Latest news with #RenaultR24
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
The Weird British Electric Sucker Car Is Faster Than An F1 Car Around The Top Gear Track
Just over twenty years ago Top Gear's famed Stig drove Fernando Alonso's Renault R24 Formula 1 car around the show's test track in a blistering 59 seconds. That lap was over 20 seconds clear of the Ferrari Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT, and Mercedes SLR McLaren, which had previously held the fastest times of the era. Just a few weeks ago the non-race-car record at Dunsfold was set when Stiggy took an Aston Martin Valkyrie for a rip in 1:09.6. This week, however, the outright lap record has been stolen, again by a British supercar manufacturer, but of a completely different kind. What kind of supercar could possibly be quicker than an F1 car? How about the single-seater electric sucker car from startup McMurtry Automotive, named after an Irish thunderstorm? Yeah, that one. With more than enough downforce to drive upside-down, and all the electric power needed to run a quarter mile in the sevens, McMurtry's Spéirling pretty much redefines fast when it comes to seven-figure hypercars. There's nothing else on the planet like this lilliputian face-melting high-speed mech suit, and this Top Gear track record simply extends the car's already prodigious legend status. If Formula One is the pinnacle of speed, then McMurtry has climbed to the top and planted its flag in just a few short years. If this had happened at Top Gear's peak Clarkson would have lost his tiny mind and assaulted a producer. Read more: These Are The Cheap Cars That Consumer Reports Actually Recommends Buying Nobody in 2004 could ever have predicted that the F1 car record would be surpassed, nay obliterated, by an electric car. Think back to 2004 and try to imagine what the world of electric cars looked like. There was no Tesla, no Nissan Leaf even. The idea of using electricity to make a car faster was still a long ways off. The sportiest hybrid available at the time was a Honda Accord. If you took a time machine back 21 years and told them an electric car was quicker than an F1 car around any race track, you'd be carted off to the stocks and pelted with rotten fruit in the public square. The Renault R24 was among the fastest Formula 1 cars of all time, fighting with Ferrari and Michael Schumacher in their prime and pushing Jarno Trulli to a Monaco Grand Prix victory. Its V10 scream was signature and for two decades it has reigned over the Top Gear track as its king. Today that throne is in shambles, pulverized by a tiny zippy electric machine that sounds like a weasel wearing a jet pack. We're in the golden age of performance, and the McMurtry Spéirling is the new benchmark. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
BBC News
12-04-2025
- Automotive
- BBC News
Top Gear driver The Stig breaks 20-year-old lap record in Surrey
Top Gear's anonymous racing driver The Stig has broken a 20-year-old record for the fastest lap around the BBC motoring show's test track in Stig completed the 1.75-mile (2.8km) figure of eight circuit at Dunsfold Aerodrome in 55.9 seconds in a McMurtry Speirling Pure VP1 electric track car, beating the previous record by 3.1 new lap time broke the 2004 record of 59 seconds in a Renault R24 Formula One car, also set by The Stig, who has been portrayed by a number of Rix, editor of Top Gear, said: "Being there to witness a 20-year-old lap record being shattered – one we thought was untouchable – was an incredible moment." He added: "It's a record that might never be broken, unless any F1 teams are feeling brave?"The lap record is part of BBC Studios' new Top Gear YouTube series Stig Laps, where the unknown racer attempts to break lap records on the Top Gear test track in some of the world's fastest and rarest Yates, co-founder and managing director of McMurtry Automotive, added: "Achieving the fastest lap ever on this legendary circuit is an immense achievement." Additional reporting by PA Media.
