39.08! McMurtry fan car breaks Goodwood Hill RECORD! | Festival of Speed 2022
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a striking demonstration of fan-downforce EVs, with a run that looks glued to the track and almost sped up.
What it is
A short clip of the McMurtry Speirling fan car setting a new Goodwood Hill record of 39.08 seconds at the 2022 Festival of Speed, driven by Max Chilton. It beat the previous timed shootout record set in 1999 and the outright record held by the VW ID.R.
Recommended by 3 HN commenters across 3 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec fanatic2pope · 2025-04 · on “Drag racers are ditching superchargers for scuba-style tanks and compressed air”
AFAIK the fastest "production" EV is the McMurtry "Spéirling" that does a quarter mile in under 8 seconds. Watching it set the record for goodwood is mind blowing, because it looks like the video is being played in fast forward, but it isn't. [this video] Although you can in theory buy one, it uses down force fans so I don't know if it would even be street legal in most places. Personally, I find car like this to be way more interesting than drag racers.
Recommends macmac · 2022-12 · on “How the McMurtry Electric Fan Car Clocked a 7.9-Second Quarter-Mile”
I think the hill climb record at Goodwood this summer was even more impressive. That thing looks like it is glued to the track. Check out a few other cars doing the climb and you will see a noticeable difference. [this video]
Recommends sokoloff · 2023-09 · on “New world record with an electric racing car: From 0 to 100 in 0.956 seconds”
Fans (no pun intended) of sucker cars are likely to be interested in the Goodwood record setting run by the McMurtry Speirling car. [this video]
Cites themitigating · 2022-12 · on “How the McMurtry Electric Fan Car Clocked a 7.9-Second Quarter-Mile”
The track was wet and it's common practice to warm up tires before racing or drag racings. This number on a street legal (or technically soon to be street legal) car is insane. That 1.4 includes rollout compare that to a Tesla Plaid which does it in 2.3 seconds (the 1.99 seconds is only possible if you exclude rollout). The McMurtry Spéirling broke the Goodwood hill climb record this year. [this video]
Cites fanatic2pope · 2025-06 · on “All-wheel drive EVs at 210 MPH? Formula E's next car gets upgrade”
EVs can sound very different than that. A good example of this is the McMurtry goodwood run where the car sounds like a space ship going to warp, in the best possible way. [this video]
Cites tim333 · 2025-10 · on “BYD builds fastest car”
I was watching the U9 speed record and the driver only really puts his foot down for 20 seconds or so. I doubt the car can sustain that power for a whole lap without something going wrong - overheating or flat battery or something. The downforce to weight ratio is quite different between the U9 and Porsche also. Apparently the Porsche weighed 850kg and probably produced as much as that or more in downforce. The U9 is more like 2500kg and not especially downforce orientated. There's another eclectic design though, the McMurty that laps thing faster than petrol cars due to having a fan up the downforce [this video] I don't think it has a Nurburgring time yet.