The McMurtry Spéirling Just Became the World’s Fastest Production Car
The Rimac Nevera’s reign as the world’s fastest-accelerating production car could be nearing its end.
The $2.4 million electric hypercar was just bested by another battery-powered vehicle, the McMurtry Spéirling. The compact speed machine didn’t just barely edge the Nevera’s zero-to-60 mph and quarter-mile times—it beat them quite comfortably.
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The British startup announced late last week that its pint-sized Batmobile had just set two acceleration records while filming a video for the popular YouTube channel carwow at Silverstone. According to McMurtry, and the clip, the Spéirling was able to zoom from 0-to-60 mph in just 1.4 seconds and cover a quarter-mile in 7.97 seconds. That beats the Nevera’s times, both of which are records for a production vehicle, by 0.5 seconds and 0.6 seconds, respectively. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the EV didn’t hit those marks in ideal conditions. It set them on a cold and damp day, though the straight it raced across was dried beforehand.
There are two big reasons why the rear-wheel Spéirling is capable of such outlandish acceleration, and neither of them is the rumored 1,000 hp powertrain (though that certainly doesn’t help). Those reasons are the pair of turbines located behind the EV’s cockpit that suck air from beneath the car and shoot it out the rear. The fans combine to produce well over 4,000 pounds of downforce which keeps the car glued to the tarmac as it rockets forward and around turns. That’s the reason why the rear-wheel Spéirling, which is also only 10.5 feet long and weighs just 2,205 pounds, can out-accelerate the all-wheel-drive Nevera.
These aren’t the first jaw-dropping times put up by the Spéirling. Back in June, the electric fan car completed the 1.16-mile Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb in a record 39.08 seconds. That time, which was certified by the festival, comfortably bested the previous official mark set by a McLaren MP4/13 F1 in 1999 by 2.52 seconds and the unofficial mark set by a Volkswagen ID.R in 2019 by 0.82 seconds. Shortly after, the brand announced it would put a street-legal version of the car into production.
It should be noted that while the Spéirling beat both of the Nevera’s acceleration times, it is not the world’s fastest-accelerating production car. That’s because the marks were set by a car that featured the same configuration as the one that appeared at Goodwood this summer. But because McMurtry will base the customer version on this vehicle, there’s a very real possibility it might one day become the record holder.
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