The McMurtry Speirling Pure Is Ready for Action

McMurtry has made many, many headlines with its record-setting Speirling. Until now we’ve only ever seen the company’s prototype in action. Toay that changes with the production ready Pure making its debut. It is still a tiny single-seater electric missile that creates massive grip regardless of speed, offering enough usability that the owner does not need to run a travelling race team to run it.

The Spéirling Pure marks the beginning of a new era in track driving with mind-bending performance to suit all levels of owner, from weekend enthusiasts to professional drivers. In production form, the car is significantly more usable, but no less outrageous. In terms of exhilaration, grip, acceleration, sound, aesthetics and technology, we offer something that no other manufacturer is able to. Feedback from our earliest Spéirling Pure deposit holders has been instrumental in shaping our final customer offering. They recognised our vision, and their input has helped us turn a record-breaking prototype into an extraordinary and highly usable track car that people can own and enjoy
– Thomas Yates, McMurtry co-founder and managing director

A fan car with manners

The trick hardware behind the car’s immense performance is McMurtry’s patented Downforce-on-Demand system. Two electric fans, spinning at up to 23 000 r/min, pull air out from beneath the car to create a sealed low-pressure zone under the body. Immediate suction results in 2 000 kg of downforce from standstill. In plain English, the car presses itself into the tarmac before it has even reached walking pace.

Dual fans provide redundancy, so one failure does not turn the car into a flying paperweight. The system is also designed to keep producing downforce in a spin, which helps the car come to a shorter, more controlled stop rather than skating into whatever barrier is waiting on the outside of a corner. Unlike traditional downforce that is primarily generated by direction-specific airflow over wings or under diffusers, the Speirling Pure maintains downforce in the event of a spin, allowing drivers to come to a controled stop in a much shorter distance.

The numbers are properly unhinged. McMurtry quotes 3G in corners and 3G under braking, with 0 to 100 km/h dispatched in 1,55 seconds and a claimed top speed of 305 km/h. Power comes from a 100 kWh lithium-ion battery and a twin-motor electric drivetrain making 746 kW (an even 1 000 bhp in old money). The company says that owners can expect about 40-50 km of range if lapping at the same pace as an LMP2 racer. That’s about ten laps of Kyalami at full tilt.

The Pure is almost all-new

The production Speirling Pure is said to be 95 percent new compared with the prototype cars. The battery has grown from 60 kWh to 100 kWh, using 21 700 cells in a standardised modular layout with room for future upgrades. Regenerative braking can recover up to 200 kW.

The chassis is now a carbon-fibre monocoque built to global motorsport safety standards. McMurtry has added more cabin room, widened the door opening, and repositioned the A-pillar to make climbing in and out less of a yoga session. The wheelbase stretches by 200 mm to 2 200 mm, while the car is also 14 percent wider and 11 percent longer than before. It is packaging for a bigger battery, more systems, and a car that still needs to remain small enough to feel like a proper weapon for one.

Under the skin, the changes are just as serious. Electric power steering has been replaced by hydraulic power-assisted steering with Formula 1-style valving, so the effort should be lighter and the feedback clearer. Optional electronically adjustable dampers are available, while the suspension gets more articulation and a nominal 20 percent ride-height increase in use. McMurtry has also widened the slicks, with 11 percent more width at the front and 3 percent at the rear, plus 15 mm more sidewall height at each end. There is also the option for air-conditioning, in case you live in a warm clime such as South Africa…

Ownership

Track toys at this level usually come with the usual baggage: transport support, tyre warmers, technical staff, battery management, and a small bureaucracy. McMurtry wants the opposite. The Speirling Pure is being sold as plug-and-play, usable at track days or competitive events with just a driver and a competent friend. Full factory support is there if needed, but the message is that the owner should spend their time driving rather than acting as race team principal.

A few clever practical touches back this up. The car can recharge from 20 to 95 percent in 20 to 60 minutes depending on ambient temperature and charger power. Access panels make servicing easier, including quick access to the fan filter cassette. The revised fan arrangement sits lower in the car, which helps the centre of gravity and turns the inlet ducting into a visible design feature. There is even an onboard air compressor so the underbody skirt can retract on its own for trailer loading and slow manoeuvring, replacing the external air bottle used on the prototypes.

Owners get custom-moulded seats shaped using Le Mans prototype methods, with choices for colours, stitching, stripes, and logos across the seat, wheel, and dashboard trim. There is a racing-style wheel with a fan rev paddle, which sounds childish in the best possible way, and a central display showing power and fan settings, state of charge, speed, and temperatures. This is not a stripped-out science project pretending to be a customer car. It is a single-seater designed for gentleman drivers not works racers.

The SA Connection

As things would turn out, two friends of Double Apex have ordered a McMurtry Speirling Pure each, one of whom was happy to go on the record about his decision.

During a chat Mr D explained: “As you know this is a very special car with incredible performance on offer. I have spent some time behind the wheel of the prototype and the performance is simply next level. I have driven many fast cars on track, but nothing else would be able to match the Pure especially at the price.

“As a start-up we were very lucky to engage with McMurtry from day one on this limited-edition car. This would simply not be possible with the likes of other supercar makers. Getting in early also meant that we were able to fix the price, which always helps. Now with the announcement of the production-ready version, I cannot wait to drive my car on local soil.”

Built for driving

McMurtry is not pretending this car exists only for private fantasy garages. The Speirling Pure is eligible for Global Time Attack in the United States, European Time Attack Masters at the Nürburgring.

At £995 000, or roughly R22m before local taxes, shipping, and options, this is not a bargain in any language. However, McMurtry is selling access to a level of track performance that normally sits behind a Formula 1 garage door, then packaging it in a way that removes most of the headaches that usually come with owning something this extreme.