Track-day cars just got a strange new addition to the family. British outfit McMurtry Automotive, founded by inventor and billionaire Sir David McMurtry, has begun deliveries of the production version of its Spéirling PURE. This all-electric single-seater does something almost no other road-going track car can claim: it sucks itself to the pavement using fans.
The Spéirling PURE puts out 1,000 horsepower
Its fan system can generate up to 2,000 kg of downforce, even while standing still
Starting price is £995,000, before taxes and options
A Vacuum Cleaner at Speed
Regular wings and diffusers only work once a car is moving fast enough to push air through them. The Spéirling skips that requirement entirely. Its fans spin at up to 23,000 rpm, literally pulling the car toward the pavement rather than pushing air over it. That means grip is available at any speed, including a dead stop, letting the car brake later into corners and hold cornering angles that would be physically impossible for any conventionally built vehicle of similar weight.
This isn’t some untested lab experiment either. The earlier prototype has already set multiple track records, including a run up the legendary Goodwood hillclimb that outpaced several Formula 1 cars along sections of the course.
I had the chance to ride along as a passenger in one fan-equipped prototype from another carmaker during a track session. It’s genuinely hard to put into words how abnormal it feels. But it’s wicked fast.
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Electric Under the Skin
Beneath the carbon-composite bodywork sits a dual-motor setup fed by a 100 kWh battery, good for roughly 40 to 50 km of range at a pace comparable to an LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype 2) endurance racer. Charging is quick too, as little as 20 minutes depending on the temperature and the charger’s output.
At roughly 1,350 kg, the car stays reasonably light for something packing this much power, largely because the single-seat layout and enclosed cockpit keep the structure simple.
McMurtry knows exactly who it’s building this for: track-day enthusiasts who want to show up, get in, and drive, without fussing over setup beforehand.
The company is promising a refreshingly simple routine to go with it too, with no need to warm up the engine or the tires beforehand. A single person in the pits to help and that’s it.
The price tag will obviously keep this out of reach for most people. At current exchange rates, £995,000 is roughly $1.9 million CAD.
That’s the cost of admission for pushing the boundaries of what a track car can actually do.
