Gordon Murray T.50’s V12 will rev to 12,100rpm

Ahead of the T.50’s public debut on 4^th August, GMA has spilled the beans at last about the new car’s engine. It will be the world’s highest revving, fastest responding, most power dense, and lightest naturally-aspirated V12 road car engine ever. Coming from anyone other than Gordon Murray you’d be sceptical.

We already knew it was going to be a naturally-aspirated V12, developed as a bespoke unit with Cosworth, but now we have some figures to work with. Like 663PS (654bhp) at 11,500rpm and 467Nm of torque at 9,000rpm.

Its 3.9-litre capacity will deliver a specific power output of 168PS (166bhp) per litre, a record for a non-turbo road engine says GMA, and it will be safe to rev to a Formua 1-like 12,100rpm (the McLaren F1 was all through at 7,500rpm).

GMA has even put a figure on the engine’s responsiveness. It is 28,400 revs per second. That’s how fast this V12 can pick up revs, where the McLaren F1’s BMW-made V12 could manage only 10,000 revs a second. In practice, says GMA, the T.50’s V12 can go from zero rpm to the 12,100rpm redline in three tenths of a second.

And if you thought that torque peak might make the car undrivable in normal traffic, think again, says Murray. Seventy per cent of maximum pulling power is available from 2,500rpm.

There’s no number put on the sound this V12 makes, just another “world’s best” promise that among road cars it will be right up at the top. Like the F1 before it, induction noise from the ram-air inlet in the car’s roof is piped direct into the cabin, so the car stays hushed on part throttle but gets very angry when you press down on what will most definitely be the loud pedal.

“You can never get a great sound from a turbocharged engine,” Murray tells us. “The T.50 engine sound is going to be phenomenal. As you push towards the upper end of the rev range the V12 will sing like nothing else on the road.”

Another thing the engine has to do: look good. The designer says he is taking a leaf from the McLaren F1 book and showing off the V12 in all its naked glory as an antidote to too many messy and half-hidden supercar engines. So there are no carbon or plastic covers or belt-driven ancillaries (everything in the engine is gear-driven) to spoil the show, and to ensure a good view, the V12 is visible beneath twin rear panels which hinge open from the car’s spine, gullwing fashion.

The engine, mated to a bespoke six-speed manual ‘box from Xtrac and driving the rear wheels only, sets another road car record on weight, says GMA. With a 13kg crankshaft and titanium conrods, valves and clutch housing, the alloy V12 tips the scales at just 178kg. The gearbox weighs 80.5kg. This entire drivetrain forms a semi-structural part of the car while its compact dimensions, and notably low crank height, contribute to the T.50’s low centre of gravity.

The aim is for the T.50 to be the lightest supercar overall. GMA says it is on target to come in at under a tonne, 980kg to be precise, and consequently deliver what GMA describes as the ultimate responses and driver engagement. Obviously the car’s performance won’t be lacking, but as for specifics GMA is keeping them up its sleeve for now.

“More than half of any truly great driving experience is delivered by the engine, so right from the start I set the highest possible benchmark – to create the world’s greatest naturally-aspirated V12,” says Gordon Murray. “I started my career as an engine designer, so conceiving and specifying a 100 per cent bespoke V12 for the T.50 was a joy and something I’ve been waiting to do for years.”

He says for inspiration he looked to the 3.5-litre Honda V12 that powered the McLaren MP4/6 Formula 1 cars in the early 1990s, an engine he regards as the pinnacle. For Cosworth it was a tough gig as managing director Bruce Wood says: “The criteria and benchmarks set by Gordon comprised one of the toughest engine briefs we’ve ever taken on. It pushes the boundaries in every direction.”

That’s the GMA T.50 engine then ­– a Cosworth masterpiece set to be the beating heart of another Gordon Murray icon of supercar design? Time will tell, but in the meantime there’s a lot here to take in… and that’s without getting into the T.50’s three-seat, central driving position cabin, its 48-volt starter-generator, its various aerodynamic modes including a V-Max setting, or most fascinatingly its giant fan to suck it to the ground like Murray’s GP-winning but short-lived Formula 1 Brabham BT46B Fan Car of 1978. Roll on 4^th August when the covers come off!

F1 image courtesy of Motorsport Images.