British marque McMurtry will race its innovative Spéirling electric fan car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed next week – and it wants to break the hill climb record.
The car, which features an unusual electric fan and a floor-hugging underbody skirt, has a claimed power-to-weight ratio of 1000bhp per tonne and can hit 60mph in 1.5 seconds. It uses a 60 kWh battery wrapped around the cockpit.
Other technical details are scarce, but the company claims to have upgraded the fan to now provide 2000kg of downforce from a standstill. That’s more than a Formula 1 car produced at 150 mph.
Designed by F1 technicians, the electric-powered supercar will be driven by racing drivers Max Chilton and Alex Summers.
Unveiled at Goodwood’s FoS last year, the rear-drive Speirling had a claimed 0-186mph time under 9.0 seconds at the time, but with that improved fan expect that time to be considerably reduced.
McMurtry managing director Thomas Yates said: “Our target is to win the event and we believe the record is within reach if everything lines up for us.
“Of course it’s motorsport and you can never take anything for granted, but we come up with a very competitive package.”
Goodwood’s current hill climb record is 39.9 seconds and was achieved by the Volkswagen ID R in 2019. It broke a 20-year-old record, held by Nick Heidfeld, who set a time of 41, 6 seconds in the 1998 McLaren MP4-13 F1 car.
Chilton said: “I can’t wait to make my competitive debut in hill climbing. The largely constant downforce is an innovative feature to exploit as a pilot.
“It’s very different to what I’m used to driving in F1 and Indycar, and this year’s testing forced me to adapt my driving style to maximize performance.”
More about this article: Read More
Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-06-16 09:24:56
