We've become used, now, to the remarkable feats of the McMurtry Spéirling. The 1,000hp single-seat electric car, which uses fans mounted underneath to suck air from beneath the chassis, developing more downforce than the car weighs at precisely 0km/h, is a truly amazing thing. It obliterated the record of the Goodwood hillclimb. It went faster than a V10 Formula One car around the Top Gear test track. And now it can drive upside down.
Special rig
Nope, that's not a typo nor a belated April Fools. The McMurtry's incredible active downforce system can generate enough suction that it really can drive on the roof. To prove that it could be done, Thomas Yates, Co-founder & Managing Director of McMurtry Automotive, took the Spéirling - the Irish for lightning - onto a special rig which could rotate through 180 degrees, dangling the stationary Spéirling upside down as it clung on using only the downforce its fans could generate.
This is truly astonishing. Racing cars use aerodynamic surfaces to generate downforce, sometimes more kilos of the stuff than the car weighs, so yes, in theory, they could drive upside down, but the complication is that they have to be moving fast enough first, which kind of puts a dampener on things.
Downforce On Demand
The McMurtry's 'Downforce On Demand' system, as the company calls it, sidesteps the physics of all that, generating a sufficient vacuum underneath the hypercar's floor to hold it upside down, exceeding the force of gravity. Once the rig was fully inverted, Yates drove forward, entirely unsupported, except by the invisible laws of physics.
“That was just a fantastic day in the office! Strapping in and driving inverted was a completely surreal experience. The 2000kg of downforce that the fan system can generate is truly astonishing to experience and it's great to show the reason why our Spéirling continues to take records around the world,” said Yates. “This demonstration was an exciting proof of concept using a small purpose-built rig, but is perhaps just the beginning of what's possible. With a longer inverted track or a suitable tunnel, we may be able to drive even further! Huge congratulations and thanks to the entire McMurtry Automotive team, especially the engineers involved in the car and fan system's design, they are the heroes of today.”
Customer cars coming
The Spéirling's downforce allows it to do a ridiculous 0-60mph (97km/h) acceleration run of just 1.5 seconds, and it can do a 1/4 mile run - the traditional drag racing distance - in just eight seconds. On a race track, it can corner at up to three times the force of gravity. The car was developed by Sir David McMurtry, a businessman with roots in Dublin, hence the Spéirling's Irish name. Sadly, Sir David passed away last December.
You'll be able to buy a part of his legacy, though. McMurtry has plans to deliver the first customer versions of the Speriling Pure trackday car to clients next year. And there are tentative plans for a potential road-going version, too. The trackday version gets a bigger battery than the prototype we've seen so far, with 100kWh capacity, which McMurtry says will get you roughly 20 minutes of track time at what it calls GT3 racing car pace.