Sports star Travis Pastrana has given the thumbs up to the McMurtry Spéirling prototype after driving the car on track.
Pastrana joined the McMurtry team for a day at Dunsfold ‘Top Gear’ circuit in England to drive the Spéirling prototype for the first time as he shot a film for his YouTube channel.
Despite having ridden and driven almost everything on two and four wheels, he described the experience as unlike anything he had driven before.
“Holy s***. That’s what I’m talkin’ about,” he said.
“You can do things you can’t do with any other vehicle . . . I’m going faster than I’ve gone in any vehicle I’ve ever driven in my entire life.”
McMurtry co-founder and managing director, Thomas Yates, first met Pastrana in 2021 when they were neighbours in the paddock at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Pastrana competed against McMurtry test driver Max Chilton when the Spéirling set the still unbroken record at the festival.
Yates said Travis has driven or ridden just about everything, so seeing his first reaction to fan-based downforce was epic.
“Travis was pushing the Spéirling straight away. We didn’t expect anything less!
“He was given the full 1000hp and 2000kg of downforce to pull some mega g-forces.
“Seeing my childhood (and current) hero enjoying our creation, and sharing tracktime with him on my racing quad, has been one of the most amazing and surreal days at work in my life.”
The Spéirling holds the outright lap record at Dunsfold, set in 2025 with a time of 55.9 seconds, beating the previous record held by the 2004 Renault F1 car by over three seconds.
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