McLaren Artura vs Lamborghini Aventador

What's the difference?

McLaren’s most liveable offering proves hybrid heroes have a place in the supercar stable of tomorrow. Angry and affable in near-equal measure, it is utterly docile during the week and completely bonkers on the weekend.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

The Aventador isn't the best car you can buy for the money and truth be told, it isn't the best Lamborghini, which is a bit tough when you remember the only other car they make at the moment is the V10 Huracan. But it's all about the theatre as much as being a very capable supercar. 

I'm not a Lamborghini fanboy, but I completely get the Aventador. It's a because-we-can car, just like the Murcielago, Diablo and Countach before it. But unlike those cars, it's thoroughly modern and with the upgrades introduced to the S, it's faster, harder and enormously entertaining. 

As the last of a dying breed it delivers on everything a Lamborghini should - amazing looks, nutty price tag and an engine that excites not just driver and passenger but anyone with a heartbeat. It's by far the most charismatic car you can buy, no matter how many zeroes are on the cheque.

Photography by Rhys Vanderside

As is pretty par for the course with McLarens, the Artura's design is more about aerodynamics than aesthetics, with everything you see outside designed to either help you slip through the air, or stick to the road.

There is, however, one important new part of the design, and that is the roof, which opens in 11 seconds and at speeds of up to 50km/h, meaning you should never be caught in sudden rain.

Elsewhere, you’ll find it is all angles and alloys outside, while inside, it is a pretty driver-focused experience. I particularly love the steering wheel, which is totally free of buttons – a refreshing change which means it has one job and one job only.

Then there’s the central screen, which looks a bit like it’s just been plonked in the cabin, but works seamlessly. One note, though. It's positioned a little too low, meaning you have to take your eyes right off the road to look at it when driving.

Asking if there's anything interesting about a Lamborghini design is kind of like asking if the sun is warm.

While there are some geese out there in the corners of the internet who think Audi has ruined Lamborghini styling, there is absolutely nothing shy about the Aventador. It's an incredible looking machine and, if I may say so, shouldn't be had in black because you miss a lot of the madder details.

This car is all about the experience.

It might look close to the deck in the photos, but however low you think it is, it's lower. The roofline barely makes it to the bottom of a Mazda CX-5's windows - you need your wits about you in this car because people just don't see you.

It is absolutely spectacular - people stop and point, one chap sprinted an easy 200 metres to take a photo of it in the Sydney CBD. Hello, if you're reading.

Inside is pretty tight indeed. It's amazing to think that a car 4.8 metres long (a Hyundai Santa Fe is 4.7 metres) struggles to contain two people over six feet tall. My six foot two photographer's head left an impression in the headlining. It's a tiny cabin. It's not a bad one though, it even has a cupholder on the rear bulkhead behind the seats.

The centre console is covered in Audi-based switchgear and is all the better for it, even if it is starting to look a bit old (those bits are from a pre-facelift B8 A4). The alloy gearshift paddles are fixed to the column and are brilliant to look at and touch, while the digital dashboard - which changes with the driving mode - is fantastic even if the reversing camera is awful.

Practical? Not really, but then, what were you expecting? There are two seats, some 124 litres of luggage space in its under-bonnet boot, phone connections and… well, that’s about it.

One design element I do love, which counts as a practicality perk, is the glass finish applied to the rear buttresses, which don’t just look cool, but help you see out the back when peering over your shoulder.

Yes, well. There's not a lot of space because a V12 is not just big all on its own, all the ancillaries to support it rob a lot of the remaining space. Having said that, there's room in the front for soft bags with a 180-litre front boot, space for two people inside, a cupholder and a glove box.

And the doors open up into the sky rather than out like a normal car's. Who cares if it's impractical, it's hardly something that's going to stop someone buying one.

As with any Italian supercar, the price-to-feature ratio is rather higher than your average humdrum hatchback. A 'naked' Aventador S starts at a horse-spooking $789,425 and basically has no direct competition. Ferrari's F12 is front-mid engined and any other V12 is either a decidedly different Rolls Royce-type machine or super-expensive niche manufacturer (yes, niche compared to Lamborghini) like Pagani. They're a rare very breed, Lambo knows it, and here we are a sneeze-on-the-spec sheet away from $800,000.

So you have to keep two things in mind when rating a car's value for money at this level. The first is that there isn't any real rival in a pure sense, and if there was, it would be the same price and have the same spec. That's not excusing it, by the way, it's an explanation.

Anyway.

For your eight hundy you get 20-inch front wheels and 21-inch rears, climate control, cruise control, 7.0-inch screen (backed by an older version of Audi's MMI), four-speaker stereo with Bluetooth and USB, car cover, bi-xenon headlights, carbon ceramic brakes, electric seats, windows and mirrors, leather trim, sat nav, keyless entry and start, four-wheel steering, leather trim, digital dashboard, power folding and heated mirrors, active rear wing and active suspension.

The number of out-of-the-box options is staggering and if you're keen to really get on it, you can commission your own options when it comes to trim and paint and wheels. Let's just say that as far as the interior went, our car had almost $29,000 of Alcantara, steering wheel and yellow. The telemetry system, heated seats, some extra branding and front and reversing camera (uh-huh) added up to $24,000, the cameras almost half that total.

With all the bits and bobs, the test car we had was a sobering $910,825 before on-roads.

The magic of the Artura’s powertrain isn’t the twin-turbocharged V6, but its dinner-plate-sized e-motor, which adds 70kW and 225Nm to the total outputs.

In EV mode, which lasts around 33km, that’s all the power you get. But when both power sources are in use, the e-motor essentially plugs any turbo lag or power holes, delivering smooth, constant and massively ample power.

How much power? Try 515kW and 720Nm — up some 15kW on the existing Artura — unlocking a sprint to 100km/h in 3.0 seconds, a run to 200km/h in 8.4 seconds and from a standstill to 300km/h in 21.6 seconds.

That power is fed through an eight-speed automatic and channelled to the rear tyres, with the help of an 'E-Diff', while pre-configured 'Electric', 'Comfort', 'Sport' and 'Track' modes arrive as standard, too.

There are also a heap of suspension and software enhancements, longer-laster braking, stiffer engine mounts to tighten the entire vehicle, faster damping, significantly quicker gearshifts and a broader rev range.

The Aventador S is powered by Automobili Lamborghini's 6.5-litre V12. You know it's a V12 because there's a plate on top of the engine (which you can see through the optional glass cover) that says so, and handily, tells you the cylinder firing order. That's a neat touch.

Buried deep in the middle of the car, this monster engine develops an astonishing 544kW (30kW up on the standard Aventador) and 690Nm. Its dry sump means the engine sits lower in the car. The gearbox is slung across the back between the rear wheels - the rear pushrod suspension actually sits on top of and across the gearbox - and is apparently brand new.

The transmission is known as an ISR (Independent Shift Rod) and has seven forward speeds and still just the one clutch. Power goes through all four wheels to the road, but it's clear the rears get the lion's share.

The 0-100km/h time is the same as the standard car, which kind of tells you that 2.9 seconds is about as quick as you can go on road tyres when you don't have four electric motors with torque from zero rpm.

You can plug the Artura in, of course, and taking the 7.4kWh battery from zero to 80 per cent charged will take around 2.5 hours. McLaren reckons you can expect fuel use of around 4.8L/100km when both powertrains are in operation.

Be warned, though, there’s enough magic used to fill Hogwarts when it comes to calculating that number, and you can expect that figure to likely double if driving sedately, and skyrocket if you get on Tinder terms with the accelerator.

Hilariously, the official figure is 16.9L/100km. I doubled it without trying. Simple as that. If you're buying this car thinking it will be easy on the juice, you're insane.

Cheeringly, Lambo has at least tried, the V12 going silent when you sit at the lights, the best thing being the way it bursts back into life when you lift off the brake.

If you have the time available, it takes 90 litres of premium unleaded to fill the tank.

I know it sounds strange, given how knife-sharp and angular the McLaren Artura Spider looks, but perhaps this plug-in powerhouse's biggest party trick is not how it operates at its 8500rpm redline, but how it behaves at low speeds in town or cruising on the freeway.

This is a properly comfortable supercar, happily tootling around in near-silence in in EV mode, or just cruising around, the improved damping smoothing out the road below and the exhaust note barely noticeable.

Honestly, there was a moment on this test drive when I found myself in EV mode with the roof down while travelling at around 70km/h, and I could hear birds chirping as I passed them, such was the calm ambience of the cabin.

Supercars aren't designed as daily drivers, but the McLaren Artura Spider is so effortlessly easy to live with you could use it as your weekday runabout, before unleashing it on the weekends.

Open the taps a little more, though, and suddenly that nature changes, unlocking a darker and more dynamic side to the McLaren's personality, courtesy of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, putting the entire 515kW and 720Nm at your disposal.

I don't think I've driven a car in which the distance between its twin personalities is so vast. Plant your right foot and the acceleration (0-100km/h in just 3.0 seconds) is properly violent, while the gearing has been set up in a way that it is near impossible to hit the redline on a public road – at least without obliterating the speed limit.

The steering is a predictable highlight – super direct, and near-telepathic in the way it responds to your inputs. The eight-speed auto goes about its work with seamless efficiency, too.

The biggest highlight, though, is the Artura's agility. McLaren is famed for taking an approach to removing weight from its vehicles that is so ruthless it's a miracle they don't make prospective owners step on a scale before handing over the keys. And while its true convertibles are heavier than their hardtop counterparts, you can't tell in the Artura Spider.

Instead, the brand has worked to remove weight and tighten the drive experience, mostly through new and stiffer engine mounts and that single piece carbon-fibre tub, which is why there is no additional body stiffening required in the convertible over the coupe.

As a result, the Spider feels light, lithe and super reactive, devouring corners with no jiggling or roll and no different (in that sense) to the hardtop version we drove last year.

One of the other big changes the brand made this time around is to retune the exhaust, making it louder and more natural-sounding, and you can take advantage of that in the Spider, with the rich bass filling the cabin as though your own personal orchestra is being conducted by your right foot.

So, if you're in the camp that says electrification has no place in the world of supercars, you're wrong. Electrification doesn't hamper excitement here, it enhances it.

In Strada or Street mode, awful. Everything is slow and doughy, particularly the gearshift which goes looking for a gear like dog looking for a stick you didn't throw, but instead hid behind your back. The low-speed ride is nothing less than terrible, fidgeting over every single lump and bump and is only slightly more appealing than being dragged along behind.

The gearbox is really the worst bit about it. Automotive history is littered with cars that laboured along with a single clutch semi-auto: Alfa Romeo 156, BMW's E60 M5 and today the Citroen Cactus is stuck with just such a dud transmission.

Like that old M5, however, there's a trick to making the gearbox work for you - show absolutely no mercy.

Switch the selector up to Sport, get off the highway or major arterial road and head for the hills. Or better still, a clear race track. Then the Aventador goes from a pain in the rear to a glorious, roaring, completely unhinged and unhinging battle cruiser. This car is all about the experience, from the second you lay eyes on it to the moment you put it to bed.

This isn't an everyday supercar and it's absurd to think Lamborghini thinks it is.

First up, there's the obvious entry point with those wacky doors. While it's tricky to get in, if you're under six feet and reasonably mobile, stick your backside in, keep your head down and you're in. If you've been clever, you've specified the glass engine cover so you can see out the back but the huge wing mirrors are surprisingly effective.

Has someone thoughtlessly parked the car in a tight spot? No trouble, the four wheel steer makes the car absurdly manoeuvrable given its extravagant length and width.

As we've already established, it's not much fun at low speeds, waiting until about 70km/h before things start to make a bit more sense. This isn't an everyday supercar and it's absurd to think Lamborghini thinks it is. It just isn't.

The old Aventador was not the most capable of machines but made up for it with its overall belligerence. The new S takes that aggro and dials it up. When you move the drive mode to Sport you are basically unleashing hell. You can pretend to be super-masculine and switch to Corsa (race) mode, but it's all about getting the car straight and getting you around the track in the most efficient way possible. Sport is where it's at if you want to have fun.

The Aventador is about being seen, but not before you've been heard - from two postcodes away. It really is utterly glorious when you have a stretch of road to yourself. The V12 revs furiously to its 8400rpm redline and the wallop of the upshift is accompanied with a fantastic bark and a burst of blue flame. And these aren't the best bits.

Approach a corner, stomp on the colossal carbon ceramic brakes and the exhaust erupts in a combination of bangs and pops and growls that puts a smile on even the most hardened car-hater's face. The fact it steers into corners with just a demure roll of the wrist, aided and abetted by that funky four-wheel steering system. It's just brilliant, addictive and truth be told, it gets under your skin.

The Aventador doesn't have an ANCAP safety rating but the carbon chassis also comes with four airbags, ABS, stability and traction controls.

The Artura arrives with a five-year, unlimited-kilometre warranty as standard, while the battery is covered for six years or 75,000km. Five years of roadside assistance is thrown in, as are your first three years of services.

In an unexpected twist, you'll get a three-year/100,000km warranty and the option to increase to four years ($11,600!) or five years ($22,200!)(!). Having recovered from typing that, given the cost of something going wrong, that's probably money well-spent.