Gordon’s golden touch

Browse pages
Current page

1

Current page

2

Current page

3

Current page

4

Current page

5

Current page

6

Current page

7

Current page

8

Current page

9

Current page

10

Current page

11

Current page

12

Current page

13

Current page

14

Current page

15

Current page

16

Current page

17

Current page

18

Current page

19

Current page

20

Current page

21

Current page

22

Current page

23

Current page

24

Current page

25

Current page

26

Current page

27

Current page

28

Current page

29

Current page

30

Current page

31

Current page

32

Current page

33

Current page

34

Current page

35

Current page

36

Current page

37

Current page

38

Current page

39

Current page

40

Current page

41

Current page

42

Current page

43

Current page

44

Current page

45

Current page

46

Current page

47

Current page

48

Current page

49

Current page

50

Current page

51

Current page

52

Current page

53

Current page

54

Current page

55

Current page

56

Current page

57

Current page

58

Current page

59

Current page

60

Current page

61

Current page

62

Current page

63

Current page

64

Current page

65

Current page

66

Current page

67

Current page

68

Current page

69

Current page

70

Current page

71

Current page

72

Current page

73

Current page

74

Current page

75

Current page

76

Current page

77

Current page

78

Current page

79

Current page

80

Current page

81

Current page

82

Current page

83

Current page

84

Current page

85

Current page

86

Current page

87

Current page

88

Current page

89

Current page

90

Current page

91

Current page

92

Current page

93

Current page

94

Current page

95

Current page

96

Current page

97

Current page

98

Current page

99

Current page

100

Current page

101

Current page

102

Current page

103

Current page

104

Current page

105

Current page

106

Current page

107

Current page

108

Current page

109

Current page

110

Current page

111

Current page

112

Current page

113

Current page

114

Current page

115

Current page

116

Current page

117

Current page

118

Current page

119

Current page

120

Current page

121

Current page

122

Current page

123

Current page

124

Current page

125

Current page

126

Current page

127

Current page

128

Current page

129

Current page

130

Current page

131

Current page

132

Current page

133

Current page

134

Current page

135

Current page

136

Current page

137

Current page

138

Current page

139

Current page

140

Current page

141

Current page

142

Current page

143

Current page

144

Current page

145

Current page

146

Current page

147

Current page

148

Current page

149

Current page

150

Current page

151

Current page

152

Current page

153

Current page

154

Current page

155

Current page

156

Current page

157

Current page

158

Current page

159

Current page

160

Current page

161

Current page

162

Current page

163

Current page

164

Current page

165

Current page

166

Current page

167

Current page

168

Current page

169

Current page

170

Current page

171

Current page

172

Current page

173

Current page

174

Current page

175

Current page

176

Current page

177

Current page

178

Current page

179

Current page

180

Current page

181

Current page

182

Current page

183

Current page

184

Current page

185

Current page

186

Current page

187

Current page

188

Current page

189

Current page

190

Current page

191

A retrospective show celebrating a lifetime of car design proves that even at 71, Gordon Murray remains as innovative as ever

When Gordon Murray decided that his 50 years in cars was worth remembering, it coincided with a new project and a new factory. Not content with creating Formula 1 race winners, the greatest supercar yet built, an eco city car and redesigning the entire process of car manufacture, Gordon has decided to start a new car marque.

Partly to announce that and partly in celebration of those 50 years of achievement, Murray’s team assembled an amazing once-in-a-lifetime show of 40 cars he has created, from his IGM Ford built at his South African home in 1967 to the latest TVR Griffith, in a brand-new building at Dunsfold aerodrome. While Gordon Murray Design remains at Shalford, Surrey, expanding his revolutionary iStream manufacturing process, Dunsfold will be home to Gordon Murray Automotive, developing and building small-run cars under the IGM label (it stands for Ian Gordon Murray). And while Gordon was reticent about detail as he announced it, the first car will be a compact, light supercar designed by Murray’s never-varying philosophy of ‘lightness first’.

You could see that principle in the man’s own car collection – not supercars but flyweights: Fiat 500, Alfa Romeo SZ, Mini, Abarths, Elans – all weighing in at less than 1000kg. It’s Murray’s obsession.

NEXT DOOR we strolled around the ‘One Formula’ exhibition, Gordon chatting casually about his Grand Prix-winning cars, most of which were lined up here from BT42 through the red Alfa Romeo era and blue and white title-winning years into McLaren glory, including the BT46B fan car. “Chapman made up the stuff about stones being fired at following drivers,” he said wryly, patting the dustbin-sized fan cowling. “The air exit speed was only about 50mph.”

That IGM logo appeared at the start of Murray’s design life, on that T1 sports car, and while the car here is a recent replica, the original IGM-badged steering wheel was hanging on the wall. Alongside was a reconstruction of Gordon’s first office featuring his drawing board, desk, instruments and Dansette record player. Music’s another theme – the show was backed by hundreds of LP covers.

Amazingly it’s 25 years since the McLaren F1 redefined the word supercar, and a squad of them on show ran through ‘base’ model and LM winner to the long-tail GTR. But in between the physical vehicles were the ‘ghost cars’ – projects that never materialised, such as a McLaren 2+2 supercar, a side-by-side two-seater to partner his tandem Rocket, a Brabham-Offy Indy car.

In this fascinating show, occupying the spaces that will see new IGMs created, one thing was noticeable: Murray is incapable of making an ugly car. Even the flat-pack Ox truck, assembled from simple panels, and the garden tractor he knocked up using Tyrrell six-wheeler tyres have attractive proportions. Speaking of gardens, also on show were some of the soapbox karts that every year fly down a rough track in Gordon’s private ‘grass prix’ at his place in France. This is not a conventional corporate man.

Convention is in fact so far from Murray’s standpoint that he hopes to disrupt the whole car manufacturing industry, and his tiny city cars demonstrate that. Minimal is the game, although the last car in the show is the brawny TVR Griffith; but GMD managed to fillet even this roadburner so it’s 300kg less lardy than its rivals. Weight, he says, is “the last frontier. Car companies will pay more than ever for every kilo saved. On the other hand, an iStream structure is not only innately lighter but completely future-proof. We don’t care whether it’s petrol, electric, hybrid or hydrogen, or if it’s autonomous, it can adapt simply. Well,” he adds after a pause, “I personally care if it’s autonomous…”

SITTING ON a red and white vinyl sofa by a glowing jukebox issuing rock & roll classics, he told me about what comes next. The aim is to develop and licence his iStream principle from Shalford, while at Dunsfold GMA will develop cars for clients and build prototypes. Plus its own IGM designs. “In very limited quantities – 50 or 60 cars. We don’t want to be another car company, another Ferrari.”

He’s unlike Enzo in another way, too: he values his history, retaining all drawings, notes and records. “But I can’t think how I had the energy to design all these cars!”

Currently he’s restoring a BT44B Brabham, too. “I drove every Brabham up to the BT48,” he says. Did he time himself? “Oh no. I was good enough to win a few races in South Africa, but I’m no F1 hand. But it was valuable to feel the spring progression, the damping, the gearchange function.”

The exhibition wasn’t open to the public – insurance and facilities concerns scuppered that. However, the next best thing is on the way in spring – the book of Murray’s career. I don’t think it will be dull.

Later, Gordon was the guest on one of our RAC/Motor Sport talk shows, and as usual sparkled. You can hear that on the Motor Sport website. But the conversation carried on once the mikes were off: how George Harrison tried teaching him to play guitar, and he still has Harrison’s annotated scores, about aircraft – “I’ve designed a simple aircraft on iStream principles, a rugged short-strip machine something like the Britten-Norman Islander” – and about architecture.

“I love architecture,” he said, eyes lighting up, flicking through his phone for pictures. “I keep building on to my houses, and I have a thing about polygons. I moved an octagonal church and rebuilt it beside our English place. Even our bedroom is octagonal!” There’s also a place in Scotland, on a little bay in a wild north-western corner of Sutherland. He’s amazed I know it and pulls up pictures. “I’ve designed loads of houses,” he says, “but this was the first completely new design.” It’s obvious the whole process excited him as much as – well, everything else he tackles. So just how many hours are there in a Murray day? “I don’t sleep much,” he shrugs.