The Supreme $2.9-Million V12 Smile: Gordon Murray Signs Off His 12,000-RPM T.50 Supercar

Professor Gordon Murray, Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, has signed off his final approval for the GMA T.50. GMA stands for Gordon Murray Automotive, and if the name doesn’t put a nostalgic gearheading smile on your face, consider this: F1, McLaren, hypercar.

The man was the mastermind behind five world championships for two Formula One teams (Brabham, in ’81 and ‘83, and McLaren – in ’88, ’89, and '90). Having collected 50 Grand Prix wins, Gordon Murray stepped up from motor racing. Where would one advance after Formula One? Beyond the limits, that’s where.

In 1993, Gordon Murray gifted Planet Piston with the ultimate expression of motoring: the McLaren F1, the primordial hypercar. I won’t insist on that chariot of the gods of speed, but let’s put it like this: what the likes of Christian von Koenigsegg, Mate Rimac, John Hennessey, or Elon Musk are doing now, Gordon Murray did three decades ago.

I’ll drop just one number: 240.1 – that was the top speed of the McLaren F1, measured in statute miles per hour. Translated into metric, it is the equivalent of 386.7 kph – and that was before this millennium began. The naturally-aspirated record still stands, by the way.

Four years ago, Gordon Murray set on to build “a better version” of the F1. Not with the British manufacturer by his side, but by his own efforts, conjugated in the exclusive supercar company Gordon Murray Automotive.

The car’s name is the T.50, and it’s finally ready to go into production. The man himself took the definitive version for a seal-of-approval drive around his house, and the result is in the video. It’s simply beyond the power of written words to describe the instant when the car gets its creator’s blessing.

Go to the 08:50 mark on the video and watch for just five seconds. In those unfathomably divine moments, the T.50 becomes the next F1. Pay close attention to how the man’s expression changes from sharp, analytical automotive engineer, mechanical genius, and supreme gearhead to pure, undiluted fatherly pride.

The supercar’s acceleration infuses his facial muscles with the fascia of an ecstatic smile; the eyebrows go up in pleasant wonder, and the corners of his mouth surrender the laser-focused attention in favor of undistilled driving delight.

That’s how simple it is to transform four years of intense labor into an automotive legend. Forget pointless committee meetings, endless engineering assessments, countless computer-generated verdicts, and useless tests. No. Gordon Murray smiles – and there is nothing more approving than that.

He wanted to make his cars the ultimate driving experience, not 0-60 dam busters or road-legal cruise missiles. Even the F1 wasn’t aimed at being the fastest car in the world, first and foremost. It was all about the supreme sensation of driving, the freedom of piston-powered joy, the unbeatable automotive Nirvana.

The F1 spirit was transplanted – intact – in the T.50, the new Gordon Murray Automotive supercar (they don’t call it hypercar, although it fully deserves the title). And somehow, GMA managed to take that absolute expression of motoring to a higher level.

First, the RWD car is super-lightweight – the extreme engineering of the 3.9-liter V12 (designed by Gordon Murray automotive and built by Cosworth) allows surreal numbers. The powerplant weighs 178 kilograms (392 lb), and the Xtrac six-speed manual gearbox is less than half (80.5 kg / 177 lb), courtesy of aluminum, titanium, and steel alloys.

Thanks to elaborate high-tech materials and cutting-edge design, the car tips the scale at just under one metric ton (986 kg / 2,174 lb). The body (carbon fiber monocoque) weighs under 150 kg (330 lb). And if these numbers don’t drop gearheads’ jaws to the floor, read the engine specs.

663 PS (654 hp) and 467 Nm (344 lb-ft). Peak power is delivered at 11,500 RPM, making it the highest-revving naturally-aspirated engine in a road car. The never-exceed engine speed is 12,100 RPM – or more than 200 crankshaft spins every second. Listen to it in the video – its pitch would make WWII dive bombers hide in awe.

The power-dense engine (166 ps/liter, or 164 hp/liter) isn’t explicitly aimed at top-speed performance (but I’m willing to bet it can achieve dramatic figures). Gordon Murray sticks to his long-time creed of total driver engagement with the six-speed H-pattern manual gearbox. The man behind the wheel is in absolute control, with two passengers to come along for the ride.

In a sublime ode to the original hypercar, the T.50 sports the same seating architecture. A middle driver’s seat flanked by two recessed passenger seats (total combined weight is 13 kilograms / 29 lb of carbon-fiber accommodation). In terms of weight distribution, there’s no better formula.

And the car’s aerodynamics are a mathematical equation of precision – the T.50 doesn’t even have side mirrors (video cameras are installed in the doors' housings). The rear-mounted 400 mm fan provides air-splitting ground-effect performance, replacing the industry-unanimous rear wing. The engine air inlet above the cockpit elevates the max power to 700 ps (690 hp), thanks to ram air induction (but only when coupled to the V-Max Boost driving mode).

Yes, Gordon Murray has every reason to smile in contentment. He has done it – again. Each of the 100 T-50s is long sold – for a before-tax price of £2.36 million, or $2,92 million at the March 31, 2023 exchange rate.