Gordon Murray

Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946 in Durban, Union of South Africa), is a South African-born British designer of Formula One racing cars and the McLaren F1 road car. He is the founder and CEO of Gordon Murray Automotive.

Early life

Born to Scottish immigrant parents, Murray was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa. His father was a motorcycle racer and later prepared racing cars. Murray studied mechanical engineering at Natal Technical College (now Durban University of Technology, which made Murray an Honorary Professor in 2002 and awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011). He built and raced his own car, the IGM Ford, in the South African National Class during 1967 and 1968.

Formula One career

Brabham: 1969–1986

Murray moved to England in 1969, hoping to find a job at Lotus Cars. But Murray was offered a job at Brabham after coincidentally meeting then Brabham designer Ron Tauranac. When Bernie Ecclestone took over the Brabham team, he appointed Murray Chief Designer. There Murray designed many Grand Prix cars, some of which were World Championship Grand Prix winners. These designs include the extraordinary BT46B, also known as "the Brabham fan car", as well as the World Championship winning BT49 and BT52. Murray developed a reputation for an innovative approach to design, applied not only to car concepts and details but also to race strategy.

Between 1973 and 1985 Murray's Brabhams scored 22 Grand Prix wins, finished 2nd in the Constructors' Championship in 1975 and 1981, and gave Nelson Piquet Drivers' Championships in 1981 and 1983. For the season, Murray designed the radical and highly ambitious lowline Brabham BT55 in an effort to increase downforce without adding excessive drag by lowering overall ride height. The car however was not a success, and the year proved disastrous for Brabham, with the team's car, the Brabham BT54 called into use for the British Grand Prix in a desperate effort to get results.

Despite the BT55's problems and lack of results Murray remained convinced that his design was correct. During 1986 it was discovered the car's main problem was actually the BMW engine which in the lowline design had to be turned to an angle of 18° from horizontal. This caused oil surge when cornering and further harmed the engine's already poor throttle response. While the car had better downforce in the corners than its predecessor and was one of the fastest in a straight line thanks to its low drag, the engine problems saw to it that the car was only competitive on the fast circuits of the year such as Hockenheim, the Österreichring and Monza. In a late 1986 season interview, Murray stated that he believed the lowline concept would work better if mated to a more compact V6 such as the Honda or TAG-Porsche engines, rather than a taller Straight-4 like the BMW. A further noteworthy aspect was the inconsistent Pirelli race tyres which had also hampered the team's 1985 season.

McLaren: 1987–1991

After leaving Brabham, Murray had received an offer from Ron Dennis and joined McLaren as Technical Director on a three-year contract taking over the role formerly held by John Barnard. Learning from his low-line Brabham experience (he had also brought his BT55 drawings with him from Brabham), Murray played a part in the design team, headed by Steve Nichols, which produced not only 1987's McLaren MP4/3 which had won 3 races and had been much more streamlined than the previous McLaren MP4/2 series designed by Barnard, but also the Honda turbo powered McLaren MP4/4 which won 15 of the 16 Grands Prix, and gave Ayrton Senna his first Drivers' Championship. In the Constructors' Championship McLaren's points score of 199 was (at that time) an all-time high. Murray also played a small part in the design of the 1989 MP4/5 and 1990 MP4/5B along with Nichols and Neil Oatley. The MP4/5 and MP4/5B also won the driver's and constructor's championships in both years. Over the period 1988–91 the McLaren team won four consecutive Constructors' and Drivers' Championships: Alain Prost won the Drivers' Championship in 1989, Senna won further Drivers' Championships in 1990 and 1991.

List of Formula One designs

The list of cars that were designed by (or associated with) Gordon Murray and actually raced in Formula One is:

*Brabham BT42 (1973–1974)
* Brabham BT44 (1974)
*Brabham BT44B (1975)
* Brabham BT45 (1976)
* Brabham BT45B (1977)
*Brabham BT45C (1978)
*Brabham BT46B (1978)
*Brabham BT46C (1978)
* Brabham BT46 (1979)
*Brabham BT48 (1979)
*Brabham BT49 (1979–1980)
* Brabham BT49B (1980)
*Brabham BT49C (1981–1982)
*Brabham BT50 (1981–1982)
* Brabham BT49D (1982)
* Brabham BT52 (1983)
* Brabham BT52B (1983)
* Brabham BT53 (1984)
*Brabham BT54 (1985–1986)
* Brabham BT55 (1986)
*McLaren MP4/3 (1987 - Steve Nichols was the designer)
* McLaren MP4/4 (1988 - Steve Nichols was the designer)
*McLaren MP4/5 (1989 - Neil Oatley was the designer)

McLaren Cars

From 1991 to 2004, Murray headed the offshoot McLaren Cars team to design road-going supercars such as the McLaren F1.

Gordon Murray Design

In July 2007 the Gordon Murray Design consultancy was established, and released initial details regarding its upcoming T.25 (Type 25) prototype city car along with mention of a future lightweight, economical supercar project. The T25 would be smaller than a Smart Fortwo.

On 17 November 2008 Gordon Murray won the 'Idea of the Year' accolade at Autocar magazine's annual awards ceremony for the manufacturing process for the T.25.

In November 2009 Gordon Murray Design and Zytek Automotive announced plans to develop an electric-powered version, the T.27. The car being a product of a partnership between Murray's company and British technology company Zytek, in charge of building the powertrain.

A celebration of 50 years of Murray's involvement in the car industry was held called ''One Formula''. Every one of Murray's F1 designs was on display along with the McLaren F1 roadcar and examples from his personal car collection, along with hundreds of rock band T-shirts that Murray had amassed over the years. The book ''One Formula - 50 years of car design'' details Murray's designs.

On 4 August 2020, Murray released the T.50 sports car, the "logical successor" to the McLaren F1.

On 27 January 2022, Gordon Murray Automotive announced the T.33 super car. A twin-seater 'day to day' super car with the same engine from the T.50, but built on a new platform to be used by three other future cars.

Other projects

In 1981, Murray was involved in improvements for Midas Cars.

Murray independently designed the ''Rocket'', an ultra-lightweight, open cockpit roadster powered by a 1-litre motorcycle engine, which has an appearance similar to that of a 60's era Grand Prix car. Looking like a single-seater, it could accommodate a passenger in tandem with the driver, the second seat located beneath a removable cover. The ''Rocket'' was built by former racing driver Chris Craft at the Light Car Company.
Murray is a contributing editor for American ''Road & Track''.

In September 2016 it was announced that Murray had been appointed to develop the OX truck, a flat pack low-cost vehicle, for the British charity Global Vehicle Trust (GVT). GVT founded OX Delivers to utilise the design to make last-mile transport more accessible and reliable in emerging markets. Murray created four experimental prototypes; XP1-XP4. XP2, XP3, and XP4 are owned by OX Delivers, with two of the vehicles having been converted to fully-electric trucks. XP1 is owned by Murray for his private collection.

From 2015, Murray collaborated with TVR to design the upcoming TVR models, with the TVR Griffith released in 2017.

Honours

On 28 December 2018, it was announced that Murray had been made a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours, for services to motoring.

References

External links

Official website of Gordon Murray DesignROAD & TRACK magazine: "Anatomy of a Supercar"
– An article where Murray gives his opinion about the Bugatti Veyron.
(CNN) Former F1 Engineer Unveils New City Car --retrieved 28 June 2010Channel 4 web site
– Gordon Murray's ultra-lightweight microcar: first details.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Gordon
1946 births
Living people
People from Durban
White South African people
South African people of Scottish descent
South African automobile designers
McLaren people
Formula One designers
Plug-in hybrid vehicle industry
South African motorsport people
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Durban University of Technology alumni