The Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK is temporarily becoming a key occasion for electric cars, but this year has been memorable. An electric vehicle broke the record for the mythical mountain climb, which had existed since 1999. how electric cars are about to make fossil fuels obsolete, even at the peak of the performance of four-wheeled technology.
Goodwood’s previous official record was set in 1999 via a McLaren MP4/13 Formula 1 driven by Nick Heidfeld. It was the car that won the Formula 1 championship in 1998 at the hands of Mika Häkkinen, so its functionality is indisputable. It’s also telling that an unofficial all-electric Volkswagen ID. R race in 2019 also broke McLaren’s record, but Sunday’s official race due to rain prevented him from repeating his qualifying prowess in the actual race, so his speed is not in the record book.
The McMurtry Spéirling is, in fact, an exclusive vehicle. When I first met her at the Salon Prive at London’s Blenheim Palace in 2021, I first thought it was a toy car for children inspired by the Batmobile. But a long verbal exchange with the general manager of The Company made me realize that his intentions were serious. The Spéirling was designed to dispel all myths about electric racing cars, creating a production car that can take on the most productive fossil fuel cars and win.
The genius of the Spéirling is not only that it is electric. It also has a ventilation formula (which was used in Formula 1 for some time before being banned) to suck the car into the road and supply downforce even when the vehicle is driving at high speeds. low speeds. Enthusiasts can supply 2000 kg when stationary, which compensates for the fact that the Spéirling weighs less than 1000 kg. So, you get the traction of a heavier car without the impulse penalty. kg, so turns can be taken at an incredible maximum speed. Watching the video of Spéirling’s Goodwood race, many viewers said they thought the video had accelerated because the car’s ability to change direction and hold corners was ridiculously fast and accurate.
Since the McMurtry has 1,000 hp, its strength-to-weight ratio is 1:1 and the car can reach 60 mph in less than 1. 5 seconds. That’s huge, contemplating a Formula 1 or IndyCar will take more than 2. 5 seconds for the same sprint. Formula 1 cars, however, have an even greater strength-to-weight ratio. The minimum weight for a 2022 F1 is 798 kg and the engine power exceeds 1000 hp (the exact figure for the current season is a trade secret). Therefore, this would generate a force-to-weight ratio of 1. 25:1, previous F1 cars are even better, up to 1. 4:1 in 2016. However, they cannot decrease the force at low speeds, which is where Speirling’s ventilation formula gives you a huge advantage. However, even when F1 cars had active ventilation formulas, they were not driven as fast as Speirlings because fossil fuel engines cannot supply their torque immediately, unlike gasoline-powered electric motors. battery.
The Spéirling is also meant to make competitive racing distances viable for an electric vehicle. Its 60 kWh battery can last 30 to 60 minutes of race-level driving and the car would aid fast DC charging of up to six hundred kW, meaning it can also simply charge from 0 to 100 percent in about six minutes. This would possibly not make it competitive for a 24-hour race like Le Mans (or possibly it would be. . . ), but it would be to have a series of Spéirling in front of Spéirling with refuelling stops like in Formula 1.
Recently, I wrote about a hydrogen hypercar, the Viritech Apricale. In theory, this car (which also aims for a weight of 1000 kg and a total maximum power of 1207 hp) will have an even more wonderful power-to-weight ratio, close to that of an F1 car. In addition, the much-vaunted “oil-like” refueling, in theory, would make a car like this offer a racing experience similar to that of a fossil-fuel racing vehicle. It would be wonderful to see the Apricale, when it comes to reality, it collides with the Spéirling. There are some questions about whether he would win, despite his weight and power advantage.
It is striking that it does not have the fan system, which would give unfair merit to the Spéirling. But there is some other problem. Two-thirds of Apricale’s strength comes from its 6 kWh battery and only one-third from its hydrogen fuel cell. Just as F1 cars temporarily lack KERS-enhanced acceleration, Apricale’s battery will also be temporarily depleted, with some estimating it only having about 30 seconds of sharp acceleration. Then you have the hydrogen force of 402 hp, which will not provide you with such impressive performance.
However, the evidence of this functionality will be in consumption. We’ll have to see how it behaves when it actually arrives. The Apricale is not a racing car but a high-functionality road car, although it is used in racing. We may have the right balance between the battery and the mobile fuel for the intended use, and we will have to wait until the car is available to test it to be safe.
However, so far, McMurtry Spéirling has shown that fully battery-powered electric cars can pose a serious challenge to fossil fuel racing cars, breaking the record for a hilltop climb of an F1 car in more than 2. 5 seconds. Like an advertisement about how electric cars are boring cars for environmentalists, delivered to the shovel. With much more electric vehicle progress on the horizon, especially in battery technology, this too is just the beginning of wonderful things.