During an exceptional four-day event, the biggest event of the year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed was breaking the outright hill climb record. Max Chilton, a former Formula 1 and IndyCar driver, drove McMurtry Spéirling up the 1.16 mile hill in 39.081 seconds.
Spéirling is electric The monster was built for the purpose of destroying tracking logs. The vehicle has a fan-assisted active downforce system that can generate more than 4,400 pounds of downforce, even at a standstill. The Spéirling weighs just under a ton and has nearly 1,000 horsepower, allowing the vehicle to go from 0 to 300 km/h (186.4 mph) in nine seconds.
The standard jog is amazing to watch the little machine darting over the narrow strip of pavement. There is no slowdown as the Spéirling circles the corners that line the top of the hill. The crowd gasped in astonishment as the fan car drove past each viewing area. With each cam cut, the Spéirling gets faster and faster until it blows across the finish line and carries a great deal of speed.
Previous full record from 39.9 seconds is set unofficially by Volkswagen IDR electric in 2019, with two-time Le Mans winner Romain Dumas behind the wheel. The record was unofficial because Dumas set the time during Saturday’s qualifying round, not Sunday during a proper shootout round.
Nick Heidfeld set the previous official record of 41.6 seconds on a 1998 McLaren MP4/13 during the 1999 Festival of Speed. Although the Heidfield track was official, the record is still held somewhat as an asterisk as Formula One cars can no longer run competitive races in time to climb the hill for safety reasons. Watching the Heidfeld race, it’s clearly evident how fast McMurtry Spéirling has cornering on a late ’90s F1 car.
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