We’ve heard the comment countless times before: XXX racecar produce so much downforce it can drive upside down. Formula 1 cars could, theoretically, be driven upside down. This is due to the amount of downforce that they generate at speed. However, it has never been attempted. Well, one manufacturer has made good on this claim as the Speirling Hypercar drives upside down.

Thomas Yates drove the Spéirling up a ramp and onto a purpose-built platform. The floor of the platform then rotated, fully inverting the hypercar. The car’s Downforce-on-Demand system created enough vacuum underneath the hypercar’s floor to hold it upside down, exceeding the force of gravity. Once fully inverted, Thomas drove forward, entirely unsupported, as you can see in the video below.

Follow Double Apex on Instagram and Facebook where we share more car content.

That was just a fantastic day in the office! Strapping in and driving inverted was a completely surreal experience. The 2000kg of downforce that the fan system can generate is truly astonishing to experience and it’s great to show the reason why our Spéirling continues to take records around the world. This demonstration was an exciting proof of concept using a small purpose-built rig, but is perhaps just the beginning of what’s possible. With a longer inverted track or a suitable tunnel, we may be able to drive even further! Huge congratulations and thanks to the entire McMurtry Automotive team, especially the engineers involved in the car and fan system’s design, they are the heroes of today
– Thomas Yates, co-founder & managing director of McMurtry Automotive

How?

McMurtry’s patented Downforce-on-Demand enables the battery-electric hypercar to produce downforce at any speed, even at a standstill. Hence the recent publicity stunt. Every other race- and hypercar can only produce downforce at high speeds using aerodynamic surfaces.

Click here to read more about this limited-edition hypercar.

The McMurtry’s underfloor fan sucks the car to the ground (ceiling?) at standstill. The downforce also allows the battery powered machine to accelerated from standstill to 96 km/h in just 1,5 seconds, complete the quarter mile in 8 seconds, and corner at more than 3g (three times the force of gravity).