I don’t know if a single McMurtry Spéirling post has ever done well traffic-wise, but this thing is so cool, even the editors don’t care. If we see Spéirling news, we post Spéirling news. I mean, we’re talking about a 1,000-horsepower EV that looks like a Hot Wheels car, runs the quarter-mile in less than eight seconds and uses a Chaparral 2J–inspired active downforce system to destroy records.
And while other cars have allegedly generated enough downforce to drive upside down, no one had actually done it until a few weeks ago when McMurtry demonstrated that not only could the Spéirling drive upside down, it could also hang upside down while stationary. That’s so awesome, I barely even care that it costs at least $1 million. I mean, there are plenty of other cars out there that cost more than the Spéirling, and not a single one of them can suspend itself from the ceiling like a vampire bat.
So, how does the Spéirling actually do it? The best I’ve got is that fans make suction, and suction makes the car stick. I may have gotten into Georgia Tech, but it was clear by the third time I had to take Calc 1 that math really wasn’t my thing. Thankfully, our friend Jason Fenske actually does understand math, and he’s here to do what he does best — explain engineering.
Understanding the science
As we all know and have already explained to many of our friends, who no longer think we’re weird for being obsessed with a tiny, obscure British car, the fan system creates a pressure differential that forces the car closer to the ground. And in order to calculate the potential downforce the Spéirling has at its disposal, you need more than just the pressure. You also need to know the surface area that pressure is acting on. That means taking the difference in the pressure on the top versus the pressure on the bottom of the car and then multiplying it by the surface area. That’s just basic math.
Aaaand that’s about where my “rewording what Jason said so I sort of almost sound like I understand what I’m talking about” skills end. So, instead of attempting to summarize more of the video, I’m just going to pressure you to watch the video. Get it? Pressure? It’s a pun. I may be bad at math and science, but I’ve got jokes. Anyway, you’re the one who clicked on a post that made it clear a video was involved, and you weren’t getting a full explanation in the text, so really, if you don’t click the video, that’s on you.
On the other hand, it’s Monday morning, and you’re already browsing Jalopnik instead of working. A 17-minute video about a suction car is exactly what you need right now. And when you’re done with work for the day, you’ll be able to share everything you learned at happy hour. If your friends and/or coworkers don’t love that, then you need better friends and/or coworkers.
