Watch this electric car demolish a 20-year-old F1 lap record and drive upside down
What just happened? The McMurtry Speirling, an all-electric fan-assisted racecar, has added two more outrageous feats to its resume. Already known for obliterating the Goodwood Hillclimb record (bottom video), the Speirling just broke Top Gear’s long-standing test track lap time – and became the first car to maintain sustained upside-down driving.
The Speirling is a radically different approach to speed. Unlike most race cars that rely solely on power sent to the wheels, it devotes a chunk of its 1,000 horsepower to twin fans that suck air from beneath the chassis. The vacuum created dramatically increases downforce. The result is F1-level grip at any speed, not just high speed, giving it exceptional control when cornering, accelerating, or braking.
The “fan car” idea isn’t new. The Chaparral 2J and Brabham BT46B introduced the concept in the 1970s, but racing authorities quickly banned them for their an unfair advantage over racers using traditional aerodynamics. McMurtry’s street-legal track weapon revives the idea with modern tech, generating twice its weight in downforce – 2,000kg on a 1,000kg car.
That helped the Speirling demolish Top Gear’s test track record with a lap time of 55.9 seconds. The previous best time, set by Renault’s 2004 F1 car, was 59 seconds. Among street-legal cars, the Aston Martin Valkyrie was quickest at 1:08.3. Even Ford’s outrageous electric Supervan 4.2, the fastest EV on the track until now, managed just 1:05.3.
Electrek notes that McMurtry followed the lap record with another bold accomplishment: driving upside down, holding its inverted position for ten seconds while accelerating and braking a short distance at low speed. Hot Wheels once pulled off a loop-de-loop stunt with rally cars, but those relied on momentum rather than aerodynamic downforce.
The Speirling maintained its inverted position using fan-driven suction, finally proving the long-standing theory that enough downforce can overcome gravity. Granted, the feat was more cautious than cinematic – it took place in a controlled setting, with safety in mind. Still, it’s a world first that McMurtry called a “proof of concept.”
“With a longer inverted track or a suitable tunnel, we may be able to drive even further,” McMurtry co-founder Thomas Yates noted.
From record-breaking laps to gravity-defying stunts, the Speirling is no longer just a quirky science experiment. It’s a real, working glimpse of what the future of racing – and extreme vehicle engineering – could look like.
