Gordon Murray to Develop Revolutionary New City Car

T1 Photos

Gordon Murray's recently launched design firm has started work on the T25. Murray is the man in the middle with the mustache. (Photo: Gordon Murray Design)

Prior to the T25, Murray worked on the Caparo T1 project. (Photo: Caparo)

Smaller than a smart, but cheaper to run. That's the miracle of Murray. (Photo: smart)

The name Gordon Murray might not be a household name, but he’s theman behind some of the most radical vehicles to hit the road. He was the brainchild behind the McLaren F1, which held the record as being the world’s fastest car for quite a number of years, only recently defeated by the Bugatti Veyron. Since that time, Murray has gone back to building lightweight, minimalist sports cars, contributing to the Caparo T1 project amongst others. The next thing on Murray’s list of achievements is nothing less than to revolutionize the automobile once more.

The car will be called the Type 25, the number standing for the 25th new vehicle he’s developed. Murray has been pretty tight lipped about what the car will be like, but he’s revealed that it’ll be tiny – less than the size of a smart fortwo (of which he’s a big fan), and will take the form of an MPV microvan, though there are up to 14 different body styles in the making. Regarding the car itself, Murray says, “You don’t sit normally in it, you don’t get in and out normally, and you don’t load luggage in the normal way.” Given thisstatement, we’re not exactly sure what to expect.

This being Murray’s latest masterpiece, there are some pretty lofty targets the vehicle will need to meet. Unlike the smart or any other microcar, Murray wants the T25 to be affordable, so he’s set a price point of £5,000 (equal to roughly $10,100), and has outlined that operating costs should be no larger than one quarter of what the owner of the most basic VW Golf would shell out.

Keeping things light is a key priority. By shaving weight through the use of advanced materials, the car can use a smaller engine and in turn use less fuel. Unlike most hybrids, which take over a decade to recover their initial purchasing price in fuel savings, the T25 could pay for itself in savings in four years. Also, by cutting back on the complexity of thedesign, the T25 will also be much more efficient to produce, reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gases. Murray is also big on making the car as enjoyable to drive as possible, which adds another layer of complexity to the whole issue, and if there is any need for icing on this cake, it’s that the whole project is to be on the roads by 2010, just a little over three years from today.

Though the project car will be Murray’s, it won’t be branded under his name. Instead, his company expects to sell the design rights to a large-scale partner with the means to manufacture, not to mention supply the engine. He predicts that the first cars to roll off the assembly line will be powered by a small gasoline engine, though diesel, hybrid and pure electric versions could easily be implemented down the road.