The spectacular McMurtry Spéirling will be available to 100 customers in Pure form, costing from £820,000 plus taxes
With bleeding edge machines such as the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, Gordon Murray’s T.50 Niki Lauda and the forthcoming Bugatti Bolide, this decade is set to be an era of extreme track-only hypercars, and British firm McMurtry will join that exclusive lineup with this: the Spéirling Pure.
As an evolution of the single-seat fan car that decimated the Goodwood hillclimb last year with a record-breaking 39.08sec run, the Pure version weighs in at under a ton and generates 1000bhp from its dual-motor e-axle at the rear. A prototype will be unveiled at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next month, with first customer deliveries scheduled for 2025.
Through the Pure model, the McMurtry’s sensational capability will be accessible to 100 customers, with an even higher performance ceiling thanks to lighter components and more efficient aero. The original car’s philosophy remains the same, with an incredibly compact body shrink wrapped around a carbonfibre monocoque chassis, U-shaped 60kWh battery pack and a 1000bhp dual-motor rear axle setup. At 3.45 metres long and 1.58 metres wide, the Spéirling Pure occupies a smaller footprint than a Fiat Panda, with a narrow one-seat cockpit accessed via gullwing doors.
Despite the enormous rear wing and numerous slats and air pathways cut into the exterior, the Spéirling Pure’s key performance generator is its underbody aero. A pair of fans sit behind the cockpit to suck air from underneath the car and out of a central tunnel at the rear; this, combined with the sealed-skirt design, creates an area of low pressure beneath the car for enormous levels of downforce. With slick tyres, the Spéirling Pure can corner at more than 3G, where even the most extreme road cars struggle to break 2G. The key, though, is that the fan system generates downforce at the low speeds where conventional wings are less effective.
For the Pure version, McMurtry has balanced the powertrain’s performance and efficiency to enable consecutive laps at pace; the car is capable of running 10 laps of the (admittedly short) Silverstone National circuit before fast charging to top up in 20 minutes. It’s possible to alter the powertrain map for either longer stints or more performance, though, with the car topping out at 190mph under full power.
In the transition to Pure spec, McMurtry has put the Spéirling through an intensive weight saving program with modifications to accommodate drivers up to 6ft 7 within its tiny form. The firm has devised a new fan system that’s 14 per cent lighter and more efficient, along with a new side skirt design to save more weight. The e-axle is new, too, offering acceleration that matches the Goodwood hillclimb machine; this is powered by a lighter battery pack with improved thermal management for continuous running at speed.
The wiring loom that interlinks the Spéirling’s suite of electronics is 35 per cent lighter, too, with smaller 18-inch wheels cutting more weight. Inside, an adjustable steering wheel and pedal box have been installed to cater for a wide range of customers, who will have the opportunity to run the Spéirling Pure as part of the GT1 Sports Club. The non-competitive series supports the FIA GT World Challenge, and allows owners of track-only hypercars to fully exploit their cars at circuits across the globe, sidestepping the issue of track day noise limits for screaming ICE machines like the Ferrari FXX-K and Lamborghini SCV12. The McMurtry, of course, has no such difficulty.
