McMurtry Automotive unveiled the production version of the Speirling Pure, its all-electric track-only fan car, with US customer deliveries beginning in late 2026 and a starting price of $1.3 million. The headline numbers read like a physics dare: 1,000 bhp (745 kW) per McMurtry’s spec sheet, 0-60 mph in 1.55 seconds with a one-foot rollout, a curb weight of approximately 2,980 pounds, and up to 2,000 kg of downforce available from 0 mph.
That last figure is the whole car. Two underbody fans spinning at up to 23,000 rpm suck the Speirling onto the tarmac before it turns a wheel, the Downforce-on-Demand trick that let the prototype demolish Goodwood’s outright hillclimb record in 2022. This is the machine that made the internet’s jaw drop finally becoming something a customer can own.
The Spec Sheet Reads Like A Le Mans Prototype
The production Speirling Pure pairs its twin-motor, rear-wheel-drive powertrain and e-differential with a 100 kWh battery, 350 kW peak charging, and a 190 mph top speed. McMurtry quotes cornering and braking forces of 3g, held by 15.4-inch vented carbon-ceramic discs with Brembo six-piston calipers. Run distance at full race pace is 25 to 31 miles, which the company frames as LMP2-level pace, and the cockpit accommodates drivers up to 6 ft 7 in.
The fan system is the differentiator no rival carries. Ground-effect aerodynamics on a conventional hypercar need speed to generate downforce. The Speirling’s fans deliver their full 2,000 kg standing still, which is why the car brakes, corners, and launches like nothing else on a circuit. The concept traces back to the banned Chaparral 2J and Brabham BT46B “fan cars” of the 1970s, sucked out of racing by rulebooks and revived here because a track-only EV answers to no sanctioning body.
From Goodwood Giant-Killer To Customer Car
McMurtry, the UK manufacturer founded in 2016 by the late Renishaw co-founder Sir David McMurtry, built its reputation on a single run: Max Chilton’s 39.08-second blast up the Goodwood hillclimb in 2022, an outright record that still stands and that beat the 1999 mark set by an F1 car. The company has kept collecting scalps since, including a closed-wheel lap record at Hockenheim set while running at 75% power and 75% downforce. The production Pure carries over that provenance with, per McMurtry, roughly 95% new components versus the prototype.
EVXL’s Take
A $1.3 million single-seater you can’t drive to the shops sounds like the least relevant EV on Earth, and in volume terms it is. But pay attention to what it proves. Electric power is the only reason this car exists: the instant torque makes the 1.55-second launch possible, and packaging fans plus a 100 kWh battery into 2,980 pounds is a purely electric trick, no gearbox, no fuel system, no compromise. While solid-state vaporware collects headlines, McMurtry is shipping the most extreme demonstration yet that EVs don’t just match combustion performance, they do things combustion physically cannot. The battery tech trickles down; the lesson lands now. The 25-31 mile run distance at race pace is the honest asterisk, that’s a handful of hot laps between charges, and at 350 kW the recharge is a coffee break, not an afternoon. Late 2026, some very lucky American track days are about to get loud in a whole new way: no engine note at all, just two fans screaming like a jet.
Source: Sawyer Merritt on X, McMurtry Automotive
EVXL uses automated tools to support research and source retrieval. All reporting and editorial perspectives are by Haye Kesteloo.
