But it's a close call
The McLaren Artura and Ferrari 296 GTB are similar cars in many ways, but when it comes to picking one supercar over the other, Jeremy Clarkson says he would plump for the McLaren — but it’s a close-run thing.
Reviewing McLaren’s £189,000 plug-in hybrid in The Sunday Times yesterday, Clarkson, host of the Amazon hit shows The Grand Tour and Clarkson’s Farm, drew plenty of comparisons between the Artura and the Ferrari (which he recently reviewed) and, while he was unstinting in his praise for Maranello’s finest, the McLaren’s civility, less outrageous pricing and ease of use won it the toss.
The McLaren’s plug-in hybrid powertrain and its ability to drive in fully-electric mode, and therefore emit nothing from the exhausts for a time, made it an ideal steed for a recent trip to London from Clarkson’s farm in the Cotswolds. “But I’m burning any fuel” is a solid response in case he should be assailed for driving a conspicuous supercar by “pink-haired girls and vicars” — a reference to the recent spate of climate action protests.
“I could zoom down the M40 using the full force and ferocity of petrol and then, in the capital, I could push a button and run silently, like a summer breeze,” he wrote.
Things didn’t go quite to pan, though. In theory, the McLaren has around 18 miles of electric-only range but Clarkson couldn’t quite figure out how to use the engine to recharge the battery, which meant that by the time he got to London he had to make do with just four miles of range, which “in the real world is about two inches”.
Still, brief as his experience exploring the limits of the Artura’s hybrid system was, he was nonetheless impressed by it, and the fact that the transition between electric and combustion-powered modes was a lot smoother than that of the Ferrari.
“I flipped the switch and was plunged into a strange world. Because there I was in a car that’s all visual brimstone but that made no noise and had about the same top speed as a small horse.” [In fact, the top speed in electric mode is 80mph, as Will Dron pointed out in his first drive review of the Artura for Driving.co.uk.]
The 3l twin-turbo hybrid-assisted powertrain continued to shine once beyond the city limits, according to Clarkson.
“The figures say it will go from 0-62mph in three seconds and keep on accelerating all the way to 205mph. That’s very impressive. But what I liked even more was how that power was delivered. It was gentle. Delicate. And as a result, not scary. It must also be said that the engine sounds fantastic. Like a really fast farmyard auctioneer.”
The way the McLaren drives down a country road, he said, was “a dream” with the ride quality “just on the right side of tolerable”.
His only criticism of the driving experience was that the low-profile Pirelli P-Zero tyres, developed specifically for the Artura with clever heat and pressure sensors embedded within, produced an excess volume of road noise.
Inside the Artura, Clarkson found plenty more to like. Unlike in the Ferrari, the McLaren’s steering wheel isn’t festooned with confusing buttons — a very deliberate choice by the Woking firm.
The cabin, he added, is sufficiently spacious despite the car’s agreeably compact dimensions, making ingress and egress relatively painless, with the quality of the finish on a par with that of “a Victorian tunnel” (high praise indeed from Jeremy, a noted Brunel enthusiast).
Clarkson is well-known for his dislike of hybrid technology. In his review of the Ferrari 296 GTB he damned the technology with faint praise, writing that “Ferrari didn’t build [the 296 GTB] to be the best it could be — but built it to be the best current political thinking says it can be”.
It was a similar story with the McLaren, though the writer was still impressed with the engineering work that has gone into developing the Artura’s drivetrain.
“Make no mistake, the engineering in this car is very clever. The whole engine, electric motor and gearbox assembly is unbelievably small and the way they all work together suggests some witchcraft has been deployed.”
While he found the McLaren an easy car to praise, making a choice between it and the Ferrari was a lot harder.
On paper, the cars have some significant differences. Though the performance figures are comparable, the McLaren is quite a lot cheaper and less powerful than the Ferrari.
“I don’t go with this tosh,” wrote Clarkson. “I’d never have been able to convince my mother that there were any differences between these cars at all. I can’t even see that many myself. Both have virtually flat, 120-degree V6 engines. Both have turbos in the V. Both have the same two-seat, mid-engined layout and both are delightfully little.”
He described the choice between the two as “tricky”.
“The Ferrari is more exciting but the McLaren is more civilised. The Ferrari is better looking and a bit faster. But the McLaren is noticeably less expensive and much easier to use.”
“Really,” he concluded, “I guess it comes down to who you prefer, Lando Norris or Charles Leclerc. And that doesn’t help either, as both seem to be good eggs. I’d take the McLaren but I wouldn’t blame you if you did the opposite.”
Read Jeremy Clarkson’s review of the McLaren Artura in full at thetimes.co.uk.
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Keyword: Jeremy Clarkson would choose the McLaren Artura over a Ferrari 296 GTB