The McMurtry Spéirling fan car has achieved an independently measured 0-60mph in 1.40s and 1/4mile (400m) in 7.97s during filming for one of YouTube’s largest automotive channels, carwow. This makes it the fastest accelerating car they have ever tested, surpassing some of the World’s greatest cars: the Bugatti Chiron, an F1 car and the Rimac Nevera.
In the video McMurtry Automotive’s Chief Engineer, Kevin Ukoko-Rongione, explains technical details to motoring journalist and face of carwow, Mat Watson, who concludes the video with his famous timed launches for their 7.71 million subscribers. They also discuss the street legal track focused McMurtry Spéirling that is being developed for customers, using the Goodwood record holding car as its basis.
By exploiting the instant grip from McMurtry’s downforce-on-demand fan system, the sub 1,000kg, 1,000bhp, rear-wheel-drive McMurtry Spéirling with 2,000kg of instant downforce delivers realms of acceleration previously reserved for drag racing specific cars, but in a car designed for enjoyment and astonishing lap times on trackdays on full race circuits. It has a track range of 25 minutes when running at GT4 race-car pace, and a road range of over 300 miles.
Also in the video are visual and audible demonstrations of the fan exhausts at the back of the car, and lead development driver Max Chilton inducts Mat Watson into the rare list of people who have experienced driving a fan car on the limit. In fact, Mat went marginally quicker over the ¼ mile than Max had ever done before!
This level of performance was a new experience for Mat. Visibility shocked by what he had just achieved, Mat commented to camera: ‘I accelerate and launch a lot of cars. I drag race a lot of cars. This is on another, another level. It’s two levels up. All cars are now officially slow to me. I’ve never felt anything like that in my life.”
McMurtry are taking orders now, please visit https://mcmurtry.com/speirling/ to enquire about ownership.
To watch the whole feature, including a walk around the car plus the launches, please visit here:
Extended Read
‘F1 Car vs Bugatti Chiron drag race’ is an interesting prospect that 22 million people have enjoyed on carwow’s well subscribed YouTube channel. The former completing the ¼ mile (400m) in 9.2s, the latter in 9.6 seconds.
Motoring journalist Mat Watson, the face of carwows YouTube channel, is famous for 0-60mph launches and ¼ mile runs in most cars he drives and reviews. Last year he drove the electric Rimac Nevera to an 8.6s ¼ mile, topping the leader board. Ever since, people have wondered what it would take to beat it.
Enter the ‘Goodwood Hillclimb Record Holding’ McMurtry Spéirling.
With 2,000kg of instant traction enhancing grip from an onboard downforce-on-demand fan system, it certainly had potential to challenge for the fastest 0-60mph and ¼ mile times.
McMurtry and Mat thought it would make an exciting end of year gift to carwow and McMurtry fans to see how the Goodwood record-holding car performed from a standing start over ¼ of a mile.
An initial attempt was made at Millbrook Proving Ground, but damp winter conditions hampered headline numbers.
To solve this, a second date was booked at Silverstone on the Hangar straight, and to combat the British weather, a track drier was deployed to create a dry line.
This time the conditions permitted full deployment of the McMurtry Spéirling’s 1,000bhp full system power without the intervention of any traction control. The result was a 0-60mph in 1.40s, and onto a ¼ mile in 7.97s, surpassing every road registered electric car time that had gone before, plus beating the 2011 F1 Car tested as well. The timing was done with independent GPS timing gear.
The good news is that the lightweight, rear-wheel-drive McMurtry is designed to be enjoyed in corners too, as evidenced by Max Chilton’s Goodwood record. With its performance differentiating downforce-on-demand system, all aspects of the driving experience are enhanced compared to relying on conventional aerodynamics, particularly at low and medium speeds (sub 150mph), where most track day drivers will be operating in corners.
The compact rear-wheel-drive car weighs under 1,000kg and therefore offers agile cornering and braking too.
What’s also interesting and tantalising at the same time, is that the car was sat on its 150mph limit for approx. 3 seconds during the run.
Other metrics captured on the timing equipment were:
- 0-60mph in 1.40s
- 0-100mph in 2.63s
- 0-145mph in 4.98s
- ¼ mile (400m) in 7.97s
The car tested was THE Goodwood winning record car, in the same configuration as it crossed the finish line there, so a production car record cannot be claimed during this run. However, with the company using this as the basis for the customer versions, the prospect for these individuals looks rather exciting.
The next step in this story is to race the McMurtry Spéirling in a carwow drag race. In the video, Mat puts out a challenge to hypercar owners who want to drag race against the Spéirling, and asks them to get in touch. The challenger may even have the chance to drive the Spéirling in the right circumstances.
Max Chilton, lead development driver and Goodwood record holder said “This car offers drivers a truly unique driving experience, and it was a pleasure to induct Mat into the fan-car drivers’ club. This video demonstrates some world beating acceleration numbers, but importantly the car is designed for way more than drag race times. Its natural home is track days on Grand Prix circuits, and to think customers will also be able to drive them on the road too, is really special.”
Kevin Ukoko-Rongione, Chief Engineer at McMurtry Automotive, who features in the video also said: “The grip from the fan powered downforce system was the key to achieving the record-breaking cornering performance at the Goodwood Hillclimb which put us on the map. The same system is also the key to how Mat achieved nearly 2g acceleration from a standing start, in a highly track capable, rear-wheel-drive only car. This helps us to keep the overall weight of the car below 1,000kg, protecting the agile driving dynamics that we all crave. It certainly offers a new experience, and we’re going to keep refining and improving it further for the customer versions.”
