Watch Gordon Murray T.50 hypercar tested on track for first time
We'll have to wait to hear the 12,100rpm redline, though
LEGENDARY car designer Gordon Murray has been filmed testing his upcoming T.50 V12 supercar at a track in Surrey.
Unfortunately the car’s highly-anticipated engine, a naturally-aspired V12 from Cosworth that revs up to a staggering 12,100rpm, has been muzzled to 3,000rpm in the prototype XP2 version, meaning that we’ll have to wait a little longer to hear its full potential. The furthest up the rev counter we’ve heard the engine so far is 8,000 rpm, in a video posted to social media last year.
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Exiting the vehicle, Gordon Murray — visibly excited despite the obligatory facemask — said: “The response of the engine, even up to three [thousand rpm] is ridiculous. It felt great.”
“You don’t have to go [top speed] — you know when a car is going to be good,” he continued.
Although Gordon Murray Automotive has announced it will be establishing a new £50m, 130,000sq ft global headquarters and technology campus in Windlesham, Surrey, the T.50 is still expected to go into production next year at a facility in Dunsfold Park, just a stone’s throw from the Top Gear test track on which the T.50 was tested.
Gordon Murray sees the T.50 as the natural successor to the world-beating McLaren F1 that he designed in the 1990s. The two cars share a number of features, including a strikingly similar front end design and the same three-seat layout, with a central driving position. Standout features unique to the T.50 include a rear fan, which tidies airflow and improves downforce.
The T.50 also adopts the same forensic approach to weight saving as the F1, and tips the scales at just 986kg — around a third lighter than a “typical” supercar, GMA claims. That, in concert with 654bhp from the V12, means that the T.50 has a power-to-weight ratio that is 40% better than its competitors, according to the company.
If the 2022 release date proves realistic, the T.50 is likely to hit roads at the same time as (or just after) two hypercars from more established manufacturers: the much delayed, Adrian Newey-designed Aston Martin Valykrie, and the also-behind-schedule Mercedes-AMG One, a plug-in hybrid that takes cues from Mercedes’ championship-winning F1 operations.
An even more powerful, track-only version of the T.50 called the T.50s Niki Lauda is also undergoing development, but will not be released until the end of the T.50’s production run.
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- After watching the Gordon Murray T.50 tested on track for the first time, you might be interested in reading the designer’s Me and my motorinterview with the Sunday Times Magazine.
- Last month, McLaren unveiled its new hybrid supercar, the Artura.
- Aston Martin has revealed its safety and medical cars for the 2021 season of Formula One.
