McMurtry Automotive is celebrating its tenth anniversary, marking a decade that has seen the British company go from a small engineering project to building one of the most unusual electric performance cars in the world.
The Gloucestershire-based manufacturer is best known for the McMurtry Spéirling, a tiny, single-seat electric hypercar that uses powerful fans to generate huge amounts of downforce.
To celebrate the milestone, McMurtry has released a short film looking back at how the company started, the challenges it faced and how the Spéirling eventually came together.
The business was founded in 2016 by the late Sir David McMurtry, an engineer and entrepreneur who wanted to create something different from the usual high-performance car.
Interestingly, the Spéirling wasn’t the original plan.
McMurtry’s first prototype, known as the D01, was a small all-wheel-drive electric sports car producing around 400bhp, with a 40kWh battery. The idea was to create something with the excitement of a superbike but on four wheels.
However, the company eventually changed direction and began developing a much more ambitious project.
That decision led to the Spéirling and its unusual fan-assisted downforce system.
Unlike conventional aerodynamic systems that rely heavily on airflow over the bodywork, McMurtry’s fans help create downforce even when the car is stationary. The system can generate up to 2,000kg of downforce, giving the lightweight electric machine exceptional grip.
Developing the technology took around three years, but the work paid off in spectacular fashion.
In 2022, the Spéirling made headlines at the Goodwood Festival of Speed when it completed the famous hillclimb in just 39.08 seconds, setting a new outright record.
The achievement put McMurtry firmly on the map and showed just how effective its unusual approach to performance could be.
Since then, the company has continued developing the car, moving from an experimental prototype towards a customer-ready production model.
The McMurtry Spéirling Pure has now been revealed in its production-ready form, with customers paying around £1 million before taxes for the track-focused machine.
McMurtry has also completed a new factory and grown its workforce to nearly 100 employees.
Speaking about the anniversary, co-founder and managing director Thomas Yates reflected on how far the company has come since its early days.
He explained that McMurtry started with just a handful of people and an ambition to build a car company. Ten years later, it has developed patented technology, assembled a much larger team and created a vehicle capable of breaking records.
For a relatively small British manufacturer, that’s quite an achievement.
The Spéirling has already shown what electric performance cars can do when engineers focus on grip, low weight and clever technology rather than simply adding more power.
And with its first decade behind it, McMurtry now has a production facility, a customer-ready hypercar and plenty of experience to build on.
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