Gordon Murray’s T.50 has a giant fan to suck it to the road

“I’ve dreamt of delivering a road car with a ground-effect fan since I designed the BT46B,” Murray tells us, adding that what he has achieved will take road-car aerodynamics to entirely new levels by significantly enhancing ground-effect capabilities. 

That is about to be put to the test thanks to the other news from Gordon Murray Automotive announced today: that wind tunnel testing will get under way in 2020 thanks to a collaboration signed with the Racing Point Formula 1 Team. 

Canadian businessman Lawrence Stroll’s Silverstone-based team – recently in the news for rumours that it is about to take a stake in Aston Martin – will enable Murray’s radical supercar to move from digital design to the physical testing of a 40 per cent scale model. 

The Surrey-based GMA claims that using a fan coupled with active underbody aerodynamics and dynamic rear aerofoils on a road car will enable the T.50 to achieve “considerably more aerodynamic performance and control than a conventional ground-effect supercar, contributing to an unrivalled driving experience.”

Central to that are what Murray calls the T.50’s six aero modes. These are said to optimise the car for different driving situations, with the most extreme – Vmax Mode – combining what GMA says is “motorsport slipstream technology” with extra power from a 48-volt integrated starter-generator and ram-air induction to boost power to 700 horsepower. 

In addition, there’s Braking Mode which, deploys the rear aerofoils automatically and operates the fan at high speed to double the levels of downforce, enhancing stability and grip, and enabling the T.50 to come to a stop up to 10 metres shorter when braking from 150mph.

Other modes are driver-selectable and include High Downforce Mode to increase downforce by 30 per cent, and Streamline Mode to reduce drag by 10 per cent and boost straight-line speed. This mode closes the underbody ducts and sets the fan to operate at high speed to extend the trailing wake of the car, creating what GMA says is a ‘virtual longtail’.

It was in June this year that Gordon Murray – the designer whose F1 cars won five world championships and 50 grands prix – first gave us details of his long-awaited reprise of the 1992 McLaren F1. It would, he told us, epitomise his mantra of light weight, compact dimensions, innovative aero and relative engineering simplicity.

Its engine is a 650PS (641bhp) Cosworth-sourced, normally-aspirated 4.0-litre V12, longitudinally-mounted ahead of the rear axle and driving the rear wheels via an Xtrac-developed six-speed manual gearbox. We had expected a sky-high rev limit – the redline is 12,100 rpm – but what we had not expected was that mild hybrid electrified side with a 48-volt starter generator. 

There is no indication yet of performance – Murray has always been adamant the T.50 is about driving sensations rather than chasing numbers – but a car with this power that takes up less road space than a Porsche 911 and weighs in at just 980kg will not be slow…

The other thing the picture released today shows is how pleasing the carbon-clad body design is, all the work of Murray and his in-house design team. With the giant fan doing most of the aerodynamic business, the body has no need of scoops, spoilers and wings, says GMA.

The T.50, 100 of which are planned to be built, will have its full unveiling next May. GMA says the majority of them have already been allocated. Murray told us: “We’ve been taken aback by the enthusiastic reaction of buyers from across the globe. The first customer deliveries will take place in January 2022, on schedule, with every customer who has already been allocated their T.50 receiving their car that year.” 

The T.50’s full unveiling next May will correspond with the opening of a Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 customer experience centre at the company’s Dunsfold Park site.

Formula 1 images courtesy of Motorsport Images.