of a taxi, because your friends all want to jump in and go for a drive.
Most people who own one of these will have a two or three car garage anyway, so there'll be a Range Rover or an SUV or an EV sitting next to it. But the big question is whether you can drive this every day from home to the city and back, and yes, absolutely you can.
Photo: Romer Macapuno/DMARGE
At this price, it belongs in your consideration set alongside a Lamborghini Huracan, a 911 GTS or a Ferrari Amalfi. And while you're comparing them, don't think this is the poor man's McLaren, because it absolutely is not. There’s no such thing as a poor man who drives a McLaren.
With a lot of brands, there's a noticeable gap between the entry car and the ones above it, and everyone quietly knows which is the cheap version. The Artura and the 750S feel very close.
The Artura is also the first car on McLaren's new lightweight carbon architecture, the platform that will underpin everything they build next.
You'll always enjoy getting into it, not just for what it is but for what it stands for. It’s actually good for your mental health driving one of these every day. It's a purebred racing car, handmade in Woking in one of the most incredible technology centres in the world, which we've experienced firsthand.
Everyone has their brand, whether that's Ferrari or Porsche or Lamborghini, but there is something incredibly cool about McLaren, and the Artura is their most drivable car.
Which brings me back to that retiree and his 17,300 kilometres. These cars are meant to be driven. Most press cars we get, we don't drive anywhere. This one we wanted to drive. We wanted to get out early in the morning when nobody's on the road and enjoy it like a car should be enjoyed.
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If nothing else, it'll get you up early on a weekday and away somewhere on a weekend. If you're a couple with overnight bags, there's plenty of room to head down the coast or wherever you want. Even around Australia.
You drive the McLaren Artura every day not because you have to, but because you want to.
2026 McLaren Artura Coupe Specifications Engine3.0L twin-turbo V6, 120-degree vee, hot-vee turbosElectric motorAxial flux e-motor, integrated into the transaxleCombined output700PS (515kW)Torque720NmTransmission8-speed dual-clutch, no reverse gearDriveRear-wheel drive, electronic differential0-100km/h3.0 seconds0-200km/h8.3 secondsTop speed330km/hBattery7.4kWhEV rangeApprox. 33kmChargingAC only, no DC fast chargingFuel consumption4.8L/100km (claimed, WLTP)Fuel tank65 litresLuggage capacity160 litres (front)Dimensions4,539mm long, 1,913mm wide, 1,193mm highArchitectureMcLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA)Servicing12 months / 15,000kmPriceFrom approximately $485,000 plus on-road costsRead the full article This Is McLaren’s Most Versatile Supercar Ever on DMARGE. Don’t miss it!
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