Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah agree to a ceasefire after nearly 14 months of fighting
When the McMurtry Spéirling smashed the Goodwood Hillclimb record in mid-2022 , even die-hard lovers of internal combustion engines took notice. The video looked like it had been sped up, but it wasn’t. The Spéirling really can change direction like that without slowing down. Now this phenomenal race car is closing in on commercial availability, but it wouldn’t be ready for sale quite so soon without very clever battery testing technology from a company called About:Energy. I sat down with McMurtry and About:Energy to find out exactly how they brought such a fast car to market so quickly. The McMurtry Spéirling smashed the Goodwood Hillclimb record in 2022. McMurtry was the brainchild of Sir David McMurtry, who sadly passed away on 9 th December this year. He worked on the engines for the supersonic Concorde airliner, and then helped found the hugely successful Renishaw Plc. In 2024, he had a net worth of £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion). But in 2016, he wanted to start a car company. So he enlisted Thomas Yates, who worked with the Mercedes Formula 1 team during the Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg years, and Kevin Ukoko-Rongione, who was a design engineer at Williams Advanced Engineering (now Elysia, and part of the Fortescue group ). McMurtry Spéirling Brings Accessible Excitement “Our brief was to design the most exciting car that you can buy,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “When Tom and I developed Formula One cars, they were for professional racing drivers. You couldn't sell a Formula One car to a track day enthusiast or a normal human being and expect them to be able to drive it. We tried to make that level of performance accessible in a car that's easy to drive and maintain, without having a team of 14 people and years of driving experience.” Aside from having the immediate torque of an electric drivetrain, the other element giving the Spéirling its unparalleled capabilities is its fan suction system. “The minute you turn the car on the fans give you 2000kg of downforce right there and then, so you don't have to wait to build heat in your tires and your brakes,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “We also realized an electric powertrain really suits having a fan system and an easy-to-use track vehicle.” McMurtry expects the Spéirling to break many more records when the production car arrives. The Goodwood Hillclimb showed just how effective this system was. “The Spéirling that went up the hill at Goodwood and got the record was our proof of concept,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “We built it not fully knowing if it was going to help, but it surprised even us. It was just so controllable and easy to use having that 2000kg downforce and grip the whole way up the Hill. Having built a proof of concept, we realized we had something that we could develop as a customer vehicle. After the record, we started getting lots of calls from people asking when it would be available.” The 9 Best Mattresses For Side Sleepers, Tested By Our Sleep Editors The 45 Best Gifts Under $100, According To Our Shopping Editors McMurtry Spéirling Goes Commercial With PURE This shifted McMurtry’s focus towards turning the Spéirling into the PURE, a series car claiming 0-60mph in 1.55 seconds, an eight-second quarter mile, 3G cornering and a top speed of 185mph, from its 1,000hp electric motors. McMurtry began working with its battery partner, Molicel, to deliver these capabilities. “Molicel was the best high-performance cell maker at the time,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “But to make full use of the cell’s performance we realized that we needed lots of equipment, and a team dedicated to cell testing. It's quite a big investment, and that's when we came across About:Energy. Molicel told us they had a new cell coming out, the P50 which is going to be a significant improvement on what we've been using.” “The focus of About:Energy is around battery data and simulation,” says Kieran O’Regan, Co-Founder and COO of About:Energy. “Bringing new battery products to market is a very expensive process. Companies are trying to lean on new technologies and digitalization to speed that up. That's where About:Energy comes in. You need lots of battery data. In our labs, we spend 6-12 weeks, sometimes even longer, testing each new battery, and integrate that data into a digital twin , which companies can use to design their products.” About:Energy's battery models help speed up the pack development process. “The introduction to McMurtry came around 12 months ago,” continues O’Regan. “They’re switching from an older to a newer version of Molicel batteries to improve performance, with better power capability, better top speeds, better lifetime. But typically, that process can take two years.” “About:Energy was able to characterize the cell and understand its behavior at various states of charge,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “They built us a good model. They're also doing degradation testing, which will show us how this cell will behave over the years. We need to be able to tell customers how long they can use the car for on the track and how long it will take to recharge. This is helping us design the cooling and the battery management systems. We're using the data from About:Energy to feed into the design. It's early days. We haven't finished doing the full long life degradation testing, but the cells should last ten years, looking at previous data for the Molicel P45.” It’s very hard to estimate the usable life of a battery employed in an extreme application like racing, however. “When a cell manufacturer reports lifetime, it's in a very lab-oriented testing regime where you're just looking at constant current being applied to the cell and charge-discharge,” says O’Regan. “But no battery is used like that in the field, so what companies like McMurtry must do, as soon as they receive the cell, is test it to understand that lifetime and validate their warranty to their customers. It might take up to 18 months. We're able to centralize that testing.” McMurtry Spéirling: Building A Better Battery “We want to make sure that we are competitive with Formula E ,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “The next generation Formula E packs will be using the same cells that we'll be using in our car. Our core objective is developing a great car for customers but having spent so much time and effort developing a great battery pack, we're also looking to see if we can sell these batteries to other companies. This is why having the model from About:Energy is so critical and useful to us. Customers can tell us their duty cycle, their powertrain, and what they want to do with their car. We can then run that information through the About:Energy models and immediately say how the pack will behave.” “The modules we produce for our battery packs use the Mobicel P50, which is expensive” says Ukoko-Rongione. “If a customer likes the module but wants a cheaper cell for a higher volume application, we can now ask About:Energy to test 10 different cells and we'll get data back really quickly to find the right one for the cost targets and be able to tell the customer how that cell will perform using our technology.” About:Energy tests new battery cells to produce digital twin profiles. Right now, however, McMurtry’s focus is on delivering the Spéirling PURE commercially. While this was on show at the last Goodwood Festival of Speed, and was running up the Hillclimb, the timings were not recorded. “It wouldn't be fair on other people if we keep timing ourselves,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “The next step for us is delivering cars to customers. About:Energy is looking at the degradation, understanding how the battery life is affected by running the battery to high temperatures for extended periods. We’re trying to understand customer scenarios, and what effect these have on the battery, such as running in very cold weather conditions. We have customers in Canada who might be running the car at 5C and customers in the Emirates who might be running the car in 45C. The battery has a ten-year lifespan, which would be about 10,000km of high-performance track use.” McMurtry Spéirling Set To Arrive In 2025 The partnership with About:Energy has enabled McMurtry to target a 2025 timeframe for a production run of 100 units for the PURE. “We're planning the very first customer deliveries around the end of next year,” says Ukoke-Rongione. “We're expecting to start seeing cars breaking records all over the world! Our customers will be people who have been competing at a certain hill climb and want to win it and take the record. There are other people who just have their local track where they like to go and want to know what it's like to feel 3G in corners.” The car won’t be cheap – around £820,000 ($1 million) – but will deliver dominance customers are willing to pay for. “The customer is someone who wants a car where they can be confident that they can go to any track and be the quickest person there. It's easy to drive, it's incredibly fast, and it drives in a way that they would never have experienced before.” The PURE is a different vehicle to the Spéirling that broke the Goodwood record, better suited to end users. “With the Goodwood Hillclimb record, everyone assumed we had a really lightweight pack,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “But in fact, we had the full 60kWh battery pack. We didn't try and reduce the weight. In theory, you could have a lighter weight pack and go much quicker than we did. Our focus for the customer vehicle is to increase the battery capacity further. We're offering them 100kWh instead of 60 with a very small weight penalty. That's because the technology has improved a lot between the Molicel P50 and the P26 cells. We can get more energy without incurring much of a mass penalty.” The McMurtry Spéirling PURE will be arriving with customers in late 2025. The amount of time the car will last on track will depend on the setting the customer chooses. “If they want to drive at a similar pace to a GT3 car, they'll get a 20-minute stint quite comfortably,” says Ukoko-Rongione. “If they want to go closer to Formula 1 pace then the limit is not really the capacity of the battery, the limit is that everything in the car starts to get a bit too hot. You’ll get a couple of laps. There is a lower setting for people to do longer racing as well. Formula E cars will do 40-minute sessions, but they're not very quick. I'd rather do a 20-minute session, be incredibly fast and have a really engaging drive.” “About:Energy has allowed us to speed up the development of our vehicle and make sure it gets to customers earlier than it would have otherwise been possible,” concludes Ukoko-Rongione. “We’ve reduced the design process time by 70%, going from six months to one for concept development. If we were on this journey without About:Energy, we'd be starting at cell level testing, spending months purely on the cell, trying to read and understand its capabilities, after which we'd start to integrate it into module. Then we’d do more module level and full pack testing. What About:Energy has done is taken all the cell testing off our hands and completed it much more quickly, so we could go straight into module and battery pack development, cutting out of that whole initial phase.” Thanks to this accelerated development cycle, we can expect the McMurtry Spéirling PURE to start smashing local track records from the end of 2025.Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) is fed up with the mysterious drone sightings in her state that have begun to disrupt day-to-day operations. She's now calling on Congress to pass the Counter-UAS Authority Security, Safety, and Reauthorization Act after drones blocked any aircraft from taking off in Stewart Airport in New York's Hudson Valley for an hour. Hochul said the drone activity has "gone too far." DEMOCRATS SEARCH FOR ANSWERS AS BARACK OBAMA’S INFLUENCE WANES "This bill would reform legal authorities to counter-UAS and strengthen the FAA’s oversight of drones, and would extend counter-UAS activities to select state and local law enforcement agencies," she said in a statement . “Extending these powers to New York State and our peers is essential," she said. "Until those powers are granted to state and local officials, the Biden Administration must step in by directing additional federal law enforcement to New York and the surrounding region to ensure the safety of our critical infrastructure and our people." Assorted drones or Unmanned Aircraft Systems have been popping up all over the East Coast in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. It's not just citizens seeing them. Sen.-elect Andy Kim (D-NJ) posted a video of his sighting of a possible drone, and former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan did the same. MEET THE NEW CONGRESS: THE HOUSE AND SENATE FRESHMEN ELECTED TO SERVE NEXT YEAR Their origin is unknown, but it is believed that they do not originate from foreign sources. The bill Hochul mentioned, first introduced by Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), was placed on the House's Union Calendar Sept. 20 and has bipartisan support. Its co-sponsors include Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Sam Graves (R-MO), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Garret Graves (R-LA) and Seth Magaziner (D-RI). Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX), Chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement, and Intelligence, voiced his support for the bill earlier this month. “It’s imperative that we not only make sure that the current authorities are extended to protect our national security, but also work together to responsibly reform the current legal authorities that provide Federal agencies with critical tools to mitigate credible threats posed by UAS,” he said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing. Magaziner, ranking member of the subcommittee, concurred. “The time has come for Congress to expand the authority of Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to better utilize monitoring, tracking, and single jamming technologies to protect critical areas, including our borders, large public events, prisons, and sensitive government facilities, while also ensuring the civil liberties of drone operators,” he said. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER The drone activity has been splashed across the recent news cycle, with President-elect Donald Trump weighing in. “Mystery Drone sightings all over the Country. Can this really be happening without our government’s knowledge. I don’t think so! Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!! DJT,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post .Dow closes at record high, defying fears of panic sparked by Trump's tariff threat
The head of one of Canada’s largest banks says newcomers need support from all corners as “people are turning a little sour” on . , chief executive of e, said there’s a “lot of illegal migration” going around in the world, but the people who legally come to Canada as international students, temporary foreign workers or permanent residents “play by the rules” and it’s important to “treat them by the rules” going forward. “Immigrants are the lifeblood of our country,” the son of a refugee said at a Toronto event organized by the University of Waterloo. “Immigrants come here with hopes and dreams. Immigrants don’t want to come here to be demonized, and what we need to do is continue to work on supporting those immigrants so that they actually feel fully Canadian.” Immigration has traditionally played a key role in Canada’s economy. But public support for newcomers has declined in recent years amidst , primarily due to a jump in the number of international students and temporary workers, who are referred to as temporary residents by the government. A clear majority of Canadians feel that there’s for the first time in 25 years, according to a national survey published in October by research group Environics Institute and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Diversity Institute. Policy changes by the federal government made it easier to bring in temporary residents during the past two years in order to fill nearly one million job vacancies following the pandemic. But with the number of vacancies declining and the unemployment rate on the rise, Ottawa has taken steps in the past year to decrease the number of temporary residents entering the country. Overall, it aims to have a net reduction of a million temporary residents in the next two years. The federal government is also reducing the number of new permanent residents, people who eventually become Canadian citizens, by about 21 per cent to 395,000 in 2025 and 380,000 in 2026, from about 500,000 currently. Economists don’t expect these changes to completely resolve Canada’s housing crisis, but they could make home ownership more attainable as the government tries to get more housing built and interest rates decline. Economists also believe the decisions could boost productivity despite slowing the country’s near-term economic growth due to lower consumer spending. Dodig said Canada’s struggling productivity levels could also be boosted by investing in technology and attracting foreign investors. He said large corporate sectors such as telecom, banking and oil and gas are achieving productivity gains due to investment in technologies, and the government should follow suit. “Forty per cent of the economy in Canada is government,” Dodig said. “I think health care is probably leading, education is probably second and government is probably third in terms of using technology to advance the economic productivity of our country.” The head of CIBC also said small and medium-sized companies tend to “sell out too soon because we don’t allow people to get scale, because the capital is not there or the resources aren’t there to continue to innovate.” Dodig said Canada has no choice but to “move quickly” and get investors to put capital to work in the “private sector and get going.” He added that Canada needs to “work really hard” to create the conditions necessary to be considered a good place to invest, given that the United States is likely going to get even more attractive. “We have no choice to wring our hands and think about what we should be doing,” he said. “You may actually have to throw a few things at it to make it work, because some of them will work and some of them won’t work, but sitting and thinking about it is the wrong answer.”
