The McMurtry Spéirling Pure Is A Tiny But Stupidly Quick EV Hypercar That Costs £820k

Last year, I was among the many at the Goodwood Festival of Speed who would have seen the McMurtry Spéirling tear its way up the Duke of Richmond’s driveway and proceeded to utter a few rude upon witnessing its other-worldly pace. Looking like a shrunken Batmobile on fast forward, the Spéirling sucked itself to the asphalt with complex underbody aero aided by a fan, helping it oust the Volkswagen ID.R as the Goodwood Hill Climb’s fastest car.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, we have some good news, as McMurtry will now sell you one of these. It’s not cheap, of course, with the British company charging £820,000 for the newly revealed Spéirling Pure customer version. Plus taxes.

It’s billed as the ‘“first commercially available sealed skirt fan car,” and packs 1,000bhp from a powertrain consisting of two motors (both for the rear axle) and a 60kWh battery. That might not sound much in EV hypercar terms, not when a Rimac Nevera is pushing 2,000bhp, but the Spéirling has weight (or lack of) on its side, tipping the scales at around 1,000kg. As such, the prototype version last year was able to clock a 1.6-second 0-60mph time, which sounds unpleasantly rapid.

What helps the weight side of the equation is the size of the Spéirling - there’s not a whole lot of it. At 3.45 metres long, it’s shorter than a Volkswagen up!, although McMurtry would rather its dimensions are compared to “classically proportioned 1960s grand prix racers.”

Within its compact body, there’s a new fan system that’s 14 per cent lighter and 15 per cent more efficient. It makes it possible for the Spéirling to pull 3G in the corners even through tighter, slower corners, McMurtry says. Compared to the car we saw at Goodwood last year, there have also been various chassis changes, including re-engineered suspension, a slightly lighter braking system, and smaller (18 inch versus 19) but 60mm wider tyres front and rear.

It’s not road legal, so you’ll need to be heading to a track day to get your Spéirling. Since it’s not really suitable to be mixing it on track with things like stripped-out E36 BMW M3s, owners will need to stick to high-calibre events - McMurtry notes that the car is eligible for the GT1 Sports Club, which hosts cars like the Lamborghini SCV12 and Ferrari FXX-K Evo.

You will, of course, need to spend a good chunk of the day charging, and opt for tracks with easy fast-charger access. At full chat, the Spéirling will do 10 laps of the Silverstone National circuit before needing more juice - that’s a 1.6-mile configuration, so such a stint in something this fast will be over awfully quickly. Then again, pulling those sorts of Gs, you might be glad for a break at that point. Once plugged in, you’re looking at 20 minutes before being able to head back out again, depending on charger speeds.

McMurtry has a validation prototype that is being tested across Europe this year, which will be followed up by a series of pre-production prototypes in 2024 and then the full production cars in 2025. 100 will be made.