Gordon Murray is making the most of the time combustion engines have left. His latest creation, the T.50, promises to have the highest-revving road-going V12 in history. When it is fully unleashed, it will be able to reach 12,100 rpm. While it isn’t, Murray and Steve Hayes – Senior Test and Development Driver for Gordon Murray Automotive – achieved 5,000 rpm with the XP2 and XP3 on the track, as the video below shows.
The V12 that the T.50 will have develops 663 ps (487.6 kW) at 11,500 rpm. Developed by Cosworth, it is also extremely light (178 kg) to comply with the goals that Gordon Murray established for the car that will be the spiritual successor to the McLaren F1. The British automaker has tried to repeat the magic, but it lacked the wizard that made it possible.
Our readers already know most of what there is to learn about the T.50. The hypercar is 4.35 meters (14.3 ft) long, 1.85 m (6.1 ft) wide, 1.16 m 3.8 ft) tall, and has a wheelbase of 2.70 m (8.9 ft). Unlike most hypercars around, it weighs just 986 kg (2173.7 lbs). The Lotus Emira weighs 1,405 kg (3,097 lbs), for example.
The most striking feature of the T.50 is being a fan car: a 48V electric motor makes a 40-cm (15.7") fan turn at up to 7,000 rpm to suck the air from underneath the vehicle, increasing ground effect. Murray promised that would give the T.50 an unprecedented level of grip in tracks. The system would be more refined than that of the Brabham BT46B Fan Car Murray conceived decades ago.
We can confirm none of that in the video below. It just shows us Murray and Hayes, some historic cars on the track – for benchmarking? – and a creator nodding his head in approval after taking his developing machine for a spin. If this engine is like that at 5,000 rpm, we cannot wait to listen to it in its full glory.
Google News