It will be supercar heaven at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering in California later this month when Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) unveils the first production version of the T.50 that has a central driving position and shows the T.33 and T.50s Niki Lauda to Americans for the first time.
The petrolhead week will culminate with the Gordon Murray-designed and iconic Brabham BT44B Formula One car racing in the hands of Dario Franchitti at Laguna Seca.
The T.50 is the first of 100 production cars, each of which will be completely bespoke to its respective owner and no two examples will even have the same paint colour. A production run of a maximum of 100 is a core GMA principle to ensure exclusivity for owners.
Professor Gordon Murray, Executive Chairman, says: “We have so much to celebrate at this year’s Monterey Car Week. Alongside showing the first production T.50 supercar, our open-top T.33 Spider makes its US debut – a car that will deliver a truly involving driving experience that’s quite unlike anything else.
Meanwhile, our T.50s also makes its U.S. debut in the form of the very first ‘XP1’ prototype. This special car – limited to just 25 examples – is designed to provide an on-track experience like no other. Showing the first prototype ahead of it beginning its development programme is extremely exciting.”
New T.33 Spider
The Spider version of the T.33 has an ultralight carbon monocoque technology that comprises carbon fibre composite panels bonded to extruded aluminium tubing triangulated at precision die-cast aluminium nodes.
Weighing just 1 108 kg it belts out 454 kW from its 3,9-litre Cosworth GMA.2 V12 engine, but it remain ‘road usable’ and the open top model has 295 litres of luggage space in total with a 115 litre front luggage compartment – which doubles as stowage space for the removable roof panels – plus a further 180 litres of storage space in the upper rear quarters of the car.
T.50 and track-only T.50s
The T.50 features advanced and effective aerodynamics with a prominent 400 mm rear-mounted fan boosting underbody ground effect to deliver an unrivalled driving experience.
Revving to 12 100 r/min, the Cosworth GMA V12 engine generates 492 kW and, while the T.50s Niki Lauda shares the same central driving position as the T.50, it is a completely new car from the ground up including its carbon fibre monocoque and every body panel.
Its 3,9-litre mid-mounted Cosworth GMAs engine produces 568 kW and drives the rear wheels through a bespoke Xtrac instantaneous six-speed paddle-shift transmission.
The car features a 1 758mm (69-inch)-wide delta wing mounted to the rear of the car, which works with the rear-mounted fan, a new front splitter, underbody aerofoil and adjustable diffusers to generate up to 1 200 kg of downforce.
The iconic Brabham BT44B Formula One car was designed by Gordon during his 17-year tenure as Technical Director at the Brabham F1 team and gave him his first Grand Prix win in the hands of Carlos Reutemann at Kyalami, South Africa, in 1974.
Colin Windell – proudly CHANGECARS
