During the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, history was made as British electric car manufacturer, McMurtry Automotive, set a new Hillclimb record. Former F1 driver Max Chilton completed the 1.16-mile track in a record-breaking 39.08 seconds in the McMurtry Spéirling.

Since then, the company has been working on further developing the Spéirling to improve performance, as well as working on other upcoming vehicles. To assist them on this journey McMurtry has partnered with battery innovation company, About:Energy, enabling McMurtry engineers to integrate data into designs and utilise simulations of battery packs to maximise efficient fast-charging and increase cycle-life performance.

We spoke with Kevin Ukoko-Rongione, chief engineer, McMurtry, and Kieran O’Regan, COO and co-founder, About:Energy, to learn more about the simulations taking place, and to discuss upcoming goals of the partnership.

Just Auto (JA): How did the partnership between the two companies come about?

Kevin Ukoko-Rongione (KU): We had been looking for a way to do some cell-testing and cell modelling and we were struggling in-house; we just didn't have the resources to do it - people would be dragged over on to something else. It was also hard for us to justify getting someone in dedicated to do cell-testing only.

I then came across About:Energy. Kieran initially reached out to me via LinkedIn. He posted something that someone shared and I thought ‘this this looks interesting’. I clicked on the link, went through to the website and I also forwarded the link to one of my colleagues, our head of battery systems. Kieran and I had a call. I thought it was exactly what we were looking for with our battery development work.

Kieran O’Regan (KO):  As a company, we have been very focused on high-performance industries. We've worked a lot with motorsport companies, tier one suppliers, automotive OEMs, satellite companies - there's a lot of shared experience in terms of trying to push the boundaries of battery technology.

McMurtry have been a company that we've been following for last few years, based on Goodwood records and other milestones. We did a blog on the McMurtry battery because we found it particularly interesting. A lot of that spotlighting technology was around the Molicel, the battery that's going into the McMurtry Spéirling today and that McMurtry is trying to upgrade to the new versions.

This is a popular cell within the broader industry. It appears in hoovers, aviation products and now motorsports vehicles, owing to its high-performance and its power and energy.

We're excited to work with McMurtry. Many of our customer relationships stay confidential, but we get to talk to the impact we make with McMurtry. Battery data and software is obviously interesting, but when you can visualize how that is impacting real applications and products, such as the McMurtry Spéirling, that is another level of cool. For us, it's great to support British engineering too, which in mass-market automotive is struggling in to find its place in electrification.

What does the partnership involve?

KO: We’re enabling a much faster design of products for McMurtry, that's centred around the battery. The way we really facilitate that process is through simulation.

McMurtry is a company that obviously uses simulation across the whole vehicle, from designing a chassis, a motor, or a battery. When it comes to batteries, it's kind of an obstacle in industry to do simulation cost-effectively. It takes a long time to get the data and it comes at a cost; you have to buy expensive labs and expensive equipment to really get the data you need to push the boundaries.

That's what we can support others with. With the battery that goes into Spéirling, we can use our labs and conduct all the testing. That testing relates to some of the main performance behaviours of the battery, which can be electrical, its voltage response, how that battery would be integrated into a pack.

McMurtry really wants to push the performance of the vehicle as much as possible.

To design something that's safe and long lasting, you need to understand how it thermally performs. You don't want a battery that goes into thermal runaway and you need to spec a system around those requirements.

McMurtry really wants to push the performance of the vehicle as much as possible. Using our models enables that, rather than relying on making module after module physically. They can use simulation to really understand how they can optimise the different parameters of the battery pack and its use.

KU: Our goal as a company is to create the best track experience possible for customers. We're developing a vehicle, a very high-performance vehicle, that is easy to use, easy to look after, and will give the customers a fantastic experience.

In terms of designing the best product possible, simulation is important because simulation is how we spec what components we use, what performance the car will have.

The simulation and the models we get from About:Energy are key for us to really be able to maximize the battery performance. If we're able to provide a pack that is well-suited for customer needs, a pack that is lighter than it would otherwise be, that will last longer and is safer, that is key for us. It helps us understand what the limits of that pack are, but also how to maximise life and how to how to make sure we end up with the best product at the end of the day.

How was this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed experience?

KU: We set the record two years ago, the official record and shoot-out of 39.08. I remember the very first year we went to Goodwood in 2021. A lot of people were walking past our stand, looking in, looking at the car saying: “What is this? Oh, an EV, I'm not interested.” And they would just walk away.

We were thinking perhaps this is not the right place for us.

The following year after we set the Hillclimb record and every year since the record, the reception has been amazing. People will come up to us and say: “I came here just to see this car this weekend.”

We're able to show that electric vehicles and battery technology can be exciting and are the future. Our goal was to try and change opinions on small electric vehicles and try and show that electric vehicles are exciting.

KO: I find automotive technology very interesting. It’s fantastic to see more of what's happening in automotive innovation. Obviously, I'm very attracted to battery technology. I think it's cool to see the electric vehicles – and obviously batteries are front and centre. But most supercars we saw at Goodwood also use batteries; most of the supercars are hybrid.

I think seeing the Spéirling in action for the first time was really exciting.

I find it really cool that battery technology is so important for maximising performance in something like the Spéirling or a Pagani. I think seeing the Spéirling in action for the first time was really exciting. I think as Kevin says, it's really important to have these showcases of fully electric technology. Tesla has been very effective to demonstrate that mass-market electric vehicles can compete with a BMW or an Audi.

I think the Spéirling is doing a great job to sort of say that a fully electric vehicle can compete with these or hybrid or combustion engine supercars. It’s faster than a Pagani, Ferrari or a McLaren, which I don’t think people would have thought to be possible - it’s very impressive.

Could you explain the fan technology the Spéirling uses?

KU: It produces a noise - it's not a quiet car – but it generates two tons of downforce. It sounds more like a jet.

Gordon Murray used a fan downforce system in F1 in 1978 on the Brabham BT46B. It dominated the Swedish Grand Prix, but was then withdrawn to maintain fairness in the paddock, and no-one's really looked at that technology since then.

Forty years later we thought, you know, why isn't anyone looking at this? It was an advantage that that was deemed to be not fair in racing – but for the ultimate track car, this concept would be perfect. 

What are some short- and long-term goals for each of you?

KO: The short-term aims for us with the collaboration is to deliver McMurtry all the data and simulation tools they need around the Molicel. Testing can take like months, even up to a year to collect all that data. We're doing these very complex tests, and some of it relates to degrading the cells over many months and years, to show how they would degrade in the Spéirling.

It gives users more confidence about the warranty, improved fast-charging and a better driving experience.

In the future we'll be trying to repeat that for every new cell that comes to the market. McMurtry and every company in the industry are really looking to adopt the latest technology and new cells that are on the market from the same supplier. We’re really trying to give McMurtry the tools to assess new technology and very quickly, especially cells from Molicel.

KU: In the short-term delivering customer vehicles, making sure they are reliable and provide a great experience.

Our long-term goals are to keep making more exciting vehicles, different types of vehicles, always high-end and at the peak of technology. We are also looking to commercialise our battery technology as well as our fan-based technology.