Automotive

Insane hypercar absolutely sucks its way into the record books

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Two McMurtry Spéirling electric fan cars coming down from the top of the Corkscrew in a parade formation
McMurtry
The McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car takes the top spot at the Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb, next to its top competitors
McMurtry
McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car team photo
McMurtry
This is not the McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car ... it's just a photo I took from the outside of turn 9, looking up at the Corkscrew for a little perspective (even though the signage blocks the view of the top)
McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car sits at the bottom of the Corkscrew for a photo after winning the Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb and setting records
McMurtry
The McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car at the top of the Corkscrew, blowing debris everywhere
McMurtry
Two McMurtry Spéirling electric fan cars coming down from the top of the Corkscrew in a parade formation
McMurtry
It's like they knew it was going to happen and wrote the record-setting article long in advance. How many other press releases do they have just waiting for the dates to arrive for release?
McMurtry
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McMurtry made its US debut to the crowds at the famed Laguna Seca circuit in Monterey, CA this week, racing the third annual Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb with Max Chilton back in the pilot seat. The car and driver duo easily set not one, but two records in the process.

Inspired by the Goodwood Festival of Speed – where the McMurtry has dominated the last few years – the Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb was first held in Aug of 2022. Sixty competitors showed up in cars ranging from a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck to a 1925 Bugatti Type 35 to a "Doc Hudson" – The famed Hudson Hornet from the Pixar movie Cars, smoking and sliding its way to the top.

This is Laguna Seca's third year of hosting the Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb.

Starting on the front straight section and racing uphill through turns 11, 10, 9 and cresting over turn 8 – known as the Corkscrew – with the finish line at turn 7, competitors race up 300 feet (91 m) in elevation.

The McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car at the top of the Corkscrew, blowing debris everywhere
McMurtry

Most of the elevation gain is on the Corkscrew, rising about five and a half stories in only about 450 feet (137 m) of tarmac – something like an 18-degree grade – almost steep enough to rival that of the famous "crooked" Lombard Street in San Francisco.

Legend has it that Skip Barber was bulldozing his way to the top of the now-famous steep hill that the Corkscrew lays atop of when he simply needed to find his way back down. He zig-zagged his bulldozer to the bottom, carving out the soil for asphalt to be paved, and thus the Corkscrew as we know it was born.

This is not the McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car ... it's just a photo I took from the outside of turn 9, looking up at the Corkscrew for a little perspective (even though the signage blocks the view of the top)

Having completed tens of thousands of laps at Laguna Seca in cars and motorcycles, I can attest that going down it at speed the first few times almost feels like you're free-falling in an elevator. I've only ridden a scooter counter-course up the Corkscrew once and had to paddle with my feet to assist the little 50cc 2-stroke in making it up the steep incline.

This year's Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb was held on August 11th. Oddly enough, as if already knowing the future and only needing to fill in a few blanks in a prewritten press release from McMurtry dated June 19th, the Spéirling fan car absolutely decimated the previous long-layout record, sucking its way up the Corkscrew in 28.6 seconds.

The previous record was set by a 1976 Lotus Type 77 Formula 1 car at 34.69 seconds, six seconds slower than the fan car.

The McMurtry Spéirling Pure fan car also set the record for the newly introduced short course with a 21.958-second run. Second place – a 1967 Ford Falcon purpose-built race car – wasn't even in the same league at a hair over seven seconds slower. Third place, a modern 2022 Ferrari SF90 could only muster a 29.822, nearly eight seconds slower than the Spéirling fan car.

The McMurtry Spéirling electric fan car takes the top spot at the Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb, next to its top competitors
McMurtry

What is a fan car, you say?

I had the same question when I first learned about the record-setting McMurtry Spéirling earlier this year during its record-setting visit to Hockenheim. Those of you who have been around longer than myself, or who perhaps simply have been much more involved in the sport, know that fan cars first came around in the 1970s, particularly when Brabham built the BT46B Formula 1 car with Niki Lauda at the wheel in 1978. It was banished after a single race (that the car won at the Swedish Grand Prix at Anderstorp) due to concerns over its safety.

A fan car uses fans to suck air from underneath the vehicle to create artificial downforce, sucking the car to the ground like a leech giving it more grip, particularly in slower corners where aerodynamics have little to no effect.

While messy with all the debris getting sucked up and blown about the race track (I'd hate to be driving a million-dollar hypercar behind the Spéirling – or any car, for that matter), it sure is pretty dang cool. For a cool US$1.1 million, you could have yourself a 1,000-hp (745-kw) fan car too.

It's going to be hard to beat.

The good stuff starts at 2:52 in the video.

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6 comments
vince
US slot cars work the same way but use powerful neodymium magnets to hold the cars to the track by using the magnetic steel groves for the electrical contacts as the magnets source of sticking to the ground instead of rolling over at high speeds in corners. I also made a powerful sucker slot car that beat the heck out of everything at the standard slot car tracks in 24th scale racing by using a powerful vacuum in front middle of the car and it simply could not be rolled over and allowed full speed through the corners on Murray's race track in lakewood, Co back in the 60's/70's. Only a very sharp corner could make it tip over. It was simply unreal.
yawood
I'm sure that going up the mountain (in reverse direction to the normal racing) at Bathurst (Australia) would be very similar.
Atholstaus
I am surprised that the article does not mention Jim Hall. His engineering design of race cars through his Chapparel series introduced many significant innovations to race car design.
JS
@Atholstaus - I'm forever a student, still learning. :)
veryken
Someone with enough money and guts has to do a test (and video) of the downside or dark side of the fan car concept — not just “the debris getting sucked up and blown about the race track” but mechanical risks and the occasion flip or airborne flyovers on speedbumps or whatnot. Otherwise, the McMurty will seem to dominate everything — every race, every speed-related event. Why not.
Palmerfralick
Yep, Jim Hall and Hap Sharp in 1970 designed the Chaparral race car with a 700 hp 427 in an 1800 lbs Can Am series car. Two fans were adapted from a military tank. The fans could create a down force of 1.25g - 1.50g. This gave the car unreal gripping power and an advantage that the SCCA considered "dangerous". So they banned it. Sort of like when the turbine car was banned at Indianapolis and Nikki's Brabham car in 1978. It's hard to get one passed those engineers from the 1970's with Apollo Spacecraft, Chaparral, Nikki's fan car and what not.