McMurtry Spéirling PURE: the 1.55-second fan car is finally one you can buy
mcmurtry.com
The single-seat electric fan car makes 1000 hp, generates 2000 kg of downforce at a standstill and hits 96 km/h in 1.55 seconds. Prices start at £995,000, and McMurtry says 25 have already sold.
McMurtry Spéirling PURE is one of those rare cases where a wild track project didn’t stay a pile of records, renders and promises. The British company has put its single-seat electric fan car into production: 1000 hp, a 100 kWh battery, 0–96 km/h (60 mph) in 1.55 seconds and a top speed of 306 km/h.
The Spéirling PURE’s defining feature isn’t so much its power as its Downforce-on-Demand fan system. It generates up to 2000 kg of downforce before the car even moves. That lets it accelerate, brake and corner in a way ordinary hypercars can’t, since they need airflow for their aerodynamics to work. McMurtry claims up to 3g through corners and under braking.
The easiest way to sell hardware like this is with big numbers, but the Spéirling already has proof. The prototype climbed Goodwood in 39.08 seconds, set the Top Gear Test Track record, beat an F1 car on the same track and, at Hockenheim, was 14.1 seconds quicker than the Mercedes-AMG One. The company has also shown it driving upside down — again thanks to the fan system.
The production version differs noticeably from the record-setting prototypes: around 95% of the components are new. The car gets a larger 100 kWh battery, a reworked carbon-fibre monocoque, more cockpit space, better visibility, integrated lighting, easier service access and even a compartment for a helmet and HANS device under the rear wing.
McMurtry’s most unusual claim is ease of ownership. Managing director Thomas Yates framed it this way: “F1 car levels of performance, but an ownership experience closer to a Porsche 911 GT3 RS.” The company promises owners won’t need a full race team: a trained paddock assistant is supposedly enough for a track day. If that holds true, the Spéirling PURE becomes a dangerous rival not to road-going Ferraris or Lamborghinis, but to track toys like the Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro, Radical and Praga Bohema, and to pricey customer racing programmes.
Prices start at £995,000 — around $1.3 million. According to Carscoops, 25 cars have already been sold.
The Spéirling PURE matters not because it accelerates faster than almost anything on wheels, but because it took the fan car all the way to production — a rare win for engineering over presentation hype.
