McMurtry's record-breaking Spéirling fan car is the talk of the moment. We take a look behind the scenes at its development -
‘It felt like the perfect opportunity to assemble the Dream Team, people I’d admired but not had a chance to work with. The first day we opened the doors in 2016 there were just five of us, six if you include Sir David. The core concepts were very much his vision and throughout the process he has been regularly involved. And the thing that we find amazing is his ability to pull us up on design decisions that we’ve made. He’s a phenomenally sharp engineer.
‘The thing that is relatively profound, I think, is that with the EV age the penalty that you pay for redundant space and redundant seats has gone up vastly. It used to be that carrying around lots of extra energy was relatively easy because you’d just have a slightly bigger fuel tank and not really notice. With electrification, the weight difference between a car that’s driver focused and a car that’s carrying redundant space is going to grow drastically.
‘It’s testament to the capability of the team that we genuinely put the wheels on, went straight to Llandow Circuit in south Wales and spent a bit of time with Alex Summers [2015 British Hill Climb Champion] and Derek Bell [the legendary sportscar racer]. We managed two days of running and then went to Goodwood and went up the hill in front of hundreds of thousands of people. We were absolutely thrilled that it went well.
What the team started with three years ago was something akin to 1970s fan cars like the Brabham BT46 and Chaparral J2, but what they have now is something quite different. Instead of trying to create a skirted area from sill to sill the Spéirling has a skirted area about the size of a bodyboard beneath the driver.
‘It gave the right loads, there was plenty of space to work and it provided valuable insights,’ explains Yates. ‘You can switch on the downforce and experience how it works, how it responds to a moving surface and when the suspension is moving around, when you’re cornering. It’s still undoubtedly the ambulance with the most downforce in the world…’
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