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Title: An Electric Racecar Drives Upside Down

Link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/14/0542...

Formula One cars, the world's fastest racecars, need to grip the track for
speed and safety on the curves - leading engineers to design cars that create
downforce. And racing fans are even told that "a Formula 1 racecar generates
enough downforce above a certain speed that it could theoretically drive
upside down," writes the automotive site Jalopnik. "McMurtry Automotive
turned this theory into reality after having its Speirling hypercar complete
the impressive feat..." Admittedly, the Speirling's success can be solely
attributed to its proprietary 'Downforce-on-Demand' fan system that produces
4,400 pounds of downforce at the push of a button... For those looking to do
the math, Speirling weighs 2,200 pounds. With the stopped car's fan whirling
at 23,000 rpm, the rig was rotated to invert the road deck... Then, the
hypercar rolled forward a few feet before stopping while inverted. The rig
rotated the road deck back down, and the Speirling drove off like nothing
happened. The McMurtry Speirling, as a 1,000-hp twin-motor electric hypercar,
didn't have to clear the other hurdles that an F1 car would have clear to
drive upside down. Dry-sump combustion engines aren't designed to run
inverted and would eventually fail catastrophically. Oil wouldn't be able to
cycle through and keep the engine lubricated. The car is "an electric monster
purpose-built to destroy track records," Jalopnik wrote in 2022 when the car
shaved more than two seconds off a long-standing record. The "Downforce-on-
Demand" feature gives it tremendous acceleration - in nine seconds it can go
from 0 to 186.4 mph (300 km/h), according to Jalopnik. "McMurtry is working
towards finalizing a production version of its hypercar, called the Speirling
PURE. Only 100 will be produced."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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