Driving a $500,000 supercar in this city is not for the faint of heart

Yesterday at 12:01 AM

The streets of Tokyo are not for the faint of heart. With a population as big as Australia's, Tokyo is one of the biggest – and busiest – cities in the world. And that includes its complicated and daunting road network.

I've previously driven in Tokyo and know from experience it takes immense concentration, akin to driving ten-tenths on a racetrack, albeit slower, much slower.

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The challenges are many, not least of all the sheer volume of traffic and a complex system of roads and highways that rise three, four or sometimes five, storeys above the city and dip underground just as quickly. Bearings? Forget it. Relying on GPS navigation is a must. It's easy to get lost, one wrong turn leading you onto a seemingly wrong path there's no escaping from.

Compounding my anxiety this time around is the fact I'm driving a half-million dollar supercar. In a sea of kei cars and taxi cabs, in a mass of small trucks and big semi-trailers, in a melange of everything that is weird and wonderful about Japanese car culture, the bright yellow supercar announces its arrival in the monochromatic automotive tide with a barely a whisper.

The 2025 McLaren Artura is a monstrously powerful supercar with a glorious twin-turbo V6 that howls and screams like a supercar should. But it's also a supercar for the modern age, a plug-in hybrid capable of driving on electrons alone, a near silent chimera imbued with all the drama and theatre expected of a McLaren.

Powering the Artura, which has been updated for the 2025 model year, is a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 which, on its own, is good for 445kW and 585Nm. Its augmented by a 70kW electric motor fed by a small 7.4kWh battery pack, for combined outputs of 515kW and 720Nm. An eight-speed dual-clutch automatic sends drive exclusively to the rear wheels.

Some might question whether a V6 is a worthy engine for a supercar but let me assure you, after an hour on Tokyo's streets and freeways, it most assuredly is.

Its melody of screaming induction loses nothing for eschewing the V8 of its stablemates, the V6 working just as hard to offer performance – and a soundtrack – that will live with you long after you've handed back the keys. That it plays to an accompaniment of bangs and explosions from the dual exhaust tips that sprout from high up from the rear grille like Spitfire cannons is the stuff of automotive Nirvana.

But that's all ahead as I eye the Volcano Yellow Artura in front of me, its signature butterfly doors unfolding like their namesake emerging from the chrysalis.

Inside, the Artura cocoons its occupants, its low-slung seats snug, reassuring, comfortable. The purposeful steering wheel does away with modern gimmickry, its unadorned spokes bereft of any buttons, sliders, switches, toggles. Nice.

A small infotainment screen feels like an afterthought in today's automotive climate where bigger, wider, sharper, screens dominate cabins, but it's functional and today, it's my best friend, as I look to navigate unfamiliar streets in what is one of the world's largest cities. Phone hooked up to Apple CarPlay, and Google Maps set to the famed and fabled Tatsumi parking area on the Shuto Expressway, I'm ready to hit the streets.

Pushing on the red starter button located in the centre console elicits nothing, the Artura starting in EV mode. It's the default start-up, allowing you to make a quiet, near-silent exit, great for those early morning getaways.

McLaren says the Artura can be driven for around 20km in pure electric mode, which isn't much in today's PHEV environment, but it's enough to ensure quiet zones and local neighbourhoods can be navigated in a respectful manner.

Now though, on a cloudy Thursday afternoon in the heart of Tokyo's Shibuya district, there's no such need and a flick of the drive mode selector – located helpfully within reach on the right side of the instrument binnacle – to Sport unleashes a cacophony of combustion as the V6 rumbles into life.

Blending into Tokyo's traffic isn't easy in the Artura which stands out, not just for its sleek supercar profile, but also its lurid yellow paint. It's a literal head-turner, passers-by stopping to take in the British supercar wherever you go.

Other road users too crane their necks, check their mirrors and keep their distance, affording the Artura plenty of space on the road.

Once on the expressway, which rises high above the terrestrial streets, winding through high-rise buildings – hotels, office blocks, apartments – I can give the Artura a little more leeway.

Here, as the revs climb, the sonorous V6 starts to growl with purpose, a soundtrack of pleasure that elicits a smile as bright as the yellow paint adorning the McLaren. In the tower blocks on either side, office workers tap away at their keyboards.

My route takes me over the Rainbow Bridge which straddles Tokyo Bay. Incongruously, it's white, its rainbow name derived from its night-time lights that feature all the colours of the, yep, rainbow.

From here's it's a relatively short cruise along the Shuto Expressway and then across to the Bayshore Route for my pitstop at one of the hallowed patches of Japanese car culture, the Tatsumi No. 1 Parking Area.

Tatsumi is, as the name suggests, a parking lot, a rest stop along the Bayshore Route with public toilets, and the gamut of Japan's oh-so-colourful, eclectic and strangely alluring vending machines.

But it's also a place where car enthusiasts meet, drawn to its elevated position five-storeys above the motorway and with Tokyo's skyline as a beguiling backdrop. It's a car-lovers Mecca by night, usually filled with all manner of machinery – from JDM hot-rods, all manner of supercars and the wild and crazy and unusual creations Japanese car culture is revered for.

It’s lost a little of its allure, authorities installing tall barriers blocking off views of the skyline in a bid to curb the influx of car folk who flock to the area for informal cars-and-coffee-like meets and impromptu photoshoots. Sad.

Today, on a lonely Thursday afternoon, it's filled with kei trucks and tourist busses with only a lone JDM Toyota Soarer, complete with an exhaust tip the size of my fist, flying the flag for enthusiasts.

From here, a 30-minute drive back to the heart of Tokyo highlights the Artura's duality. This is a car right at home at city speeds with supple and comfortable road manners and a seamless hybrid system that blends electric and petrol power effortlessly. This is a supercar you could easily, and happily, drive every day.

Yes, it's a car capable of completing the 0-100km/h sprint in a scant three seconds, or the even more wild 0-200km/h dash in just 8.3s. But it's also a supercar for the modern age, one that is just as happy running on battery power alone as it is howling at the horizon in full combustion mode.

Sadly, Tokyo isn't conducive to unleashing the full fury living under a titanium engine cover just behind your head. For that, you'll need a racetrack.

Instead, I enjoy a – relatively – sedate drive back to Shibuya, taking in Tokyo Tower along the way. Back at home base, I open the Artura's dihedral doors one last time and as I clamber over the wide sills and hand the key back to a McLaren staffer, ponder its place in today's world.

Ever tightening emissions controls may cast a looming shadow over the future of performance cars, but if the McLaren Artura plug-in hybrid is anything to go by, then tomorrow doesn't look so bleak after all.

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