10 Things you Probably Didn’t Know About The McMurtry Speirling (2025)

Not many people outside the world of car enthusiasts have heard the name McMurty. This British company founded in 2016 rode the EV wave and created a niche, hyper EV masterpiece that, even though it was conceived from the ground up, it borrowed from old, banned racing technology to help its car achieve unfathomable performance figures. And the approach they chose to follow was unorthodox as well. As electric cars keep growing in size and weight, they built a compact, lightweight, single-seater rocket.

Headquartered in Gloucestershire, with the help of Thomas Yates, who was headhunted from Formula One, the initial brief back when the company was founded focused on a powerful and compact concept car. During the developing phase, a prototype was built, many challenged were faced and overcome, and the potential of it was evident.

The ensuing hypercar that came out is the prestigious McMurtry Spéirling, which made its public debut at the Good Wood Festival of Speed, in July 2021. Here's everything you need to know about it.

1 The Record-Breaking Goodwood Hill Climb

After its debut in 2021 at the Good Wood Festival, the McMurtry Spéirling came back in 2022 with a vengeance. The Good Wood Festival of Speed is a prestigious event where many supercars are unveiled. It has a 1.16-mile hill climb course where sports cars and supercars battle it out for the fastest completion time. When the Spéirling made its run, driven by former Formula One driver, Max Chilton, it set the new record at 39.08 seconds.

Goodwood Hill Climb In 39.08 seconds

The previous official record was held by the McLaren MP4/13 Formula One car driven by Nick Heidfeld who completed the run in 41.6 seconds. Another unofficial record from Roman Dumas driving the VW ID.R of 39.9 seconds was also beaten. Max Chilton claimed that taking this record was the most memorable of his career, and that it was only possible due to the amazing engineering team from McMurtry Automotive who created this amazing hyper car.

2 Inspired By The Brabham BT46B's Fan Technology

It's as if the car is moving at a fast-forward speed. The Spéirling uses a fan technology inspired by the mythical BT46B Formula One 'fan car' that was used in the late 1970s by the Brabham racing team, owned by Bernie Ecclestone and driven by Niki Lauda and John Watson. The fan used in the BT46B followed the rule book and was mainly meant to cool the radiators, but a lot a performance side effect of its use was that it created negative pressure beneath the car, generating downforce, and allowing its drivers to take corners at higher speeds due to the additional grip.

The 'Fan' Helps Generate A Lot Of Downforce

With the use of a similar fan technology, the Spéirling can generate a lot of downforce even at a standstill, which, combined with the powerful motors, lightweight, and incredible traction, makes it so that the Spéirling can accelerate faster than an F1 car. Formula One cars can generate a lot of downforce, but they need to build up speed for that.

Launching alongside the McMurtry Spéirling, an F1 car struggles to have enough grip on the rear wheels, while the hyper EV shoots ahead with lots of grip and maxes out its speed on a limiter of just under 150 MPH. On a standing quarter mile race, the Spéirling launches ahead of an F1 car, and stays ahead all the way to the end.

3 It Can Beat The Rimac Nevera Electric Hypercar

The Rimac Nevera is a beastly, $2.2 Million electric hypercar, and it looks the part too, being big and wide, with a more conventional design approach to handle its ungodly performance.

Rimac Nevera Specs And Performance

(Source: Rimac Automobili)

One thing to keep in mind is that the Nevera is quite heavy at 5,071 pounds, while the Spéirling weighs just under 2,205 pounds according to McMurtry Automotive. It also has about 914 fewer horsepower than the Nevera, and it's only RWD. But as we can see from this amazing Carwow drag race, it consistently launches ahead of the Nevera (and the F1), and it's only hindered at the end of the quarter mile by its limited top speed.

It's fascinating to see how three completely different high-performing cars compete against each other on a standing quarter mile.

4 It's Capable Of Sub-Eight Seconds Quarter-mile Time

In fact, the car was designed to go around a racetrack as quickly as possible. Its blistering acceleration is just a by-product of that. Its lightweight build and downforce generated by its fan system make it grip hard around corners and remain planted on the tarmac.

Quarter-mile In 7.97 Seconds!

Mat Watson from Carwow did a 7.97 seconds quarter-mile run at Silverstone Racing Circuit in the McMurtry Spéirling. Now, after all you've just read up to this point, you might be thinking the Spéirling was conceived to be an EV quarter-mile monster, but that is not the case at all.

5 Two Fans Produce Over 4,400 Pounds Of Downforce

The secret for the instantaneous, on-demand downforce generated by the McMurtry Spéirling comes from two electric-operated fans that ran rotate as fast as 23,000 rpm simply by adjusting a dial on the dashboard of the car. This fan system differs from the one it took inspiration from. In the BT46B F1 car, the fan was connected to the crankshaft and required engine revs to reach speeds where it would produce noticeable downforce.

On the Spéirling the downforce generated is constant and the reason the Spéirling has dual fans is safety. It's a level of redundancy that if one of the fan fails, the driver won't lose all of its downforce suddenly, which could abruptly change the behavior of the car and lead to a potential hazard.

The power used to operate the fans that generate all this downforce is less than what would be used to overcome wind force at higher speeds should all that drag be made by conventional aerodynamic bodywork according to Tom Yates, McMurty's Managing Director. And in case you're wondering, Tom claims (backed by the physics of 4,400 pounds of downforce on a 2,205-pound car) that you can park it in the ceiling, and even kids the Spéirling could be the first car to do an upside down burnout.

6 Fully Electric And Rear-Wheel Drive Only

Being a fully electric hypercar that weighs about 2,205 pounds is noteworthy since as EVs go, mainly due to their battery packs, they tend to lean towards the heavy side as exemplified in this article by the Rimac Nevera's 5,071 pounds.

Being RWD is also an unusual choice, but it makes perfect sense for the Spéirling since it has all the grip it needs with the downforce generated by the fans, and adding AWD would mean adding weight with the addition of one or two motors to power the front wheels. It would defeat the purpose of the car which is to be as light and nimble as possible.

RELATED: Watch The Electric McMurtry Speirling Hypercar Ridicule The Quarter-Mile World Record

7 It's Not The Most Powerful EV

It may be super quick and incredibly fast, but the McMurtry Spéirling 'only' has 1,000 horses. It's outpowered by a Tesla Plaid or a Lucid Air, for example, both mainstream EVs, albeit in the luxury segment.

McMurtry Spéarling Specs And Performance

(Source: McMurtry Automotive and Carwow)

Lightweight is one of the most important things for a performance vehicle to push the boundaries of speed and set incredible lap times. This has always been the goal with the Spéirling, and it delivers precisely that.

8 100-Example Limited Production Track Only Model Is Coming

McMurtry Automotive is working on a limited production track-only version of its hyper EV named Spéirling Pure, which will have a starting price of 820,000 pounds sterling (close to $1,000,000), plus tax if applicable and shipping. Set to begin customer deliveries in 2025, the track-only little fan beast is eligible for the GT1 Sports Club, with racing destinations that include international FIA circuits in Europe, Asia, and America.

A prototype was revealed in 2023 at the Good Wood Festival of Speed, where the Spéirling name is widely known and respected. This one will have a higher claimed top speed of 190 MPH, a Carbon Fiber Monocoque designed to meet motorsport standards, and will run on slick tires. It will also feature adjustable pedals and a steering wheel to accommodate drivers up to six feet, seven inches tall, and 330 pounds.

9 Golden Power To Weight Ratio Of 1:1

One of the reasons the Spéirling manages to be so quick accelerating is that its power-to-weight ratio is that of a superbike. It manages to have one horsepower for every one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of weight. A superbike will not be as quick as the Spéirling, however, as it is limited by physics.

With launch control and wheelie control, any superbike in the market today will accelerate as fast as it possibly can while its rider aids struggle to keep the front wheel on the ground. The Spéirling has no such problem with the insurmountable amount of downforce it has at its disposal.

10 It Pulls In Excess Of 3Gs On Corners

All that downforce and lightweight of the Spéirling make for a proficient cornering machine. McMurtry claims the car can pull more than 3Gs around tight corners on some Grand Prix circuits. This effectively means the driver's body weight gets tossed around with incredible force.

As a reference, if a driver weighs 200 pounds and does a tight corner with the Spéirling generating 3Gs of force, it will be as if the driver weighed 600 pounds and has to deal with that weight as his torso and neck muscles tense up in an attempt to remain straight.

This is as close to a Formula 1 driving experience as one could hope to have in a hypercar available to the public, and also one of the reasons F1 drivers are usually of small to medium height, pretty fit, and light. During cornering, F1 drivers will usually experience forces between 4 and 5G, but that value could go higher. The Spéirling is touching that now, and we can only imagine what it will accomplish in the future.