McMurtry Spéirling review

You notice it in your hands and forearms first, but it spreads quickly. In a matter of seconds your whole body has been inveigled, like a Marvel superhero going through a transformation – Peter Parker in the moments after being bitten by a spider or Bruce Banner on the point of becoming really rather put out. Except that unlike those characters, I don’t feel stronger or more agile; I just feel heavier.

I’ll put it another way; imagine holding a bucket and feeling the change in weight as someone pours water smoothly but quickly into it. Then imagine you’re the bucket. That’s the sensation as you hold the McMurtry Spéirling in a steady state turn and then twist the switch in the middle of the steering ‘wheel’. As the two fans behind you spin up to 19,000rpm and begin to suck the car to the tarmac with the help of the sealing skirts, you feel the steering weight-up and then the lateral g-forces build and build. And then build some more.

The first time it happened I really wasn’t prepared. Just trying to understand the weird physical transformation I was experiencing meant it was hard to do a relatively simple task like drive in a circle. And the Spéirling certainly isn’t difficult to drive, not in the technical sense. Being an EV it means that you have just two pedals and the steering to worry about. Yes, you have to left-foot brake, which might take some acclimatisation if you haven’t tried it before, but it’s not tricky.