Pure McLaren events take a track-day to the next level
We were handed the keys to a 690bhp Artura and given one-to-one tuition at one of the world’s best race tracks
You dream about the chance to live out your racing driver fantasies, and mine is about to be realised. The venue for my debut track experience: Silverstone. This is like kicking a football for the first time at Wembley.
McLaren is hosting one of its exclusive Pure owners’ experience days, and I’ve been invited. To prepare, I spent the day before studying videos of races at the circuit and driving it virtually. But any veneer of confidence this may have given me evaporates as I arrive at the track.
The car park is full of McLarens and the attendees are buzzing – although that could be nerves given they’re all driving their own cars on track. I’m having to borrow one, for the record.
The Silverstone Wing is our base for the day. Owners are diverse and range in age, gender and seriousness – I can see a few race suits among the majority jeans/T-shirt wearers. There are McLaren merch stalls, racing simulators, free food and drinks and even personalisation booths, where you can spec your next McLaren purchase.
McLaren staff tell me the point is to make this feel like more than a track day and promote the brand as a lifestyle. A family, even. This is felt by many owners I speak to, but it is summed up best by one driver who had flown in from Hong Kong that morning to take delivery of his Solus GT – the one-of-25, 829bhp V10 single-seater that was the fastest up Goodwood’s hill in 2023. He’s flying back tomorrow afternoon.
After a quick speech from McLaren lead driver coach Jamie Wall – “all we ask is you come back smiling” – it’s time to get kitted up and I’m given the green light to get in ‘my’ 690bhp McLaren Artura. I swing up the butterfly doors and climb in.
First lesson of the day: never underestimate how much bigger your head is with a helmet on. I did just that – cue hilarious head-bash. Sitting next to me is ex-BTCC racer Jade Edwards, my instructor for the day. “My job is to see how much faster we can make you,” she tells me.
The key, she says, is to relax, look ahead, don’t overthink and don’t be rash – that’s how mistakes happen. Edwards also gives me the go-ahead to left-foot brake – something the Artura’s set-up has been designed to promote, an engineer tells me later. I keep the gearbox in Auto.
After a thumbs-up from the pit crew we are off down Silverstone’s pit lane. Something you don’t realise watching it on television is how steep the entry ramp is and how little you can see over your left shoulder as you storm into Village. Our first lap is just to get acclimatised.
Edwards tells me where to brake, where not to, where to turn in, where the apexes are and when to give it full chat. We push harder for the second lap. What I’ve learned straight away is that while I seem to be pretty good at positioning the Artura, I’m not braking hard enough into corners.
“Hard on at first then trail off while turning in,” explains Edwards, with admirable patience. Doing so means minimal speed loss on approach and maximum turn-in grip, thanks to the huge forward weight transfer. But despite this, I still find Copse difficult: I’m not turning in early enough, which means I’m losing pace on the exit.
We pull back into the pit lane for a quick debrief – “sometimes you need to go slower to be faster”, Edwards tells me – and then we’re back out again. Into Village my confidence is oozing and Edwards encourages me to push. “Turn early now,” she reminds me into Copse.
Down Hangar Straight seconds later I glance down to see 190mph flashing up. It doesn’t feel like it. “Really good,” says Edwards, a few laps later as we pull in for the last time and I come down from what feels the biggest adrenaline rush of my life.
I’m already planning my next track excursion.
