The debate has been raging for decades: can a Formula 1 car drive inverted from downforce alone? No one ever asked if a McMurtry Spéirling could ... turns out, it's no problemo.
Over the last few years year, McMurtry has already been turning both heads and lap times upside down – and not just setting lap records seemingly everywhere the team takes the Spéirling Pure VP1 fan car, but absolutely trouncing records.
- April 2025: Shatters record at the Top Gear Test Track with a 55.9-second lap time - 3.1 seconds faster than a Renault R24 F1 car.
- August 2024: Blitzes the EV record at Laguna Seca by nearly six and a half seconds with a 1:18.413.
- June 2024: The fastest non-F1 car (by 14.1 seconds) to turn a lap at Hockenheimring with a 1:24.43 lap.
- April 2024: Over 4 seconds faster than the previous lap record by a Formula 3 car at Castle Combe Circuit clocking a 54.559.
And this one is really bonkers when you think about it: 0-60 mph in 1.40 seconds and 0-100mph in 2.63 seconds. That's 0.45 seconds faster than the Rimac Nevera and 0.37 faster than the Bugatti Chiron, respectively. It's not just fast – it's like Superman being shot out of a cannon.
So can it drive inverted? Not only can it, but I'd wager unicorn toots are what's actually blasting out of the rear end of the McMurtry Spéirling Pure VP1.
To put it to the test, the fellas over at McMurtry built a rotating rig. The Spéirling drives onto it, comes to a complete stop, and the rig rotates flipping the fan car upside down entirely as we see all the blood rush to driver Thomas Yates' head on the onboard camera . And to prove there were no gimmicks (outside of magnets, maybe?) Yates slowly drives forward about a foot or so before coming to a stop again. After which the rig rights the car, it's business as usual, and the Spéirling drives off into the literal sunset in a cloud of tire smoke.
Yes, it's a far cry from the old "Can an F1 car drive inverted?" question, but maybe we'll have that one answered sooner rather than later too. Scott Mansell, aka Driver61, has been working on "Project Inversion" in an effort to build a tube long enough to accommodate driving an F1 car upside down using downforce generated at high speed. Or do we call it "lift" at this point?
Tube construction aside, there are other challenges that Mansell will have to overcome, like how engines don't particularly like to be ran while inverted ... so instead of an F1 car, a modified electric Empire Wraith will be used, once again leaving us wondering is an F1 car can be driven upside down ... but I digress.
Instead of high speed downforce, the McMurtry fan car uses twin electric turbines that spin at 23,000 RPM underneath the car in a sort of hellish lawnmower arrangement. The fans draw air from under the car, shooting it (and unicorn toots) out of the rear exhaust ports, effectively sucking the car to the ground, even at zero miles per hour. The fan car can create over 4,400 lb (2,000 kg) of downforce with this system on a car and driver combo that weighs less than 2,700 lb (1,200 kg). It's like a slot car on horsepoweroids with virtually unlimited grip.
Just marvel for a minute at this photo:
Though it's not in any official record books, we're pretty certain the Spéirling is also the loudest electric vehicle ever made as those fan sound like they're turned up to eleven trying to summon every speed-demon that ever existed.
As usual, we can't wait to see what McMurtry does next!
Source: McMurtry Automotive