Yahoo Autos The Gordon Murray T.50 Hypercar Is Intended to Be the McLaren F1's Spiritual Successor
Gordon Murray had a long history with Formula 1 racing but is best known for designing the McLaren F1.
Murray has shown this sketch of what he calls the Gordon Murray Design T.50, a three-seat hypercar that would have a naturally aspirated V-12 developed with Cosworth.
The car would sell for about $2.6 million, and there's no word yet on whether it would be sold in the United States.
On any short list of the world's most famous living automotive engineers, Gordon Murray's name would be close to the top. The South African had a hugely successful career in Formula 1 in the 1970s, but he is probably best remembered for his work with McLaren on what became the three-seat F1. Now he wants to do something similar again with what we're promised will be "a spiritual successor to the Murray-designed McLaren F1."
While there are still many unanswered questions about the Gordon Murray Design T.50, and only a single sketch to illustrate what is planned, the headline figures are certainly serious enough to grab all of our attention.
Murray wants to make a three-seat hypercar with what appears to be a central driving position aping the layout of the F1. Overall length will be just 172.4 inches-identical to a Porsche 718 Cayman-with a carbon-fiber structure giving a weight of just 2160 pounds.
It gets more exciting. Murray wants the car to have a naturally aspirated 4.0-liter V-12 that will be mounted behind the passenger compartment and drive the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox. This engine is reportedly being developed with Cosworth, which has recently worked on the naturally aspirated V-12 of the forthcoming Aston Martin Valkyrie, and which Murray says will rev to 12,100 rpm and produce 650 horsepower.
If that's not quite enough, then consider one other feature: Murray wants the production T.50 to have a version of the ground-effects fan system that he developed for the Brabham BT46B Formula 1 car, one that worked to extract air from an underfloor skirt to give the car positive downforce even when it was standing still. The BT46B raced only once, at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, with Niki Lauda winning by a commanding 34-second margin. Brabham's then boss, Bernie Ecclestone, voluntarily withdrew the car after an outcry from other teams.
While the project sounds hugely exciting, several significant details are missing. There's no word on whom Gordon Murray Design would work with to turn such an ambitious project into a production reality. Nor is there any word on whether the finished car would be street legal or federally approved for sale in the United States. The plan is to produce no more than 100 and to sell them for the equivalent of $2.6 million, with sales beginning in 2022. Given that even the cheapest McLaren F1 is now has an eight-figure price, that doesn't seem too outrageous.
We look forward to being able to tell you more.
('You Might Also Like',)
