Why Gordon Murray, ” THE old fool is
Posted on 23-04-2016 at 10:54 by MauritsH – 32 Comments”
The man is now weggelachen because of his silly city car. Agree, not everyone, but many people seem to have no or little know of what the South African with such a title and why he is doing exactly what it it is today. So it was time for a modest little history. Prepare yourself for quite a bit of text and a lot of nice pictures.
The start: Brabham
After a study at the University of Durban (South Africa), went to Murray to get started at Brabham, where then one Bernie Ecclestone on the plush sat. Built here the genius (Murray, so, not Ecclestone) some of the cars that their places in the history books have largely earned. The designer was from ’69-’86 in service with the Brabham and in that time span made cars are the Brazilian Nelson Piquet senior, two-time champion. Some gems:
Brabham BT46B “Fan car”
Brabham BT49
Brabham BT55
The last in the row was a very aerodynamic design and a bizarre low car, which unfortunately not too many jars could break. The top speed on the fast circuits (think Monza and the Österreichring) was unprecedented, but problems with the BMW engine made sure that the car is not everywhere and always competitive.
The big successes: McLaren
Then things went fast with the career of Murray. With all of the Brabham-experience in the cut helped the man join in the development of the legendary MP4/4 from 1988, generally considered to be the most dominant car ever. Bad luck prevented the British that year all the races of the year to win. Calculated in Monza tragedy struck. Both Senna and Prost had the race prematurely terminate. Nice bonus was a dubbeloverwinning for Ferrari, to the Tifosi-circuit, just after the death of Enzo Ferrari. Apparently that’s the way.
Also after ’88 reeg McLaren the championship together. Senna became champion in ’88, Prost in ’89 and then again Senna in ’90 and ’91. The withdrawal of Honda led McLaren to Ford to knock on the door for (inferior) klantenmotoren, all remained the brand, thanks to its unparalleled steersman ship of Senna to participate in the subtop.
McLaren MP4/4
McLaren MP4/6
A side-step: the Light Car Rocket
Not a very well known car, this Ariel Atom, avant la lettre. Make no mistake, however, is not. The thing weighs 350 kg less than a Honda Goldwing (no joke) and the 1-liter block out of a Yamaha motorcycle is made about 145 hp at 10.500 rpm. A feestnummer with a vengeance. A pity that the resemblance to a suppository on wheels is quite large.
Rocket
The McLaren F1 and the Mercedes SLR
Everyone knows that the F1 a hell of a street-legal car was, that over 20 years later it still speaks to the imagination. A much bigger achievement is the fact that the McLaren after a couple of minimal adjustments in GTR form the 24 hours of Le Mans on his name wrote, while the thing with its three seats and lots of space for luggage was not even designed for racing.
The victory was celebrated with the introduction of the McLaren F1 LM, a freak street-racer who, in an edition of five orange pieces was built. Ralph Lauren has one, the Sultan of Brunei has a few and one copy was unfortunately lost in a natural disaster.
McLaren F1
McLaren F1 GTR
McLaren F1 LM
The SLR is from a slightly different cloth a suit. Where the F1 as an uncompromising street-legal car in the market was put, was the SLR really is more a very fast GT. Autoblog-celebrity Sacha explains to you yet again why we all have such a thing in the garage want it. The role of Murray in the creation of this supercar played was considerably smaller than in, say, the McLaren F1, which does not detract from the fact that he indeed was involved.
Mercedes SLR McLaren
The present: the T25, T27, and the iStream manufacturing process
A little less sexy, but quite innovative chapter from the great Murray-book: that silly city car where Murray tegenswoordigs with Shell to work. For the olieboer is a beautiful image-oppoetser, for Murray it is a way to show that cars today pieces more innovative, more compact, cheaper and can be built, without compromising on essential things like safety and driving pleasure/comfort.
How one and another of the paint is going to come up as yet is relatively unknown. Gordon Murray Design is already a long time on the project, that not only the car itself but also a new perspective on the production process. As for the much-needed stiffness provided by the use of recycled carbon fibre.
T25
In line with the McLaren F1 offers the pastry room for three persons, and that in a car with a length of 2.4 meters shorter than a Smart ForTwo. Moreover, you can use the Shell Concept Car, as the thing has recently been baptized, crosswise parked in a parking space, and the consumption is lower than that of your Senseo device in the basement substance is to happen.
Again: a sexy, evocative car, it is not, but an innovative concept, it is absolutely. In addition, cars that use fossil fuels such innovation is sorely needed, since CO2 is the major enemy and the (tax) legislator is there a clever use/abuse of.
Shell Concept Car
The future?
Murray has teamed up with TVR to the quirky brand to breathe new life into. Exactly how that is going to run is yet unknown, though we hope to be a worthy successor of the Tuscan, the Cerbera, and of course that monstrous Sagaris. And we’re not even talking about the beautiful cars that the brand from Blackpool in a more distant past built.
Also the designer has to know given one supercar to have. Of course, we are also very curious about. The man has repeatedly called the building a good street-legal car a lot more complicated than drawing a car that champion can be in the Formula 1, but a return in the F1 seems unlikely. A pity, because if there is one still-living designer is located at the genius Adrian Newey can be measured, it is Murray.
Because an old fool, that’s Murray: absolutely not. Innovation is just not necessarily super fast/sexy cars. Supercars build, may in fact everyone.