Chilton blasts to new Goodwood Hillclimb Record in astonishing McMurtry fan car

Road Cars

The McMurtry Spéirling has now claimed its place in the history books by setting the fastest-ever time at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hillclimb

McMurtry Spéirling at Goodwood Festival of Speed

McMurtry Spéirling smashed the Festival of Speed Hillclimb record

Goodwood Festival of Speed

display_d6a5c5ad4f

Max Chilton made history at Goodwood Festival of Speed yesterday by smashing the Hillclimb record behind the wheel of the McMurtry Spéirling.

The former Formula 1 and IndyCar driver piloted the electric, 1000bhp/tonne fan car to an incredible time of 39.08sec – something which Chilton said “I never thought was gonna happen.”

Nick Heidfeld’s 1999 run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in a McLaren MP4/13 – at 41.6sec – looked for a time like it would never be broken, but it was unofficially bested by Romain Dumas in the Volkwswagen ID.R twenty years later as went up the hill in 39.9sec.

But these times have now been blown away though by the McMurtry track car, which both wowed crowds and set new standards for speed at Goodwood.

The Batmobile-like machine has a pair of fans which create 2000kg of downforce at any speed, a swirl of dust following the car as it whooshed up the hill.

Though its profile might be intimidating, the Spéirling is relatively diminutive, based on the footprint of a 1960s F1 car. When the small dimensions are combined with a carbon fibre body and active ride height suspension, it’s little wonder the car was challenging for top FoS honours.

The Spéirling, which can go from 0-60mph in 1.5sec, hit a top speed of 149mph as it danced through the hay bales and walls of the narrow Hillclimb.

As Chilton emphasised though, it was still not a given the car would be able to take stop spot in the Goodwood history books.

Related article

“I’ve been attending this event since I was four years old,” he said, after being embraced by the Duke of Richmond upon breaking the record.

“If someone had said, ‘One day you’re going to beat every single person that’s ever gone up that hill,’ I wouldn’t have believed you. It’s a real honour.

“I didn’t sleep last night. I got one hour’s sleep because I was so stressed. Pressure makes diamonds, as they say!”

McMurtry Spéirling at Goodwood Festival of Speed

The Spéirling (seen here in 2021) was almost a second clear of the next-fastest time on the hill

Newspress

“Sorry, again,” Chilton was heard to also say to Heidfeld as the German congratulated him on taking the record – the latter was present at Goodwood demonstrating the new Gen3 Formula E car.

The Spéirling track car was unveiled at last year’s Festival of Speed after five years of development by McMurtry Automotive. The Cotswolds-based firm was established in 2016 by the Irish billionaire Sir David McMurtry, who made his fortune from the Renishaw engineering company that he co-founded.

After a further year of testing and upgrades, the car returned this year and was a clear winner in the Hillclimb shootout out as Richard Leitz’s Porsche 718 GT4 ePerformance came in second with 45.5sec time, while in third was the F2 March 782 driver by Ben Mitchell – he clocked a 45.6sec.

The ‘Bud Light’ Group C Jaguar XJR-12D of Justin Law came in fourth on a 45.8sec, as the top five was rounded out by Travis Pastrana, whose custom 860bhp Subaru GL Family Huckster set a time of 46.3sec on the hill.