There are startups that promise to change the world, and then there’s McMurtry Automotive, which decided the best way to announce itself was to obliterate a 23-year-old Formula 1 record at Goodwood with a vacuum-cleaner-sized electric missile. Now the British firm is taking the next logical step: moving out of the garage-project phase and into a purpose-built factory in Gloucestershire to start building the real thing.
The new site in Wotton-under-Edge covers roughly a square mile, which is an absurdly large footprint for a company that builds a single-seat electric hypercar smaller than a Honda Civic. Production of the Spéirling Pure is set to begin any moment now, with the first customer car scheduled to leave the factory this summer. For a company that only a few years ago was known mostly for YouTube-breaking hillclimb runs, that’s a huge milestone.
And McMurtry isn’t stopping at just one outrageously fast toy. Its existing headquarters nearby will become an R&D hub for a new offshoot called McMurtry Technology, a contract-engineering business already claiming “high-profile clients” and seven-figure revenues. Translation: the same engineers who figured out how to make a 1000-horsepower electric fan car stick to the road are now available for hire.
Still the Hillclimb King
The Spéirling’s legend was sealed in 2022, when Max Chilton drove a prototype up the Goodwood hill in 39.08 seconds, smashing the long-standing record set by a McLaren Formula 1 car in 1999. That wasn’t just quick—it was physics-bending. The car’s downforce-generating fan system effectively allows it to glue itself to the asphalt, regardless of speed.
What’s coming off the new production line is even more unhinged. Customer cars will get revised motors sending a full 1000 horsepower to the rear wheels, fed by a 60-kWh battery pack that’s 15 percent lighter than before. McMurtry says kerb weight will be under 1000 kilograms—roughly what a Mazda Miata weighs, except this one launches to 62 mph in 1.5 seconds and keeps pulling to more than 190 mph.
Small Car, Big Humans
The Spéirling Pure measures just 3.45 meters long and seats exactly one person, but McMurtry insists it can fit drivers up to 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighing up to 146 kilograms. That’s either impressive packaging or proof that British engineers are really, really good at Tetris.
Only 100 examples will be built, each starting at £995,000 before taxes, delivery, and the sort of options you probably don’t want to ask about. That puts it firmly in the ultra-exclusive hypercar club—but unlike most million-pound toys, this one isn’t trying to be elegant, luxurious, or even especially pretty. It’s trying to be the fastest thing you’ve ever experienced.
With a new factory coming online and customer deliveries about to begin, McMurtry is moving from internet sensation to actual manufacturer. The Spéirling is no longer just a record-setting prototype—it’s a production car with a production line. And if it performs on the road anything like it did at Goodwood, the hypercar world is about to get very, very nervous.
Source: McMurtry Automotive
