McMurtry Speirling Breaks Goodwood Hill Climb Record, Road Car Planned

By far the cutest car to attend the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year also happens to be the fastest ever to go up the hill. Indeed, the pint-sized McMurtry Speirling has set an outright record by completing the course in 39.08 seconds with former Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Max Chilton behind the wheel. The record-breaking attempt took place on Sunday after achieving the second-best lap ever a day earlier with a time of 40.056 seconds.

The single-seater diminutive electric machine with its gullwing door shaved off about 0.8 seconds from the previous record established by Romain Dumas in 2019 when he drove the Volkswagen ID. R. With a 0 to 60 mph in less than one and a half seconds, it's no wonder the McMurtry Speirling is now the fastest car overall on the Goodwood hill course. Its top speed was electronically capped at 150 mph (241 km/h).

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Autocar sat down and had a chat with the company's managing director who says a street-legal car is in the works. Thomas Yates promises that it's going to deliver just about the same neck-twisting acceleration but cautions it won't be the "most comfortable over speed bumps." Production will be limited to only a "handful" of units and these will cost at least £1 million a pop. That works out to approximately $1.22M or €1.16M at current exchange rates.

Yates went on to mention the production model will retain the power-to-weight ratio of 1,000 hp per metric ton along with a pair of rear-mounted electric motors and a 60-kWh battery pack good for over 300 miles (483 kilometers) of range. By adding the mandatory windscreen wipers, headlights, and other hardware to make it road legal, the Speirling won't be as aerodynamic as the car from Goodwood. By the way, McMurtry says the track-only EV produces more downforce than an F1 car at speeds of up to 150 mph (241 km/h).

Interestingly, the company's managing director revealed a second model is already planned and it'll be even smaller than the Speirling. How small was the car from the FoS anyway? It was only 3.5 meters (137.8 inches) long, 1.7 meters (66.9 in) wide, and 1.1 meters (43.3 in) tall.