AutoMuse is the only Australasian motoring journalist at the reveal of the supercar brand’s launch at a Hollywood Hills mansion (of course).

Update: In the world of Lamborghinis, Ferraris and such exotic daily drives as Bugattis, there has to be a standout event for the Los Angeles launch of the McLaren Artura Spider.

The official launch of the Artura Spider was in Miami a few days after the successful F1 GP with the racing head Zak Brown and driver Oscar Pissatri in attendance. But if you want to head for potential buyers in the USA, you have to aim high ... Hollywood Hills high.

In Los Angeles Thursday night last week (my time), a variety of guests gathered at the US$32 million mansion in the Gotham Estate (sorry, Batman wasn’t in attendance). 

There were invited McLaren owners in Southern California, real estate agents (as the house was still for sale), potential buyers and a few hangers-on (that was me). But no Instagram influencers were invited. 

It was an LA crowd so the attire was men in jeans, tee-shirts and jackets with very expensive watches plus women in subtle designer dresses and a few stand-out characters as you’d expect: including a very tanned, and small, old Elvis Presley lookalike with his fur jacket-wearing wife. Plus a very tall English tuxedo-wearing male model … who tried very unsuccessfully later to push ahead of me to take photos of the Artura Spider as the reveal was about to happen.

After an hour of taking in the stunning view, checking out the entertainment areas of the mansion (as security was preventing you from seeing the bedroom areas), and going to one of three food stations or two bars, it was time for the big event.

The few hundred guests were told to come to the mansion’s main entrance where an Artura Spider was under a cover on the turntable built in the cobble driveway.

After a speech from McLaren Americas president, Nicholas Brown, the cover was removed from the Artura Spider and it did a spin on the turntable with everyone’s phones on video as the car was roped off.

While everyone took photos of the blue Artura, behind them in the mansion’s garage was a green Artura spider where a McLaren Americas employee explained the special aspects of the car … and you could sit it in.

When he found out I was New Zealand, he asked me if knew about Bruce McLaren. How rude! I said of course I did and that my brother, Jared, went to Bruce McLaren Intermediate. He didn’t quite understand that the school for young kids was named after the Kiwi motoring legend, and not a school to produce motorsport employees! 

It was great to be able to touch the Artura Spider and he explained how they created cooling vents and a ‘hot vee’ chimney to help with the temperature for the occupants of the mid-engine vehicle.

However, when prospective buyers came to the car, you were politely asked to get out of the Spider for someone who could afford it.

Close up, the Artura carries on McLaren’s design ethos of less is more; the lines are strong, the front is impactful without being too fussy and it is a head-turner.

McLaren NZ told AutoMuse that it is now taking orders for the $499,000 Artura Spider.

So, what makes the McLaren Artura Spider so special? 

The new Artura Spider delivers complete driver focus and a heightened sense of engagement. Super-light engineering, race-honed dynamics and advanced electrification, it is driving spirit. As McLaren likes to say, it’s amplified.

The Spider is McLaren's first hybrid convertible and packs an upgraded version of the 120-degree 3.0-litre V-6 engine mated to an electric motor that first arrived in the coupe last year.

It produces 514kW at 7,500rpm and 720Nm. It has a 0-100km/h in 3.0 seconds and has a blistering 330km/h max speed plus up to 33 km of zero-emissions, near-silent EV running for the city streets.

The hybrid setup is hooked up to an eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle, which incorporates the e-motor. The gearbox has been bolstered for 2025 with a new "pre-fill" feature that's claimed to shorten shift speeds by 25 percent. This is achieved by pressurising the hydraulic fluid in the gearbox to the ideal threshold so the gearbox is immediately ready to shift when asked. An electronically controlled differential within the transmission apportions power between the rear wheels.

"The new Artura is absolutely the complete next-generation supercar, whichever model you choose,” said McLaren Automotive CEO, Michael Leiters.

“We have upgraded the powertrain and the chassis systems to deliver more power, more dynamic performance and even higher levels of connection with the driver – without any compromise in everyday driving,” he said.

“And now alongside the new Artura coupe we have the Artura Spider, a new convertible that has all of these improvements and brings another dimension of open-air McLaren supercar exhilaration to our range."

It is the lightest car in its class with a dry weight of 1457kg.

The Spider looks mostly identical to the coupe, save for the electrically operated hardtop that retracts in just 11 seconds thanks to eight electric motors. The standard hardtop is a carbon-fibre composite panel, but McLaren also offers electrochromic glass that can turn from opaque—where it blocks a claimed 99 percent of sunlight—to transparent at the touch of a button. The roof can be opened and closed from the outside of the vehicle when stationary via the key.