In honour of Her Majesty’s 70-year-long reign, McLaren and the McLaren Special Operations unit (MSO) have created a one-off McLaren Artura, woking’s highly-anticipated hybrid supercar.
The British-based firm has collaborated with its in-house bespoke design group to develop a new platinum silver paint colour titled “Platinum Jubilee”. Platinum Jubilee refers to 2022 which marks 70 years of service by Queen Elizabeth II to the people of the United Kingdom, the Realms and the Commonwealth, making her the first British monarch to ever reach this astonishing milestone.
The paint came about after the creation of a special emblem on the nose of the Artura with the name “Elizabeth II”. MSO and their coating partner, AkzoNobel, developed the paint color after deciding on the perfect metallic pigment that would work best with the new emblem. According to McLaren, the paint colour took over eight days to develop, including its durability and application testing.
“It has been an honour for MSO to create a new platinum paint in celebration of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee this year. This special paint, which will be available for customers to select for years to come, will be a fitting tribute to mark this historic milestone.” Ansar Ali, Managing Director at McLaren Special Operations. McLaren has some history with the Queen. This year marks 18 years since she opened Mclaren’s global headquarters in Woking.
The Artura in itself is a magnificent piece of machinery. It is the firm’s next high-performance hybrid supercar and will feature a 3,0-litre V6 with two turbochargers that are electrically actuated. Electrical actuators allow for a better turbo spool as a result of the electrical actuator’s ability to modulate the wastegate position, thus resulting in the spontaneous responsiveness we have come to expect from anything that bears the McLaren Speedmark.
The electric motor is an Axial Flux motor which in combination with the combustion engine produces a total system output of 500 kW. A particularly impressive aspect of this car is its ability to produce 720 N.m at just 2 500 rpm. The hybrid powerplant is mated to an eight-speed Seamless Shift Gearbox (SSG), McLaren’s lighting fast double-clutch transmission system.
Artura weighs 1 498 kg when loaded with all the necessary liquids and 90% fuel capacity. By the way, the fuel tank capacity is 66-litres, a few litres less than the 720S and McLaren GT. Word is that local units are set to make landfall in South Africa in July this year, but no concrete dates have been confirmed for Woking’s most anticipated creation in a long time.
