Hoopty

If there was ever a car that looked like it was designed by a caffeinated 12-year-old with a working knowledge of physics and a grudge against air resistance, it’s the McMurtry Spéirling. It’s tiny. It’s electric. It sounds like a vacuum cleaner eating a jet engine. And now, in a move that makes both sense and absolutely none at all—it’s driven upside down. On purpose.

Let that marinate for a second. This pint-sized EV didn’t just defy gravity—it mocked it. Like, Newton-who? mockery.

The McMurtry boys took this insane idea and asked, “Hey, remember when we said this thing makes 4,000 pounds of downforce at 0 mph? Wanna see what that looks like…on the ceiling?”

And then they did it.

Fan Car Royalty: A Follow-Up to Sucker Legends

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Over at HOOPTY we already dropped a fan-car rabbit hole in this article where we got into the wild history of suction-enhanced speed demons—from Chaparral’s 2J to the Brabham BT46B. And if you haven’t read it, go back and treat yourself. There’s even a brief moment where F1 had to collectively say “Okay, that’s enough sucking.”

But while those early attempts were clever (and banned), the Spéirling has no time for rules. Because rules are for people who can’t drive on the ceiling of a tunnel at 80 mph with their hair still somehow blowing in the wind.

How the Hell Did They Pull This Off?

The short version? Fans. Stupid-powerful fans.

The Spéirling has a pair of axial fans in the rear that create a vacuum under the car so intense it could probably slurp the paint off a Miata following too closely. Unlike a traditional wing, which needs airspeed to work, the Spéirling’s fans start working the moment the car turns on—pushing it down harder than your mom pushes “you should really settle down” at family dinners.

When the fans are running full-tilt, this thing generates more than double its own weight in downforce at a standstill. That’s more than enough to hold it to the ceiling of a tunnel like a gecko with a rocket strapped to its back.

So naturally, someone said, “Okay… prove it.”

The Upside Down Test

In a custom-built tunnel with a circular loop and a whole lot of insurance paperwork no doubt involved, McMurtry engineers strapped pro driver Alex Gassman (because of course his name sounds like a Marvel stuntman) into the Spéirling and flipped the script—literally.

Starting on the floor, he built up speed and then seamlessly transitioned to the wall, then the ceiling, and back down like it was just another Tuesday. It wasn’t some sketchy half-loop either. We’re talking full 360° ceiling-hugging glory. With zero reliance on speed-generated aero. Just the fans doing what they do best: sucking the car to the surface like a demented barnacle.

What’s It Like Driving a Batmobile on Steroids?

Besides violating physics? It’s fast. It’s silent-ish. And it’s aggressive in a way that makes a Hellcat look like a therapy dog.

The Spéirling set the Goodwood Festival of Speed record back in 2022 with a 39.08-second hill climb, beating out million-dollar hypercars like they were stuck in eco mode. This thing sprints. No gears, no lag, just fan-induced launch madness that hits 60 in under two seconds and keeps pulling like a freight train made of magnets.

And now, it’s added “ceiling driving” to its resume.

But… Why?

Great question. The answer is equal parts “because we can,” “to prove a point,” and “because race car.” But if you squint, it’s also an engineering mic drop. A flex. A way to say, “Our tech works so well we had to invent new stunts just to keep it interesting.”

More importantly, it opens the door to the kind of innovations we only used to see in banned prototypes or F1 loopholes. If EVs can achieve grip independent of airspeed, the game changes—for motorsports, for track toys, maybe even for road cars. You want full throttle out of a hairpin in the rain? Fans can help with that. You want an electric car that corners like it’s magnetized to the Earth’s crust? Boom.

Or, I dunno… maybe we’re just a few years away from vertical racetracks. I’m not saying NASCAR on a hamster wheel is the future—but I’m not not saying it either.

McMurtry: The Future of Sticking It

It’s rare that something this weird ends up being this right. The Spéirling isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a carbon-fiber, EV-powered, fan-assisted torpedo redefining what “grip” can mean. And while other carmakers are still trying to figure out how to make touchscreens suck less, McMurtry is out here making entire vehicles do just that. Literally.

So yeah. The Spéirling drove upside down.

Suck it, gravity.