New 2022 Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 rewrites the supercar rule book

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Gordon Murray has unveiled his self-styled successor to the McLaren F1: the Gordon Murray Automotive T.fifty. The famed automotive engineer describes it as a legitimate analogue supercar and the best antidote to ever more major fashionable hypercars.

With 2020 marking the 50th 12 months of Professor Murray’s job, the T.fifty characteristics nods to his operate in car design and style and Formula One. It characteristics ground-impact aerodynamics and a bespoke V12 motor from Cosworth, even though all of the main elements have been sourced from British isles businesses.

This is our first good seem at the T.fifty. Only 100 will be generated, costing £2.36million just about every prior to taxes, and almost two thirds of the creation run has by now been sold.

Murray points out that the T.50’s design and style is an workout in purity, emphasising the absence of significant wings, flaps or vents, located on contemporary supercars and hypercars. As these types of, the small nose of the motor vehicle is smooth and unspoilt by a significant splitter or canards, and is reminiscent of the McLaren F1.

“It appears to be even far better than I hoped,” he advised us throughout a walkaround with the car. “There’s not a solitary surface area on this car that I’m not delighted with. It appears to be actually neat, and a massive adjust from the present crop of supercars. There looks to be a war to see who can make the most outrageous-searching car with swoops and ducts and wings. This one’s rather pure like the F1.”

Against the tape, the T.fifty is four,352mm extensive, 1,850mm wide – providing it a footprint which is a minor greater than a Volkswagen Golf’s – and 1,164mm tall. Crucially, excess weight is held beneath a single tonne, at 986kg with fluids. The chassis is bonded carbon-aluminium, even though the bodywork is carbon fibre.

On the other hand, the T.50’s most apparent revision more than the McLaren F1 is at the rear, exactly where a significant enthusiast capable of producing 15kg of downforce is located. It’s a nod to Prof Murray’s notorious BT46B Enthusiast Car that raced in the 1978 F1 season, and provides the T.fifty with legitimate ground-impact aerodynamics, devoid of the want for any significant wings or splitters. Murray unveiled to Auto Express that a twin-enthusiast arrangement was deemed throughout the McLaren F1’s advancement, but that time constraints ruled it out.

The drivetrain is another nod to analogue supercars of the past. Professor Murray has commissioned Cosworth to establish a higher-revving, in a natural way aspirated four.-litre V12 for the T.fifty creating 654bhp and up to 690bhp with ram induction. Highest ability is generated at 11,500rpm, with the redline set at twelve,100rpm.

The mid-mounted motor is fully on demonstrate in the motor bay, unobscured by covers. “This is these types of a killer motor Cosworth has accomplished. It’s so much in advance of just about anything else which is ever been generated in its excess weight, format, utmost revs and ability density. In distinct, the responsiveness is light-weight-years in advance,” Murray advised us.

No effectiveness figures have been unveiled just nevertheless in accordance to Murray, they aren’t the position of the T.fifty. “The reality of chasing top rated speeds only adds excess weight, notably through ever-more impressive engines, which boost the necessity for greater, heavier ancillaries. We are getting a extremely different tactic,” he spelled out.

Drive is sent to the rear wheels, and the T.fifty characteristics a bespoke 6-velocity guide gearbox designed by expert Xtrac. Quite a few travel modes have been confirmed, which includes a streamline environment that generates a ‘virtual longtail’, a higher-downforce manner to make the most of the fan’s ground impact, and a V-Max environment for top rated-velocity operates, employing ram induction to raise ability to 690bhp. Alternatively GT manner restricts the motor, creating the T.fifty more consumer-friendly.

The feature most reminiscent of the McLaren F1 is located inside of, with a 3-seat format positioning the driver centrally and in advance of two travellers. At the rear of the wheel is a rev counter flanked by two significant screens, and Murray claims a driver-oriented environment with simple, tactile controls. Creature comforts include things like a ten-speaker stereo, smartphone connectivity and a pair of screens alternatively of wing mirrors.

Gordon Murray Q&A

Gordon Murray released his car individually to media in advance of its reveal. Our deputy editor John McIlroy caught up with the famous designer – and the T.fifty.

Q: Why are you creating this variety of car – an oblique successor to most likely your most renowned creation, the McLaren F1?

A: “Well, if you seem back again, I truthfully never think anybody’s accomplished an F1 considering that the F1 – that much absolute aim on the driving satisfaction and the light-weight excess weight. And a car with no targets – no top rated velocity, -62mph or lap time at the Nürburgring to think of.

“There are loads of cars out there that are much more capable than the F1 – the turbos, the hybrids – but none of them offers me the backbone-tingling sensation that the F1 offers me. Some people today however say that you simply cannot defeat the driving knowledge of an F1. But I can explain to you this is going to shift the match on once again.”

Q: This is the launch car for Gordon Murray Automotive. What are your brand’s core values?

A: “Our 3 targets are to be the lightest car, the very best driving knowledge and the very best engineering in whichever sector the car is positioned.”

Q: And you are undoubtedly going to adhere to no more than 100 cars for every 12 months?

A: “Never more than a hundred. Of just about anything. We have precisely not long gone for capability over and above that figure.

Q: You’re most likely not going to explain to us what variety of car is coming following, then…

A: “Well, we have an eight-12 months prepare, but I’m eager to get the T.fifty out of the doorway first. We’ll start out offering cars to clients at the beginning of 2022.”

Q: Can you resist the temptation to make an SUV?

A: “Yes.”