McMurtry brought the production Spéirling PURE to California this week, and we got to stand next to one at Canepa two days before the public does. It is 40 inches tall, weighs 2,980 lbs, makes 1,000 hp through one rear axle, and generates 4,400 lbs of downforce while sitting perfectly still.
The global public debut is at The Quail on Friday, August 14, with a Laguna Seca appearance at the Monterey Motorsports Reunion on Saturday, August 15. Here is what the car actually is, what the week holds, and the import question every US buyer is going to ask.
The Spéirling PURE runs twin underbody fans that spin to 23,000 rpm behind a sealing skirt. That combination pulls up to 2,000 kg of downforce out of the ground at zero mph, which is why McMurtry keeps repeating that the car could theoretically drive upside down. There are two fans rather than one for redundancy, so a single failure still leaves a meaningful amount of grip.
The performance figures follow from that. 190 mph top speed. Three g under cornering and braking, which is Le Mans Hypercar territory in a car you can buy.
The production version carries a 100 kWh pack, up from the prototype's 60 kWh, and the wheelbase grew almost 8 inches to 86.6 to make room for it. McMurtry says roughly 95% of the parts are new against the prototype, including a new carbon monocoque, new Helix motors, hydraulic power steering, and a swan neck wing.
This car has history at the track it visits Saturday. In August 2024, driver Philip Kadoorie ran a 1:18.413 at Laguna Seca during a ten minute public display, on 50% power and 50% downforce. The same weekend the car set the Reverse Corkscrew Hillclimb record at 21.958 seconds with Max Chilton driving.
The rest of the record book is similar. 39.08 seconds up the Goodwood hillclimb in 2022. 55.9 seconds around the Top Gear test track in April 2025, which broke a 21 year old record by 3.1 seconds. 1:24.43 at Hockenheim on 75% power, nearly four seconds under the fastest DTM qualifying lap.
Every one of those times belongs to the prototype. The production PURE is a different machine, and McMurtry says roughly 95% of its parts are new.
That is the interesting tension heading into Saturday. The record car was lighter and smaller and still had half its performance in reserve. The production car has more usable energy, more grip on demand, and a lot more mass to slow down. McMurtry has not published a production-car lap time anywhere.
McMurtry's release describes Saturday as a display. Given what happened the last time they brought a car to Laguna Seca for a display, we would get there early.
Production is capped at 100 units. Pricing is £995,000, or about $1.3 million before taxes, shipping, and options, with roughly 25 reservations confirmed at the reveal. The cars are built at McMurtry's facility in Wotton-under-Edge, England, at a target of two per month, and customer deliveries begin later in 2026.
Ownership is designed to work without a race team. McMurtry says a driver and one competent friend can run the car, with optional factory support available. Michelin S8M slicks run $800 to $900 each. It is eligible for GT1 Sports Club, Global Time Attack in the US, and Time Attack Masters in Europe.
The Spéirling PURE is not street legal and does not claim to be. That makes the import path simpler than people expect.
Our guide to importing electric and hybrid vehicles covers the road-legal side of that process. One thing people miss: duty classification is a separate conversation and worth sorting before the car ships, not after it lands. The box is easy. The paperwork sets the schedule.
McMurtry has said a road-legal car is technically viable. Nothing has been announced.
Air freight charges on the greater of actual weight or volumetric weight. At roughly 3.8 by 1.8 by 1.02 meters, the Spéirling crates out to about 7 cubic meters, which works out to around 1,175 volumetric kilos. Its actual weight of 1,350 kg is higher, so it flies on the real number. A Lamborghini Revuelto is 11.7 cubic meters and charges close to 1,950 volumetric kilos.
The 40 inch roof height matters too. Lower deck cargo holds on widebody aircraft cap out around 160 cm, so the Spéirling loads on a standard pallet with a cradle and still clears the ceiling. It never needs a main deck freighter position, which is where hypercar air freight quotes usually go sideways.
Ocean works in its favor as well. Three of them fit nose to tail inside a 40 ft high cube with room to strap.
The fastest thing at Monterey this week is also one of the least expensive to put on a plane. That is not a sentence we get to write often.
No. The Spéirling PURE is a track-only car with no FMVSS certification and cannot be registered or plated in any US state. It enters the country on an HS-7 Declaration under Box 8 as a vehicle not manufactured primarily for use on public roads, supported by a manufacturer's letter.
A purpose-built race car enters on an HS-7 Declaration under Box 8, with a manufacturer's statement confirming it was built for competition rather than road use. No advance NHTSA approval is required. EPA Form 3520-1 covers it under the Code L racing vehicle exclusion, which bars registration for public road use.
The Spéirling PURE starts at £995,000, or roughly $1.3 million before taxes, shipping, and options. Production is capped at 100 cars built at McMurtry's Wotton-under-Edge facility in England at a target rate of two per month, with customer deliveries beginning later in 2026.
The prototype ran 1:18.413 at Laguna Seca in August 2024 with Philip Kadoorie driving, on 50% power and 50% downforce. The fastest homologated production car time at the circuit is the Koenigsegg Sadair's Spear at 1:24.16, set on November 6, 2025. McMurtry has not published a lap time for the production car.
McMurtry says roughly 95% of the parts are new. The battery went from 60 kWh to 100 kWh, the wheelbase grew almost 8 inches to 86.6, and the body is about 11% longer and 14% wider. The car gained close to 1,000 lbs, reaching 2,980 lbs, on a new carbon monocoque with new Helix motors.
The production Spéirling PURE makes its global public debut at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering on Friday, August 14, 2026, then appears at Laguna Seca Raceway for the Monterey Motorsports Reunion on Saturday, August 15. McMurtry co-founder Thomas Yates is attending both.
An electric vehicle ships by air as UN 3171, Class 9 dangerous goods, which adds declaration and handling requirements rather than physical restrictions. The pack does not need removal. The practical effect is on the documentation timeline, so filings should start well before the shipping date.