McMurtry Speirling Pure is faster and cheaper than Rimac Nevera

When McMurtry Speirling showed up at Goodwood Festival of Speed last year, it was met with curious looks, some cheeky smiles, and plenty of disbelief. All that went away the moment Speirling beat Goodwood’s speed record - the whole track went silent. You could only hear this flying thing zipping through the air.

Big things apparently come in small packages, and it couldn’t be any more true for this British Thunderstorm - that’s the meaning of Speirling in Irish. This thing is tiny - 11.32 ft long, 5.18 ft wide, and only 3.35 ft tall, the Speirling is smaller than Renault Twingo. It is lighter as well, and of course, far more powerful.

But McMurtry didn’t settle for its record-breaking run last year, the celebrations were as quick as the run itself, and the company went back to work. Lo and behold, just in time for this year’s Goodwood event, McMurtry unveiled an even faster version of the Speirling - it is called Speirling Pure.

A lot of effort went into making the Speirling lighter, although the original version tipped the scales at around 2,200 lb. The company didn’t disclose the new weight, but for example, the side skirts are now 15% lighter, the new chassis saves another 4% in weight, the new electrical loom is 35% lighter than the previous one, the wheels went down from 19” to 18” to accommodate wider tires and still save some weight. The brake system assembly was revised to save 2.5%, and the new pedal box is 17% lighter than the old version. That’s some seriously pedantic attention to detail that can put many F1 teams to shame.

Then, there is the secret sauce. You see, the Speirling is a giant vacuum cleaner on wheels. It sucks the air from under the car as it moves and forces it to stick to the road as if it was glued to it. The last model was incredible at it, the Pure version has a completely new fan system. It is 15% more efficient, it weighs 14% less, and it promises the experience of G-forces only known to acrobatic pilots.

According to McMurtry, the little Speirling Pure can easily create 3g in pretty much any corner. That’s when an average driver starts weighing 551 lb - or at least it feels like it. 3g is enough to make inexperienced people feel queasy and begin questioning their lunch choices.

So, how fast is this thing? Well, the previous version went from 0 to 60 mph in a perception-altering 1.4 seconds, and it dealt with the ¼ mile in 7.97 seconds. That’s respectively 0.4 seconds and 0.3 seconds quicker than Rimac Nevera. Those aren’t small differences - compared to Nevera, Speirling has only 1,000 hp, and all that power is fed to the rear wheels - no AWD system here, no ABS either. Unfortunately, Speirling’s records were independently measured and weren’t officially verified.

The Pure version is meant for track use only, it qualifies for the GT1 Sports Club racing class, and it can be raced at many racing circuits around the world. Its 60 kWh battery recharges in 20 minutes, and it offers full performance for multiple laps on the biggest circuits out there. The Speirling will go into 100-unit limited production in late 2024 with deliveries scheduled for early 2025. And, if you must know, it starts at $961,000 before taxes, which actually is a bargain when compared to Rimac Nevera or Pininfarina Battista - half the price and twice as much fun.

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