If you don’t know Gordon Murray by his iconic supercar the McLaren F1, you would have known him as one of the columnists in magazine Evo which you can pick up locally as Malaysian Evo. His column is a good read, but that’s not the point.
Gordon Murray is at the drawing board again with the T25, named so because it is his 25th car. The McLaren F1 was the T22. This time he’s doing a minicar, or perhaps you can even call it a microcar.
It is supposed to be an ultra-economical, environment-friendly and affordable city car, aimed at the likes of first-time buyers and city dwellers. The target price range? 5,000 pound (RM35,000).
The Murray T25 will not use any funky electric or hybrid powertrain to achieve it’s ultra-economical status, in fact Murray expects the first production version of his car to be powered by a petrol engine instead of a diesel. Instead, it’ll do so through it’s lower weight – we’re talking about a target weight of under 1,200 pounds or less than 545kg – thanks to high-tech materials and an innovative architecture and packaging. The car will also be designed to facilitate low-cost manufacturing and reduced running costs
Murray says the T25 will pay tribute to the Smart, but it will be less compromised in it’s abilities. It will be have a mini MPV form with options for other variants at little extra development cost, but he says “you won’t get in it, sit in it or put luggage in it like a normal car. This will not be just another small big car; it’s just different. I’ve done a massive amount of work over the past dozen years on the financial incentives. People say they want greener cars but they keep buying five-metre, two-tonne cars. But this car will come with a bunch of incentives on things like tax and parking that mean that within four years you’ll pay off the purchase cost with the savings; it’s not just fuel. Basically, the car is free after four years, and if that’s not an incentive I don’t know what else to do. I’ll go back to racing!”
Gordon is doing this through a new company he founded – Gordon Murray Design, and while the company doesn’t have the most creative name ever, it already has funding from the Caparo Group and other investors. They might sound familiar to some of you – remember the Caparo T1? Caparo has low-cost Indian manufacturing facilities that could be used to put the T25 into production when it is done.
Murray wants his company to mainly profit from the intellectual property – it won’t build the T25 itself. Instead, Gordon Murray Design will only produce prototypes, then license the technology to other carmakers to produce it under their own brand with GMD helping with the process of bringing it into production.
The first prototypes are expected to be ready in 2 years.
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Interesting, but no hybrid or diesels sure is a bit disappointing.
at least this guy have a mind to save mother nature….
but please make it a diesel ! the real green car !
A bit pricey for a sub-A or lower A-Segment car here in Malaysia but I suppose the T25 will be more crashworthy than the Japanese K-Cars we get here with EURO NCAP being a big concern in Europe.
Well the recent test in evo showed that the hybrids are not really saving us that much in terms of money whereas the light weight approach has always been something of a mantra for Murray.
There are so many technical issues to over come to create this vehicle such as safety, manufacturing costs, performance etc. This is definately a breath of fresh air for the tree hugging ppl. Will definately be a breakthrough if it is a success.
Hmm, I remember reading Gordon Murray's column one or two months back in Evo about his liking to the Smart Car. Don't really remember if it was the ForTwo or Forfour.
Seems like he's really going ahead with this minicar/microcar creation. Good on him for trying to stimulate this segment even further. Who would have thought that the brains behind the all time great McLaren F1 would undertake such a task.
Bravo to you Sir Gordon Murray.
no pics yet;D?
Doing his little bit for Mother Nature
Whatever his motive, he got my respect!
2 years!! 2 years!!!!!!!
That's a long wait!!!
Seeing our tax structures, if it doesnt get CKD'ed here, I wonder how much it gonna cost? Outrageous like the Smart's?
mclaren F1
can fight with others small car. 35k price range is very attractive for GM design. another advantages are small and easy to park and good FC. i will wait for 2 years for his car .after that i will scrap my lousy kancil and drive this car to work on weekdays. good idea!!!
Gordon Murray is an automotive legend!!!
Here’s to Gordon Murray for trying to break the ugly, more weight/horsepower cycle. Thank God for people like him.
This guy has a point, not doing hybrid or diesel can simplify things and lower production cost significantly.
Hybrid cars are green? Think again, the batteries are toxic and cost a nuclear to build.
Charger: dont dream about that our gov will go green for the sake of going green, our brief and short history of half a century show that our gov doing things for $$$… example, when they talk palm oil, they want to sell palm oil; when they talk scrap old car, they want to push sales.