The first thing you hear when you slip into the small, made-for-one cockpit of the McMurtry Spéirling isn’t the roar of engines. It’s not the unmistakable din of turbo V8s as, say, a Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut’s 1,280bhp hyperbeast, the SSC Tuatara, or others in the class. No, what you first hear is a massive jet engine revving to the point of splitting your ears, increasing in decibels to the point of causing panic, as if a 747 is about to hit your neighbourhood and wipe out a whole block of flats.
Like no other car, the Spéirling sets your heart racing before you even hit the accelerator. And when you do? The G force makes every molecule in your neck hold itself from having your head snap back as you barrel to the fastest 0-60mph record known—1.55 seconds, with an acceleration of 42.86 m/s2.
To compare, the Jesko Absolut’s 0-60 time is 2.2 seconds (ouch). This is why the Spéirling —when it burst on to the scene at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2022, setting the new Hill Climb Record; when it crushed the Hockenheimring lap record in 2024; when, in April 2025, it saw the Spéirling PURE VP1 break The Stig’s 21-year lap time set by the Renault R24 Formula 1 around the Top Gear Test Track fall by a whopping 3.1 seconds—made the performance community’s jaw drop. “We will continue to do records that no other car can, to highlight the unique performance and collectability of these vehicles,” says McMurty spokesperson and head of marketing David Turton with an understated British smile.
That jet engine sound you heard before you started accelerating? That wasn’t the engine; that was a pair of twin fans, like jet props placed horizontally to the ground with one mission in mind: to create a downforce like no other car. It literally sucks the car to the track like a limpid to a rock, cornering at incredible speeds that are incomprehensible for any other car—3G on hairpins, delivering track times that are better than F1 cars.
It’s that technology—the patented Downforce-on-Demand—that allowed the Spéirling to do something that was a possibility only in theoretical physics: drive upside down. “That was just a fantastic day in the office! Strapping in and driving inverted was a completely surreal experience,” stated an elated Thomas Yates, co-founder and managing director of McMurtry Automotive, of the demonstration that took place in McMurty’s Gloucester headquarters in April this year. “The 2,000kg 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.”
The idea of using calibrated fans to create downforce and, ergo, grip around turns at speeds that seem impossible to us mere mortals, is nothing new per se. There was the Chaparral 2J Can-Am car that used a high motor-powered snow blower fan to create downforce, the Gordon Murray’s Brabham BT46B, and others. But the Spéirling PURE takes it to new levels of both brute force (2,000kg of downforce, 23,000rpm on its fans) and innovation. By using the technology to continuously calibrate between the speed and the level of downforce generated, the Downforce-on-Demand mitigates the peskiest of problems with this approach: drag (dear nerds: Fk = μk * N. You’re welcome). “Engineering materials and methods have moved on in that time (of fans cars), and now allow us to produce a reliable fan downforce system that people can own and enjoy,” Turton says.
So, what’s next for the giant killer? McMurtry, like all the hypercar boutique brands, is developing its fine asset pedigree by keeping its exclusivity at a finely managed pace. The Spéirling PURE is set to become a cult collectible with only 100 vehicles to be created and sold. “The cars have record-breaking credentials, like Goodwood Festival of Speed and Top Gear Test Track, beating F1 cars. We will continue to do records that no other car can, to highlight the unique performance and collectability of these vehicles. They are a good value compared to buying an F1 car. You can experience high G cornering at low speeds, which is a unique experience not available in a conventional aero car,” quips Turton, knowing that less than £1,000,000 for a hypercar is a steal compared to others in its class. But don’t wait too long to order one, as the Spéirling PURE is set to go fast and, as a collectible asset that you get to enjoy, its value will likely match its track time: record-setting.
