McLaren F1 Designer Gordon Murray Is Making A Tiny Sports Car
Gordon Murray - the legendary F1 designer - is working on a new sports car. And as if that wasn’t already reason enough to get excited, the press release tells us to expect a car that’s “inspired by the engineering principles of the McLaren F1.” Oh yes.
Very little has been revealed about the planned machine thus far, but we do know it’ll be sold under the new ‘IGM’ brand’. That stands for ‘Ian Gordan Murray - the designer’s full name - in case you were wondering.
We’re also told the car “will focus on light weight and driving pleasure,” and be built using Murray’s space frame-based ‘iStream’ manufacturing process. Only here, the steel will be replaced with high-strength aluminium to save weight. Overall, the method saves around 50 per cent of weight on the body-in-white structure compared to stamped metal.
As well as being light, there’s also an expectation for it to be much smaller than its rivals. In fact, Autocar is going as far as saying the car “is believed to be about the same size as the Smart Roadster.”
Colour us intrigued…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Interestingly he also has said that the car has less power than the new TVR that he designed, so it should be a very interesting lightweight mid-engined sports car. If he does it right it could be a proper rival to the Porsche Cayman. He also says he hopes he doesn’t have to turbocharge it, so we may get a nice high revving naturally aspirated engine in it too.
And the company will go the Fisker way and get bankrupt because he won’t be able to afford the cost of North American homologation, and won’t be able to sell any vehicle.
I have quite a bad feeling about it.
Roadster READ THE BOTTOM
IS IT FINALLY THE THING I WAS WAITING FOR?
“Is believed to be about the same size as the Smart Roadster”
Are we finally getting the next generation Roadster I have been waiting for?
No. No it won’t
Can we have a high performance car for the masses please
This should be quite interesting. Hopefully it’ll be a serious driver’s car to rival the likes of the Cayman and new A110. Let’s hope it isn’t too expensive though…
Relatively lightweight small sports cars are a trend I can get behind :)
did someone say “new a110” Roadster NathanielLucky VroomVroom
I‘m excited ! Very high hopes for the design it’ll have as well
“Tiny” you mean its gonna cost a lot and gonna have a lot of horsepower..
F*ck i need a time machine because i cant wait.
This sounds amazing
With all the horrible news about cars being discontinued and all the electric car bs this is really refreshing