The McMurtry Spéirling lid up the Goodwood Festival of Speed when it ran the famous hillclimb in a record time of 39.08 seconds. Check out the run in this video in you haven’t seen it yet.
Now that the car is famous, the little British start-up company plans to launch a road-legal version of its electric single-seater fan car. The bad news is McMurtry only aims to build a handful of units with a price in the seven-figure range, so unless you’re a super rich car guy, the road-legal Spéirling is out of your reach.
The road version of the Spéirling pictured here, looks pretty much like the Goodwood version. The door opening has been extended into the bodywork to make it easier to get in and out of the car, and the headlights has bee moved higher up on the fender to make them road legal. The car also has a windshield wiper. Other than that, the car looks just like the one that set the record at Goodwood.
“We want to provide something that you can drive through the centre of London, and then take onto a track.” – Thomas Yates, managing director McMurtry Automotive
As for technical changes, the electric motors will remain the same. They will provide over 1000 hp to the rear wheels. However, the turbine fan system that sucks the Spéirling to the ground will be a little different. The downforce will be tone down from its current 2000 kg and will only operate in track mode. That should allow the Spéirling to pass noise regulations. At its current 120 db, the Spéirling is as loud as a jet engine on take off (sounds like it too) and way too loud to be allowed on any public roads.
The single-seater measures only 126 inches long, 59.1 inches wide and 41.3 inches tall. It makes the Lotus Elise look like a big hippo. Because of its tiny size and prolific use of carbon fiber, the Spéirling will weighs less than 1000 kg, for a for staggering power-to-weight ratio of 1000 hp per tonne. Performance will be staggering, with zero to 60 mph in less than 1.5 seconds, zero to 186 mph in less than 9 seconds, and a top speed of over 200 mph.
The U-shaped 60 kWh battery is integrated into the carbon-fiber tub, and McMurtry says it will power the car for 30 and 60 minutes of flat-out driving on a race track, or over 300 miles when driving on normal roads.
If you’re interested in getting a road going McMurtry Spéirling, and the 7 figure price tag doesn’t deter you, you can make an inquiry here. I can’t wait to see this thing at South OC Cars and Coffee.
