Absolutely roofless

Towards the conclusion of the first 140km stretch of our road drive through the steep hills that hem in the Côte d-Azur in the South of France, lies the town of Grasse – the absolute centre of the French perfume industry since the late-1700s. Sheltered from the Mediterranean Sea air and enjoying its own microclimate, Grasse produces over two-thirds of France’s natural aromas. Many of the leading lights of the perfume industry – “noses” as they’re known – train here to sniff out one scent from another.

Lowering the McLaren Artura Spider’s retractable one-piece hard-top in these parts won’t exactly deliver you all the fragrances of an airport duty free store. But there’s still something to be said for a climb up and up through fresh mountain air; the occasional passing whiff of baked goods emanating from village Pâtisseries fighting for attention among the – inevitable in this part of the world – blue-smoke exhaust fumes from maniacally driven Citröen vans up ahead.

And while we’re ambling, roof down, it's worth a quick dive into the cleverness of the Artura Spider’s retractable hard top: after all it’s the car’s raison d’etre.

As in the fixed-roof Artura Coupe, the fold-away fitted here still incorporates a clever (optional) electrochromic glass panel above the driver. This acts as either a conventional sunroof to allow all that lovely French Riveria sunshine in, or ‘frosts’ over at the touch of a button to block out 99% of sunlight.

As a workaround to accommodate the folding roof, McLaren’s engineers had to develop a wholly different cooling system – which now features four separate sinewy ducting inlays – to cool the car’s powertrain and extract heat consistently, regardless of whether the car’s roof is up or down. Up top, each side of the deck lid features a sculptured buttress glazed in motorsport-spec polycarbonate. Not only do they look amazing and assist with a modicum of rearward over-shoulder vision, but they also help channel cold air into discreet recesses in the tonneau cover.

It's a reminder that, while McLaren as a supercar manufacturer is very much engineering-led, there is automotive art underlying the aero. The Artura, in both fixed-head and drop-top form, is a beautiful looking thing.

As you’d expect, it’s also very light. In fact, it’s lighter than its nearest supercar rival by 83kg. It adds an extra 62kg over the Artura Coupe due to the roof raising/lowering mechanism, but even so its 1,457kg dry weight makes this convertible lighter than some coupes: quite an achievement for a Spider.

Staying on the scales, the Artura Spider’s electric motor only weighs 15kg. Don’t forget this is a hybrid supercar. Its mid-engine 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 is augmented by a 69kW e-motor that also adds a handy 225Nm to the pot. Total available power is 515kW, with combined torque of 720Nm on tap at as low as 2,250rpm.

A straight line sprint up the autoroute west of Monaco and Nice reveals all the squeeze-and-go linear acceleration you’d expect from a McLaren road car. Zero to 100km/h is dispatched in 3.0 seconds flat while, should you be fortunate enough to swap public road for private track, a 0-200km/h time of just 8.4 seconds is achievable. Top speed is limited (limited!) to 330km/h. Talk about the rush of wind through one’s follicles.

It’s a Saturday morning as we thread our way off the autoroute and up the narrow mountain roads skirting the base of the French Alps to the northwest of Monaco. That means one thing: un cycliste. This is Tour de France territory even when Le Tour isn’t on. And you have to admire the commitment of Lycra-clad riders of all vintages ascending and descending the precipitous passes that make the roads along this stretch of the Côte d-Azur so compelling to ride. And drive.

For the first half of our journey, I guide the Artura Spider around pelotons of grunting cyclists, judging when to pull out for a swift overtake, swapping silent electric motion for a snarl of acceleration noise through the redesigned exhaust system as I roar past.

With fingers crossed on the steering wheel that I don’t meet an unseen campervan or freight truck coming the other way around a semi-blind corner (it’s amazing how many service vehicles use these twisty alpine passes as a means to get from A to B), the trip up to the highpoint of our road drive gives me a chance to get comfy with the Artura Spider’s impressive cabin.

As with the 750S unveiled last year, the Artura’s cabin is a resoundingly focused and (for a supercar) comfortable place to be. The steering wheel is refreshingly button free, and the driver display binnacle moves with the steering column when adjusted for reach.

McLaren has moved its toggles for handling and powertrain settings (Comfort, Sport, Track and e-Mode for around 30km emissions free battery-only driving) up to the top of each side of the instrument pod. This clever solution means you’re not looking down at the centre console to make any dynamic changes to the way the Artura behaves. In fact, you don’t even need to take your hands off the steering wheel.

Motorsport-themed Alcantara fabric with colour-coded piping is the order of the day. In a “why didn’t they think of that before?” move, the stop/start ignition button has been subtly changed from red in colour to the brand’s signature Papaya Orange.

Our arrival in the dramatic setting of the Parc naturel régional des Préalpes d'Azur coincides with a brisker (less bike-ier) run back towards the coast. We’ve joined the Route Napoléon, named after the route the Corsican-born French dictator took in 1815 back to Paris (and on to the Battle of Waterloo) after 11 months in exile on the island of Elba.

I lower the rear glass partition to enjoy the engine noise: McLaren’s engineers have extracted plenty of fire and brimstone from the V6, which reverberates of the sub-alpine slate grey rockwork framing the road. Shifting into Sport and Track modes doesn’t eliminate the e-motor from the performance picture. These settings use the electric motor to assist low-end response and acceleration and if you’re looking for regenerative power back into the battery, Track mode delivers the highest battery recharge rate.

The McLaren Artura Spider joins what is overall the youngest model line-up of McLaren cars in the manufacturer’s storied history. It’s the brand’s first high-performance convertible with a hybrid powertrain. Through baseline engineering brilliance and incremental refinements, the updated Artura platform excels from its carbon fibre monocoque outwards. It is, in a word, fantastique.