The McMurtry Speirling has broken the Goodwood hillclimb record

If you’ve got a spare 40 seconds today, have a watch of that video above. Although technically you’ll only need to give up 39.08 seconds of your time, because that’s how long it took Max Chilton to fly up the Goodwood hillclimb at this weekend’s Festival of Speed.

Former F1 and IndyCar driver Chilton was piloting the frankly ludicrous McMurtry Speirling fancar, and his Sunday run was quick enough for the British-Irish startup to set a new record on the 1.16-mile driveway, beating the Volkswagen ID.R’s 2019 time of 39.9 seconds. Hearty congratulations.

The Speirling is a rather incredible thing to behold, with its tiny footprint being propelled by two electric motors that power the rear wheels. It weighs less than 1,000kg and McMurtry claims a power-to-weight ratio of 1,000bhp per tonne. The big news (and noise) though, is of course the twin fans that suck the Speirling towards the ground and provide 2,000kg of downforce at any speed. No wonder it looks like the video has been left on fast-forward. 

Quite an incredible sight to behold, isn’t it?