McLaren has been through some difficult times in recent years. It’s F1 team might be enjoying a successful return to the front of the grid, but its road car division, McLaren Automotive has been dealing with financial issues, teething troubles with new models and the challenge of re-inventing itself in a world of electrification and legislative changes.
A chat with the new boss of McLaren Special Operations (MSO) at the Goodwood Festival of Speed recently revealed a very positive attitude to the future for the marque. I’ll get to that in a minute, but first, spending a few days with the latest model, the McLaren Artura Spider, showcased the achievements of the design and engineering teams that are tasked with keeping McLaren at the forefront of the supercar market.
When McLaren Automotive was launched back in 2010, the MP4-12C was hailed as an everyday supercar and in many ways it was. It had great manners around town, comfortable seats and the ability to thrill when the road opened up. It still wasn’t a match for the benchmark everyday sports car, the Porsche 911, but it was a great start.
It has taken 15 years of chasing Porsche to get to the point where the Artura truly ticks the everyday box. Its numbers are impressive with 515kW, 720Nm and a 0-100km/h time of three seconds, but in this day and age, “everyday” means more than just performance. Comfort levels are exemplary, the infotainment system, while still a bit counter-intuitive, is fairly straightforward and there are plenty of practical touches in terms of storage. Quality is the best we have seen from McLaren, something that is even more impressive considering the car had some teething troubles.
Then there’s the fuel economy — not something most supercar owners need to talk about, but if you want to drive it every day, then the figures make interesting reading. The Artura is a plug-in hybrid, with an electric-only driving range of 33km, more than enough for most daily commutes. But who wants to drive a supercar in electric mode, except perhaps buyers of a Rimac. You want to hear the twin-turbo V6 roar and when you do, the electric motor and battery support it.
Sure there’s a performance element there, but that support saw me achieve a remarkable 6.1l/100km on one 150km trip. Admittedly switching it to Sport mode, where more charge is put back into the battery, changed that somewhat, but even so, the average over my time with it, including plenty of spirited driving was still an un-supercar like 11.2l/100km.
So the McLaren Artura Spider is finally wheel-to-wheel with the Porsche 911, but for those who want more than just a “regular” McLaren, there’s the company’s MSO division.
McLaren Special Operations (MSO) began as a team of people who looked after the needs of F1 customers. It then became involved in creating iconic models such as the McLaren-Mercedes SLR before offering bespoke additions to existing models.
“At the core of MSO, we recognise we are there to service the needs of the client and in that way, it’s not a necessity product, it’s one that has come from a desire and passion,” says Jonathan Simms, director of MSO. “We’re still focused on heritage, but we also work intensively on what we have always referred to as ‘MSO defined’, basically accents, features, details that can elevate new products. Then we have the ability for clients to commission something that goes beyond single features, into either a fully themed car or even complete one-off.”
Simms views MSO as offering three clear elements: clarity, accessibility and exclusivity. The first, clarity, is essentially because no-one outside of the company is really sure what MSO does. Bentley, Ferrari and Porsche all have lots of examples of what they do, but MSO has always seemed to be about a few additional aerodynamic styling options with some interior details. Simms is on a mission to ensure clients have a better understanding of what MSO does, and that brings in the second element, accessibility. One-off models always grab the headlines, but MSO can do anything from embroidering initials into a seat, to bespoke paint and unique interior materials. It’s the full suite of bespoke services but if a client wants the last element, exclusivity, then one-offs are the ultimate option.
What MSO isn’t really about is performance upgrades, at least not yet, he says. The division has done some performance tweaks in the past, but just as Mulliner is to Bentley, it’s more about adding a touch of the client’s style to a model, creating something that reflects their personality and lifestyle.
Alternatively, it could be about celebrating a moment and Simms says they are open to creating special edition models that do just that, but he’s cautious about not overdoing it.
It’s...about finding the right balance between celebrating the company’s great moments and allowing a client’s moments to shine.
— Jonathan Simms, director of McLaren Special Operations
“The question for me is how to celebrate moments in the right way,” he says. “The automotive world can become saturated with yet another special edition from some manufacturer to celebrate another anniversary or moment in time. McLaren’s history is so rich that there are really great moments to celebrate and we will definitely do those products in future, but it’s also about finding the right balance between celebrating the company’s great moments and allowing a client’s moments to shine and actually for them to tell a story about a certain moment in time.”
It might be too early to celebrate, but from the superb character and performance of the Artura Spider to the bespoke nature of MSO, it seems McLaren might once again have found its moment to shine.
