While the electrified McMurtry Speirling managed a rapid time up the Goodwood hill, a handful of the diminutive British vehicle will also be put into production for a road-legal version that will cost over £1 million a piece.
Prestige and nostalgia are two fundamentals of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Prestige for manufacturers looking at demonstrating the best of what they can offer and nostalgia for those that appreciate bygone eras in motoring.
The diminutive electrified McMurtry Speirling is part of the former camp considering it is a novel creation using a recently mastered form of powertrain. The oddly proportioned model also managed an impressive time of 39,08 seconds to get to the top of Goodwood hill which means it now holds the outright record at the event taking the title from the Volkswagen ID. R. which managed 0,8 seconds slower in 2019.
While Romain Dumas expertly piloted the bespoke Volkswagen creation to set the record a few years ago, former Formula 1 and IndyCar driver Max Chilton wrestled the cute single seater this time around. Despite its looks, the electrified McMurtry Speirling is a force to be reckoned with. Benefiting from the instantaneous torque of electric motors and compact dimensions making it impressively nimble through corners, the model can achieve a 0-100 km/h sprint in less than 1,5 seconds and has its top speed limited to 241 km/h (for driver and spectator safety reasons).
The model looked poised to be competitive throughout the weekend of attempts and initially set a time of 40,056 seconds earlier during the final day. After the impressive show of performance, company managing director Thomas Yates confirmed a street-legal version with similar neck-breaking capability when interviewed by Autocar. This won’t come cheap though since it will only be limited to a “handful” of units which can expectedly cost around £1 million each.
