Welcome to The Morning Dump, bite-sized stories corralled into a single article for your morning perusal. If your morning coffee’s working a little too well, pull up a throne and have a gander at the best of the rest of yesterday.
The McLaren Artura Is Barely On Sale And Now It’s Being Recalled
I’m cautiously excited about the McLaren Artura, which is the supercar company’s attempt at hybridizing its volume-selling, entry-point supercar. The Artura pairs McLaren’s brand new twin-turbo V6 with an also-new electric motor to create a 671 horsepower beast. The problem McLaren’s been having with the car is that it’s been turning into roast beast. During the June launch of the car this summer there were some “thermal incidents” that resulted in auto journalists around the world begging their friends for photos. Road & Track refers to at least one fire from the launch, as well as technical glitches, in a wrap-up of the event. Now the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced a recall for the Artura. Here’s the meat of the recall report: How did this happen? Also from the report: […] If the nut becomes loose, the seal between the end flare of the fuel pipe and the sealing cone of the pump outlet may be disrupted, leading to the release of fuel. The end flare of the fuel pipe is situated close to engine components which have a high operating temperature. If fuel is released in proximity to these components, it could result in thermal activity.” Let this be a lesson, kids, never trust a nut supplier who insists on a cold-formed nut when you’d already planned to use a machined nut. When in doubt, always used machined nuts. Boy howdy, this sounds a lot like the incident that occurred at the launch in Spain. Let’s see what McLaren said at the time, from a Road & Track correspondent who was there: Well, perhaps it was not quite a one-off. Let’s go back to the NHTSA report: Either two cars caught on fire in June with this issue or NHTSA is describing the incident with journalists. But wait, there’s more! McLaren updated torquing procedures and, in September, the machined nuts came back into stock so McLaren switched back. Then the issue occurred again… What’s McLaren got to say about all this? They talked to Automotive News and said what you’d basically expect: There are very few Arturas in the hands of customers and, given the amount of testing abuse these cars go through, it doesn’t seem like a common issue. Ultimately, it’s great that the company intervened early and solved the problem before it became an issue for a customer. It must be extra crappy given that McLaren’s been perpetually cash-starved over the last few years and dogged by some quality issues on earlier products. Clearly, McLaren needs the Artura to work.
Stellantis Is Serious About This Hydrogen Thing
I’ve already described hydrogen-powered cars as the industry trying to make fetch happen, but fetch seems to have momentum. Stellantis announced earlier today that it plans to buy hydrogen fuel cell company Symbio in an attempt to secure powertrain expertise for its upcoming large van program: There are no details on the money involved or how much of the company will be left in the hands of French supplier Faurecia and tire company Michelin, which are Symbio’s current majority shareholders.
Canadian EVs Are Theoretically About To Get Louder
Both Europe and the United States require hybrids and electric cars to emit a noise to warn pedestrians of their presence in order to avoid a Dwight-v-Prius situation. You can read what NHTSA mandates here. Canada, for whatever reason, does not have the same mandate. Now Canada is getting in on the action, according to this recent press release from the country’s Minister of Transport (the Honourable Omar Alghabra): This makes sense, but I’m scratching my head trying to think of an electric vehicle for sale that does not already have this capability right out of the box. While many automakers have voluntarily added sound emitters to hybrid and electric vehicles, Transport Canada’s new requirement makes it mandatory equipment on all new light-duty passenger vehicles sold in Canada.
Automotive CEOs With Two Years On The Job Saw A 90% Increase In Compensation
A survey by Automotive News and corporate governance advisor company Equilar shows how delightfully remunerative it is to be a CEO in the automotive industry. Here’s the highlight that stands out to me: Not bad. Not bad at all. The stock market is one of the biggest drivers of this growth, which makes sense when comparing 2022 and 2020: Musk is at the top with $23 billion (all stock), followed by NVIDIA’s Jen-Hsun Huang at $560 million. The most shocking one here is Lucid’s Peter Rawlinson but, again, a big chunk of his compensation bump this year came from stocks.
The Flush
Would you buy an Artura? If you had supercar money and were in that space is the McLaren on your list? Maybe a 911 GT3? What are you getting? Dream a little.
West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin Is In A Fight With Hyundai Over EV Tax Credits Ford Raises The Ford F-150 Lighting Base Price Again Elon Musk Sells $3.6 Billion In Tesla Stock The Volvo XC40 and Escape are the only two SUVs that did well on new IIHS test The 2023 Subaru WRX Miraculously Only Costs $31,625 Lucid Gets A $915 Million Boost From The Saudis
Got a hot tip? Send it to us here. Or check out the stories on our homepage. Photos: Automotive News, McLaren, Symbio “when subjected to vehicle loads” That means the pump and/or fuel lines are not clamped properly and the fittings are being loaded and forcing the nuts, causing the failure. The nuts are there to hold the line tight on the fitting only, not prevent the line from moving. Hydraulic system design 101. The cold formed nuts are fine. Adding a hose is second best, because you end adding another joint in your system with its leak risk. Hoses also need clamping as above or where you transition to rigid again. Alternatively, maybe buy myself a Model J and do the same thing. Those things have presence, and if you could update one to where it wasn’t completely terrifying to drive, it’d be a hell of a grocery-getter. Think big, people. If you’re that rich, there’s no need to just buy something off the shelf. But man…this type of stuff is just inexcusable on cars that cost as much as a house. I’ve always considered a McLaren to be an ultimate dream car of mine, but in the .0001% chance I ever wind up with enough money to buy one, I’d probably go in a different direction due to the QC issues as well as the fact that even if they’re attractive cars they’re just too shouty for me. I’m pretty much on the opposite end of the spectrum compared to the conspicuous consumption crowd…so I’d likely wind up in the best 911 I could get. Whether that be a GT3, Turbo S (comes in a drop top), or something else, who knows. But I’d absolutely custom order it and spec it into oblivion. I’d also consider something like an AMG GT, the new Z06, or even a secondhand BMW Z8. Dear lord is that car incredible…so much so that they’re worth McLaren money at this stage. https://twitter.com/inc051/status/1605090379396780032 Also note in the press release they say ” This is what led Michelin to pioneer in this technology for more than 20 years.” So Michelin and Symbio have been ‘pioneering’ this tech for 20 years and still have little or nothing to show for it as far as I can tell. Just have a look at their Wiki page: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbio_(entreprise) Note the compete absence of any mention of their tech available in any specific products. Lots of talk about ‘development’ though. By comparison, Tesla started working on BEVs around 2002 and had something on sale in 2008 and 20 years later, is producing BEVs with related charging infrastructure in high 6 figure volumes. And that difference in results is the difference between being ‘serious’ and something just being a PR exercise. Tesla was/is serious. I predict Michelin/Stellantis are not. And I predict in anther 20 years, they will STILL have little or nothing to show for all their ‘work’ on hydrogen. And it’s also interesting that there is no mention about how much Stellantis paid for their stake in Symbio. I’m guessing it’s not a lot. The Flush: Even if I became stupid-wealthy, I probably wouldn’t buy an Artura. I’d probably want some high end BEV of some sort. Next step down and I’m in the market for a Porsche 911 or a Corvette Z06. (Yes, I do think the new Corvette is that much improved over the old.) Step down again and it’s still 911 and Corvette territory, but lower spec models. I would put a Bentley Mulliner Batur in there as it goes fast and in comfort.
