From the McLaren F1 to the T.50: the road cars that made Gordon Murray

And that includes Murray's most famous creation, the McLaren F1. Built in 1992, it had a 635PS (468kW) 6.0-litre BMW V12, getting it from 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds and onto 240mph, mind-bending speeds even by today's standards.

But, as Andrew Frankel of this parish noted previously, to truly understand how pivotal the McLaren was, you need to compare it to the model it replaced as the fastest car in the world – the Jaguar XJ220.  With 635PS (467kW), the McLaren was 86PS (63kW) up on the Jaguar and, here's the kicker, was 300kg lighter, tipping the scales at just 1,138kg.

The F1 was not an uncompromising supercar, however. Along with the McLaren's performance, you got an excellent seating position, superb visibility, room for three, decent luggage space, and a tractable engine crammed into a tiny footprint nearly two-thirds-of-a-metre shorter than a Jaguar XJ220. It was a 'have your cake and eat it' car. 

Perfect? Not quite. Murray would later bemoan the untidy design of the light-switch bracket in the engine bay, which he moved from its original position because the airflow lifted the engine cover at speed. You can't win them all. 

But the F1's not the only car Murray has designed. The Light Car Company Rocket followed the F1 as an advert for simplicity. Because needless complexity leads to only one thing: weight, and Murray hates weight.

As did the Rocket. With the body of a 1960s Formula 1 car, a bike engine and two tandem seats, Murray's second production car (actually, it was a quadricycle) tipped the scales at 380kg meaning its 160PS (118kW) converted to a power-to-weight ratio of 420PS (309kW) per tonne, or about the same as a Pagani Zonda S. Which is fine. 

Murray's love for humble machines is legendary. He daily drove the NSX, thinks the Lotus Evora was one of the best cars ever made and currently drives an Alpine A110, a car that would be perfect, “if it had a naturally aspirated engine and a manual gearbox.”

Flashy badges and huge list prices cast no sway on the mind of Gordon Murray. 

When he benchmarked his McLaren F1 against the best supercars of the time – the Jaguar XJ220, Ferrari F40, Bugatti EB110 and Porsche 959 – he judged his own Honda NSX, costing a fraction of the price, to offer a better ride handling balance than any of them. Noting that, in the seven years he owned it, he never once had to adjust the temperature of the Honda's automatic air-conditioning.

Knowing this, it's easy to understand why Murray does not love the next car he put his name to – the Mercedes SLR McLaren. 'Compromise' is not his favourite word, and the SLR – built for a luxury car brand by a company more used to racing F1 cars – would always be compromised. 

True to form, Murray hated the SLR's needlessly huge dimensions stipulated by Mercedes to add 'presence', its lazy supercharged V8 engine and its slushy torque converter automatic gearbox. All of which were at odds with its McLaren-designed F1-grade carbon fibre, super-rigid bonded chassis and forged aluminium suspension wishbones. 

The OX flatpack truck was much more Murray's thing. Built to be easily transported to developing countries, the OX is about as far away from the SLR as possible, with a chassis that doubles as a protective transport box before assembly. This beat packaging meant 40 OXs could be stored in one shipping container and, on arrival, each could be assembled in 12 hours by a three-person team.

Using a Ford Transit's engine and gearbox, the front-wheel drive truck had a payload of 1,900kg – nearly double that of a Ford Ranger pickup, and its combination of short overhangs and long travel suspension meant it performed so well offroad that four-wheel drive wasn't necessary. 

But the devil was in the OX's detail. Its suspension parts are identical on all four corners, its body parts are a mirror image on either side and instead of an expensive windscreen, you get three flat panes of glass you can replace separately, all to save costs. 

The OX was designed using lessons learned in Murray's iStream manufacturing process, which aims to reduce the weight of a typical family car by 20 per cent and reduce the number of body panel components by more than 50 per cent. A pair of electric family SUVs will be designed using the same process and will be an excellent opportunity for mere mortals to experience Murray's genius firsthand. 

But for now, Murray's focus is on the launch of his T.33 and T.50 supercars. The former is powered by a 615PS (453kW) naturally aspirated 4.0-litre Cosworth V12 that spins to 11,100rpm and turns the back wheels via a manual gearbox that also serves as a structural member of the rear suspension. A combination of an aluminium frame with carbon fibre sandwich panels is incredibly rigid, but the McLaren weighs just 1,139kg wet.

The T.50 is the big daddy, though, and the closest thing we have to a spiritual successor to the F1, with the same three-seater central driving position, carbon fibre chassis, and a Cosworth V12 now producing 633PS (488kW) that can rev at up to 12,100rpm. However, the T. 50's stand-out feature is its fan-based ground-effect aero package, which develops 30 per cent more downforce than the T.33.

The T.50 is the latest model from Murray's 60-year career in design and engineering, and it's hard to imagine a more fitting addition to the Goodwood lawn than the Central Feature dedicated to his work that will be on show at this year's Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard. Given who it honours, you can expect it to be one of the most striking we've seen yet.

Murray and his creations will be the centre of attention across all four days of the Festival of Speed, with cars set to feature in the Supercar Paddock and a bespoke area dedicated to telling the story of Murray’s career, and the development of his company, GMA.

The 2025 Festival of Speed takes place on 10^th-13^th July. Saturday tickets are now sold out, but Thursday, Friday and Sunday tickets are still available. 

Images courtesy of Getty Images.

Goodwood photography by Pete Summers and Joe Harding.