The long-standing question of whether a Formula 1 car can drive upside down using only downforce has fueled debate for decades. But no one wondered if the McMurtry Spéirling could do it until now. And as it turns out, it absolutely can.
Over the past year, the McMurtry Spéirling Pure VP1 has made a name for itself by not only breaking lap records at nearly every track it visits but obliterating them. In April 2025, it shattered the Top Gear Test Track record with a lap time of 55.9 seconds, beating a Renault R24 F1 car by more than three seconds. In August 2024, it reset the EV benchmark at Laguna Seca with a time of 1:18.413, nearly six and a half seconds faster than the previous best. A few months earlier, in June 2024, it became the fastest non-F1 car to lap the Hockenheimring by more than 14 seconds, with a 1:24.43 lap. And in April 2024, it broke the Castle Combe Circuit lap record by over four seconds, beating the best effort of a Formula 3 car with a 54.559.
As for acceleration, it moves from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 1.40 seconds, and hits 100 mph in only 2.63 seconds. To put that into perspective, it’s 0.45 seconds faster to 60 than the Rimac Nevera and 0.37 seconds faster to 100 than the Bugatti Chiron. It’s not just quick — it’s absurd.
To test if the Spéirling could drive while completely inverted, McMurtry built a rotating rig. Driver Thomas Yates rolled onto the platform, the entire system flipped the car upside down, and Yates calmly crept forward a foot or two with all four wheels off the ground and above his head. After pausing for dramatic effect, the rig righted the car, and the Spéirling drove off — engine screaming, tires spinning, sunset blazing. There were no tricks involved (at least none visible), and certainly no need for magnets. Just raw engineering.
This isn’t the old hypothetical about F1 cars driving upside down at high speed. The Spéirling doesn’t rely on wings to create downforce — it uses twin electric turbines spinning at 23,000 RPM, sucking air from underneath the car and blasting it out the back, creating vacuum-like grip. This fan system produces over 4,400 pounds (2,000 kilograms) of downforce, even at zero miles per hour, on a vehicle that weighs less than 2,700 pounds (1,200 kilograms), including the driver. It’s like a slot car on steroids.
Meanwhile, Scott Mansell (known as Driver61) is still working on “Project Inversion,” which aims to build a long tunnel where a car can drive upside down purely from aerodynamic downforce. However, F1 cars aren’t built to run inverted due to fuel and lubrication systems, so the test vehicle will be a modified electric Empire Wraith. That means the original F1 dream remains unfulfilled — but the McMurtry went ahead and did it anyway.
With its insane acceleration, vacuum-like grip, and now this gravity-defying stunt, the McMurtry Spéirling is proving itself not only as one of the fastest electric vehicles ever built, but also one of the most outrageous.
What they do next is anyone’s guess, but it’ll probably be loud, fast, and unforgettable.
Source: McMurtry Automotive
