Gordon Murray’s supercar breaks the mould

Legendary Formula One designer Gordon Murray says his supercar will be the “purest, most driver-focused” of any road car ever built.

The T.50 will closely follow the blueprint of Murray’s highly regarded 1992 McLaren F1 supercar, but advances its aerodynamic capabilities further still with help from a 400mm “ground-effect” fan that dominates the rear of the car, Automotive News Europe reported.

The T.50 will cost 2.4 million pounds (US$3.2 million) in its home market of the UK and first deliveries are scheduled for January 2022. Production will be restricted to 100 examples, slightly below the 106 McLaren produced of the F1.

Much of the formula for the 1992 McLaren F1 has been repeated.

The T.50 has three seats with the driver positioned centrally. Power again comes from a V-12 engine, this time sourced from engine-maker Cosworth instead of BMW. Maximum power is 650 hp, up from 550 hp in the F1, with a further 50 hp available from the 48-volt mild-hybrid system.

No performance figures were given in a company statement, but Murray has previously said the T.50 “improves upon its predecessor in every way.” McLaren claimed a top speed of well over 200 mph (320 km/h) for the T.50.

A picture of the T.50 released by Murray shows inspiration from the F1, including the central spine that splits the rear window, the round rear lights, and the inset windows in the doors that follow the curve of the roof.

The main difference is that Murray has used a single rear fan that harks back to one of his most famous F1 cars: the Brabham BT46B from 1978, which used its rear-mounted fan to help it win the single race it competed in.

“I’ve dreamed of delivering a road car with a ground-effect fan since I designed the Brabham,” Murray said.

The fan is part of an airflow system that together creates “the most advanced and most effective aerodynamics ever seen on a road car,” Murray’s company, Gordon Murray Automotive, said.

The purpose of the fan is to accelerate air passing under the car and force it through ducts in a way that boosts downforce and reduces drag. The design of the ducting and the fan does away with the need for a “skirt” under the car, as the Brabham used, Murray said.

The car also has two active wings at the rear of the car. The systems can be tuned by the driver to give six separate aero modes, ranging from automatic to “Vmax.”  This mode creates what Murray calls a “virtual longtail” to extend the wake of the car and make it more streamlined to help the driver achieve max speeds.

The mode also adds another 50 hp of power to the crankshaft from the 48-volt integrated starter-generator.

The T.50 weighs just 980 kg, making it lighter than the 1,018 kg McLaren F1, despite being slightly longer at 4,349mm compared to 4,288mm for the F1. The car is built around a central carbon-fiber “tub.”

The 4.0-liter engine revs to 12,000 rpm, which is very similar to the 12,100 rpm max of the F1’s 6.1-liter engine. As with the F1, power is delivered to the rear wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox.

Murray will unveil the car in May.