McLaren Automotive Tries the Metaverse with InfiniteWorld

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on McLaren Automotive Tries the Metaverse with InfiniteWorld

An electric “future” using a gasoline hybrid motor, the technology of the past?

British super-car maker McLaren Automotive has selected InfiniteWorld, a metaverse infrastructure platform that McClaren says enables brands “to create, monetize and drive consumer engagement with digital content,” as its first official metaverse partner.

McLaren said today that it will “offer customers a deeper, more engaged digital experience, including the creation and minting of original NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and digital artwork that will represent McLaren’s luxury supercars and hypercars. Select NFTs may be offered with additional unique benefits, including access to exclusive, buyer-only experiences. All will then be made available on a McLaren marketplace.”

Most recently, McClaren unveiled its all-new high-performance hybrid supercar, the Artura. The Artura is the first McLaren to use McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture (MCLA). MCLA is designed, developed and manufactured at the McLaren Composites Technology Centre in the Sheffield region of England “using world-first processes and will spearhead the brand’s electrified future.”

McLaren’s first mass-production high-performance hybrid super-car “focuses more than half a century of the company’s racing and road-car experience and expertise into a next-generation super-car that blends ground-breaking technology with McLaren’s dedication to pure driver engagement.”

The Artura’s powertrain is an all-new, 2,993cc twin-turbocharged V6 gasoline engine. With a power output of 577 horsepower, ~200 bhp per liter, and 431 lb. ft. of torque, the dry-sump aluminum V6 engine is compact and lightweight – at just 353 pounds,  it weighs 110 lbs. less than a McLaren V8 and is significantly shorter.

Designed to run with a Gasoline Particulate Filter to help emissions performance, the M630 engine has a 120° v-angle, which allows the turbochargers to be positioned within the ‘hot vee.” This delivers further advantages in packaging, as well as contributing to a lower center of gravity. The 120° layout increases engine performance by reducing the pressure losses through the exhaust system and allows for a stiffer crankshaft that enables a rev limit of 8,500 rpm, “maximizing performance and driver engagement.”

Working with the new V6 is the Artura’s compact axial flux E-motor, located within the transmission bell housing. Smaller and more power-dense than a conventional radial flux E-motor, it is capable of generating 94 bhp and 166 lb. ft. with a power density per kilo 33% greater than the system used in the McLaren P1. The instantaneous torque delivery, known in marketing babble as “torque infill,”  provides sharp throttle response. Claimed Artura  acceleration numbers are: 0-60 mph in 3.0 seconds*, with 0-124 mph in 8.3 seconds* and 0-186 mph 21.5 seconds*. Top speed is limited to 205 mph. *pending final validation

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