Another day, another obliteration of a lap record by the McMurtry Speirling. Quite the little car, in case you hadn’t already heard. Following the Hockenheim run in June and its Goodwood hillclimb record, the Speirling has now lapped Castle Combe. In less than a minute.
54.559 seconds, to be precise, which is phenomenal for a 1.85-mile track. The previous record, set by an F3 car in 2021, was 58.596; the fastest a GT3 car has been around Combe is 1:04.355 - that was a Lamborghini Huracan in 2022. Sure, it was a testing lap and there’s no official claim, but it’s a staggering achievement nonetheless. Especially when you consider that the Speirling was still only running at 80 per cent power with a 155mph speed limit. So there’s even more to come.
As McMurtry’s local circuit, just half an hour from its Gloucestershire base, a lap time has apparently been the subject of many a discussion with locals of late. The Speirling has been testing there since 2021, and Validation Prototype 1 clocked 55.4 during a test back in April with Max Chilton behind the wheel. Racking up the record times is Mr Chilton. He said the time “demonstrates the potential in the car for our customers to achieve the same at their local or favourite circuits.” Feels like traffic might well be a problem on any track day the McMurtry does, given it’s substantially faster than an F3 car already, but let’s hope people try. The marshalls won’t know what to make of it.
Next on the McMurtry trail is Monterey car week, where it will hope to add to its hillclimb record with the Laguna Seca reverse corkscrew hillclimb, being held on the 10th and 11th. Again Chilton will be at the wheel, and it’d be a very brave person to bet against the 1,000hp spaceship. They might even sell one or two off the back of it - £895,000 plus taxes and delivery is a snip by Monterey standards.
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