New Top Gear magazine out now: McMurtry vs the TG test track

How often does a truly revolutionary car come along? We’re not talking about a next-gen sports car with incremental clicks to power, downforce and lap time, or a supermini with new flip up seats. 

Forget the road less travelled, these are the cars that turn hard left into the undergrowth by approaching styling, software, handling, propulsion, infrastructure and/or packaging in a way as yet unseen.

Please make your way to the stage, Toyota Prius. Yes, the Honda Insight technically got there first, but it never caught on like the Prius, which brought fuel efficiency and a green glow to the masses. 

When it comes to EVs, many laid the path for the revolution that’s underway but the Tesla Model S proved they could be fast, sexy and practical, controlled by constantly updated software and capable of proper roadtrips, thanks to a dedicated Supercharger network. 

Speaking of Tesla, does the Cybertruck deserve a seat at the table? Probably not, because while its pyramid of stainless steel is the wildest car design since the Countach, underneath it’s a fairly ordinary EV pickup. Not that ordinary is a deal breaker, because before the Nissan Qashqai there were simpler times, when saloons were saloons and hatchbacks were hatchbacks, and then suddenly everything was a crossover fusion with something else.

The Holy Hypercar Trinity – Porsche 918, LaFerrari, McLaren P1 – arrived in a cloud of tyre smoke in 2013 and showed that electricity didn’t just make cars quiet and quite heavy, it could be harnessed to support combustion engines to ballistic effect. And then the Rimac Nevera came along and proved if you ditched the engine altogether quite ludicrous performance figures and infinite torque vectoring possibilities were at our fingertips. We could nominate the Audi Quattro for bringing 4WD to rallying, the original Range Rover for suggesting off-roaders could be luxurious too, the Austin Mini for services to packaging and the Ford Mustang for bringing power to the people. 

But even in such exalted company, the McMurtry Spéirling stands alone. Sure, it uses an underbody fan concept that’s been around for decades, but by pairing it with the knockout punch of an EV powertrain and wrapping it in bodywork barely bigger than a shoe, it looks and goes unlike anything we’ve ever driven here at TG. 

Want to know what it’s like? Join the fan club by picking up a copy of the latest issue of Top Gear magazine. You can click here to order online and have it delivered direct to your door. Or perhaps you’d like even more from TG? You can start a subscription today and get five issues for just £5. Bargain. Click here to take advantage.