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Gordon Murray Design



Gordon Murray Design is a new British company operating from Shalford in Surrey. In contrast to the current industry trend towards sub-contracting, the new company has a complete in-house capability for design, prototyping and development.

CEO and Technical Director, Professor Gordon Murray, is of course the legendary F1 designer whose impressive career spans such achievements as leading the Brabham Formula One Team, where he was Technical Director, to two World Championships (1981 & 1983), plus three consecutive Championship wins (1988, 1989 and 1990) at McLaren Racing, before establishing McLaren Cars Ltd. The McLaren F1 road car is still widely regarded as the world’s best-engineered car – and a race version won the Le Mans 24-hour race on its first attempt in 1995.

In addition to Murray himself, the company employs a design team with huge experience: collectively, more than 300 man-years working in the automotive industry.

The first project for Gordon Murray Design is the Type 25, inspired by the Smart car but taking the benefits of small, lightweight city cars a step further. The Type 25 will use lightweight materials to achieve an ultra-low weight, and the company claims it will offer “a low price, extremely low running costs, cult styling, a good standard of safety and a driver’s eye-line equivalent to a normal saloon car.” We can’t help feeling that if anyone can do it, Gordon Murray can.

Text: Charis Whitcombe
Photos: Gordon Murray Design Limited


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