McLaren F1 creator Murray’s T25 ready to go

Gordon Murray's T25 - still under wraps

Gordon Murray is the genius behind the legendary McLaren F1 supercar. So what he does needs to be taken seriously. That includes the Caparo T1, which is a super-light racer for the roads, but also includes the last thing you would think of – a super-small, lightweight and above all cheap car.

But that’s what the T25 is. Looking at the picture here (just a tease – surprise, surprise), you couldn’t really imagine anything further from a picture of the McLaren F1. But Gordon is convinced this is the way to go. We know he’s always been anti big, heavy cars (the McLaren F1 is very light) and he denigrated the Bugatti Veyron when it was announced as pointless and heavy (although he did retract that when he drove it).

So what is the T25? Well, despite first appearance, it’s not a car that Gordon Murray Design intends to build. It is in fact a fully developed concept that GMD intends to license to other companies, and claims to already have 15 potential clients for the concept from around the world.

New concepts come along all the time, and flavour of the month is of course small and economical. So it would be easy to dismiss this as ‘just another concept’, but with Gordon Murray behind it we need to take it seriously. He already has experience at this level, being involved with the consortium that are re-designing the Smart Roadster to become a new AC, and with his track record you can’t dismiss this design, which GMD want to become an entirely new class of car.

There are plans to have the T25 as a van, a pick-up, and MPV and even a police car. Don’t bet against it happening.

Gordon Murray Design announces that they are officially ‘On Sale’ with the T.25 City Car & licenses for their new iStream manufacturing process.

The T.25 is a radical, innovative design for a new type and class of personal transport vehicle that offers solutions to reduce congestion and parking problems whilst addressing the issue of full lifecycle CO2 damage. It is designed and packaged to protect mobility, personal freedom and driving ‘fun’ whilst greatly reducing the environmental damage from vehicle manufacturing.

The iStream assembly process is a complete rethink and redesign of the traditional manufacturing process and could potentially be the biggest revolution in high volume manufacture since the Model T. Development of the process began over 15 years ago and it has already won the prestigious 2008 ‘Idea of the Year’ award from Autocar who were given privileged access in order to make their assessment.

The simplified assembly process means that the manufacturing plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a conventional factory. This could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80%. Yet the flexibility of this assembly process means that the same factory could be used to manufacture different variants.

The iStream design process is a complete re-think on high volume materials, as well as the manufacturing process and will lead to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions over the lifecycle of the vehicles produced using it, compared with conventional ones. The design process has therefore been built around the mantra of ‘Think Light’ and all materials for each variant are carefully selected to be as light as possible whilst being ‘fit for purpose.’

In short, the T.25 architecture, packaging, materials selection and manufacturing process promises to be the biggest revolution in the mass production of cars in the last 100 years.

Whilst the T.25 is only officially on sale this month, Gordon Murray Design have already been approached by 15 potential clients based in 12 different countries. Gordon Murray says “This is an idea that began in 1993 and, with the hard work of the team and help from our investors, it’s great to finally see it coming to fruition. I believe the timing is perfect given the current situation within the automotive industry.

By Cars UK