McMurtry Spéirling sets new record at ‘home’ track, is 4s faster than an F3 car

The tiny Batmobile has been out beating lap times to a pulp again. This time, it’s whupped both a Formula 3 racer and GT3 car. Quietly, too.

Yes folks, the McMurtry Spéirling has broken another lap record, this time at its ‘home’ circuit of Castle Combe, eclipsing the previous record set by a Formula 3 car in 2021 by four seconds. That means it raced around the 1.85-mile track in 54.559s.

That time also puts very clear daylight between it and Castle Combe’s GT3 lap record set by a Lamborghini Huracán GT3 in 2022 by 9.796s. So that's nearly 10 seconds faster than a screaming, lightweight V10 supercar, and all this using just 80 per cent of its considerable punch.

“This is a fun milestone to achieve,” said McMurtry MD Thomas Yates. “It’s not every day you get to see a car and driver go so much faster than what’s gone before. Having tested at Castle Combe for years, it was about time we showed what the car can do around our local circuit.”

Driver of the day was of course, Max Chilton, who’s a dab hand at going so much faster than what’s gone before. He was responsible for piloting the 1,000bhp electric fan car when it absolutely smashed the Goodwood FoS hillclimb record (39.08s). And when it managed to go 14.1s faster than a Mercedes-AMG One hypercar at Hockenheim.

“Everyone wants bragging rights at their local circuit,” Chilton said, “and even running at 80 per cent power and with a 155mph speed limit, we’ve knocked four seconds off the outright track record.

“This demonstrates the potential in the car for our customers to achieve the same at their local or favourite circuits,” he added.

Of course, because while this particular car is the Spéirling validation prototype 1, McMurtry is offering the Spéirling ‘Pure’ as a £1m+ track-only speed machine available for purchase by mere mortals. And it'll be an 'improved' version of this record-breaking twin-motor fan car. Yeesh. 

Speaking of breaking records: next up on the hit list is Laguna Seca and the reverse corkscrew hillclimb.