The Spéirling Proves That What Goes Up Must Come Down... Unless It's Got a Bloody Big Fan
Image Credit: McMurtry Automotive.
I'm about to tell you something so utterly bonkers, it'll make your cranium do a 180, much like the star of our little tale. Sensible family wagons and lumbering SUVs? Not today. Today, we're diving headfirst into the realm of pure lunacy on four wheels. And we're diving deep.
You probably think you've seen it all. Blistering acceleration, neck-snapping cornering, the occasional celebrity pranging something expensive on television. But trust me, you haven't witnessed anything quite like this: a car, a proper little pocket rocket, defying the very laws of gravity. Not in some Hollywood CGI fantasy but in cold, hard reality. No tricks, no hidden straps - pure physics.
Image Credit: McMurtry Automotive.
The McMurtry Spéirling is a name that sounds like something a wizard would chant while brewing a particularly potent potion. And potent it is. This machine makes a Bugatti look like a milk float. This electric featherweight tips the scales at a mere 2,200 pounds, yet it packs a wallop of 999 horsepower. Let that sink in for a moment. And if those numbers aren't enough to make your eyebrows do the tango, wait until you hear about its party trick.
Remember Jim Hall and his fan car shenanigans? The boffins at McMurtry have taken that idea, strapped it to a rocket, and fired it into the stratosphere. This little electric demon doesn't just rely on fancy wings to stick to the tarmac; it sucks itself down with a fan system, generating a colossal 4,400 pounds of downforce. And it does that even when it's standing still! Zero miles per hour, and it's already glued to the ground like chewing gum to your favorite shoes.
And what do you do with that kind of otherworldly grip? Naturally, you drive upside down. To prove their point, they actually strapped this electric go-kart to a rotating platform, flipped the whole shebang 180 degrees, and the Spéirling just…stayed put. Upside down. Held there not by seatbelts and a prayer, but by sheer aerodynamic witchcraft. The bloke behind the wheel, Mr. Thomas Yates, described it as a "surreal experience." I'll bet it was, mate. I'd have needed a stiff drink and possibly a lie-down afterward.
You might be thinking this is a neat trick for a circus act, but this technology has serious implications for how cars perform in the real world. Traditional race cars need speed to generate downforce, which means in slow corners or during a bit of a whoopsie, they can become rather unpredictable. The Spéirling flips the bird to that logic. Full grip, all the time, no matter the speed.
Image Credit: McMurtry Automotive.
What does that mean for us mere mortals? According to McMurtry themselves, if all cars had this technology, it means that when you slam on the brakes, you could stop quicker than you can say, "Oh dear, I seem to have left my wallet at home." It's about making this kind of insane performance more accessible, more controllable, and, dare I say it, even a tad safer. Imagine having that level of grip at your disposal. You could probably drive up the side of a building, although I wouldn't recommend trying it.
But the party doesn't stop at defying gravity. Oh no. Those lovable lunatics at Top Gear got their hands on the Spéirling Pure, an even more unhinged version of the original. They knew it would be quick, but nobody expected it to absolutely obliterate the lap record around their test track. The old record, held by a Renault Formula 1 car from way back in 2004, was a blistering 59.0 seconds. The Spéirling? A ludicrous 55.9 seconds. That's not just beating a record; that's taking it out back and giving it a thorough schooling.
The acceleration is so violent – 0 to 60 mph in a scant 1.5 seconds – that it probably bends time. And the cornering? Apparently, it can pull more than 3G. That's fighter jet territory. You'd need a serious neck brace just to keep your head from ending up somewhere out the window. Even the famously stoic Stig couldn't resist pushing it to a respectable 177 mph, although the car is supposedly capable of 190 mph.
Watching the onboard footage, you'd be forgiven for thinking someone had hit the fast-forward button. The way this electric banshee devours corners and then rockets off into the distance is simply astonishing. To put it in perspective, it didn't just beat the Aston Martin Valkyrie, which was the fastest road-legal thingamajig they'd ever tested; it shaved 13 seconds off its time. Thirteen seconds! In the world of high-performance driving, that's an eternity.
The McMurtry Spéirling. A tiny, electric, fan-equipped marvel that can drive upside down and rewrite the record books for fun. It's a glorious testament to what happens when you throw convention out the window and embrace a bit of madcap engineering. It might look a bit like a futuristic vacuum cleaner on wheels, but it performs like something from another planet. Jim Hall would be proud.
