Gordon Murray Automotive Debuts the T.50: The Ultimate Driver’s Car, In The Purest Form

Gordon Murray Automotive

Highly-acclaimed designer/engineer and creator of the McLaren F1, Gordon Murray, has debuted his ultimate creation, a car designed from the ground-up to be the ultimate driver’s car: the T.50. The design, specifications, and attention to detail are absolutely astonishing.

Here are a couple of specs from the official press release that were music to our ears:

• Chassis and body constructed from high-grade carbon fiber
• Bespoke, naturally-aspired 3.9-liter Cosworth V12 producing 663 horsepower 339 lb.-feet of torque
• Xtrac manual H-pattern six-speed transmission
• Total vehicle weight: 2174 lbs.
• Forged aluminum double-wishbone suspension all around (obviously)
• Jet fighter-style central driving position, with total room for three adults (like the F1) that allow for easy ingress and egress
• Six different aero modes, including a fan aero system (this makes us think of the Chaparral 2J, but it’s a bit different than that)
• Three pedals machined from solid aluminum to be lightweight, grippy, and provide the most amount of feedback
• No stalks or touchscreens; every control analogue, everything is engineered to have the most solid, quality feel

Gordon Murray Automotive

The list goes on and on; there is so much to cover and drool over. Bradley Brownell over at Jalopnik did a brilliant interview with Murray that is quite entertaining and full of Murrayisms, where he talks more about some of the genius engineering. One particular bit that caught our eye was the following:

No, there’s no mild hybrid at all. I’m sorry, it probably comes across wrong in the writing. What we’ve got, to save 20 kilos on the car of chassis and engine weight, we’ve got an integrated starter/generator which is driven by the front of the crankshaft. I wish I could show you the engine in true life, it’s the most beautiful thing, you can just imagine, because it’s got no belt-driven ancillaries on it at all.

It looks like a 1960s V12, it’s just block and cam covers and exhaust, inlet trumpets, full stop. And that’s because the ISG on the front does the work of the starter and the alternator. It generates 48 volts for the fan motor, which of course keeps that much smaller than a 12 volt one. And it also drives an electric compressor for the air conditioner.

The air conditioner on the F1 was rubbish, it never really worked. That had a belt-driven compressor on the engine, which at idle didn’t do very much at all, really. So um, I’ve been trying to fix all the things that didn’t work on the F1. Altogether that saves us about 20 kilos on the car and the engine. And of course, from a reliability point of view, you’ve got no belt-driven ancillaries at all on the motor.

Pretty darn cool. There’s quite a bit more to discuss and learn, including how it can carry three adults, its V12 engine, and stow away a good amount of luggage (for a supercar), and has a footprint that’s the size of a Porsche Boxster. This thing by all measures is the modern McLaren F1.

Let the man himself tell you more! Check out this video on Gordan Murray Automotive’s YouTube channel, and also have a look at the photos in the gallery to the right. The video is full of excellent Murrayisms, too, such as: Yeah, I don’t do big cars. I don’t do big cars, and I don’t do heavy cars. Hell yes.