The McMurtry Spéirling EV has completed the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb in the fastest ever time this evening, with a 39.08 in the Shootout eclipsing the time set by Romain Dumas in a Volkswagen I.D. R in 2019 by nine tenths of a second.
Former Formula One and IndyCar racer Max Chilton was behind the wheel during todays record setting practices and shootout, and eclipsed the all-time record for the Hillclimb for the first time in a practice run with a 39.14. The Goodwood Festival of Speed, however, requires record setting times to be set during official runs, meaning Chilton needed to replicate his time in the shootout for it to be official. He managed to do just that, with the 39.08 eclipsing the previous Shootout record of 41.6 seconds by over 2 seconds.
British Hillclimb Championship leader Alex Summers ran in the car in Saturdays official proceedings, and narrowly missed out on setting the record himself with a 40.05.
As a ‘fan car’, the McMurtry Spéirling uses twin fans underneath the car to evacuate air from below. The result sees a dramatic increase in downforce, so much so that the 2000kg instant downforce, at 0km/h, succeeds that of a Formula One car at speeds of up to 150mph (241kmh). This downforce weight more than doubles the weight of the vehicle itself, which comes in at under 1000kg.
The fan car is fully electric, with twin motors powered by a battery of over 800 volts which utilises Molicel cells. The top speed of the Spéirling is capped at 150mph due to Hillclimb gearbox selections for the festival.
The project is the brainchild of British entrepreneur Sir David McMurtry, who established a team of former Formula One engineers in 2016, with the unveiling of the Spéirling taking place at the 2021 edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. “The purpose of the Spéirling is to herald a new era of electric track capability, hasten wider EV development and showcase McMurtry Automotive as EV innovators for road and track cars,” reveal McMurtry Automotive.
The McMurtry Spéirling is the first fan car to compete in motorsport since Niki Lauda won the Swedish Grand Prix in 1978 with the Brabham BT46B fan car. The win proved controversial, and remains the last time a fan car raced competitively in motorsport due to its projected dominance to maintain harmony with the other teams. Lauda compared the effect of this rate of downforce as to cornering as if the car is on rails.
In awe of the performance of the Spéirling after his first recording setting run, Chilton was blown away by the result, describing the practice run in a post-climb interview; “39.1, eight tenths quicker than the record, I’m in shock, I’m in absolute shock.”
“I slept one hour last night with the stress of it, thinking how am I going to go quicker than a 39.9, and I am just blown away that we just did that by eight tenths. I cant believe it.”
“I think we all care about the fastest ever time, and that’s the one I just broke, it means so much for me and the guys. We’ve got British engineers, British design and for me, I came here as a kid from the age of four watching my father drive up the hill and this place means so much to me, to realise I am the fastest ever to go up the hill I am literally speechless.”
Chilton went on to describe this as one of the greatest moments of his life, only eclipsed by his wedding.