Is the T25 the Car of the Future?
January 7, 2009 by admin
This silver wrapping hides a revolutionary new car from the British car designer Gordon Murray seats four in style, goes like a bomb, does 80mpg and costs barely more than $8,000. Is the T25 a glimpse into the future of the car?
Murray is one of the most innovative engineers of the past three decades. Like another legendary car designer Colin Chapman before him, he believes weight is the enemy. Murray has created plenty of lightweight, high performance road and race cars but his latest project, called T25, is designed to also be practical and affordable.
It will be small - bigger than a GWiz but not much bigger than a Smart car - and based on an incredibly light, computer-designed steel frame and powered by a tiny petrol or diesel engine, although manufacturers will be able to put in an electric motor if the market dictates.
The body panels will be made from a rugged plastic, reinforced with fibre and produced from recycled materials. Everything bolts together, can be easily repaired and the whole design is simple enough to be made in a small factory with a handful of workers, anywhere in the world.
How seriously we can take Professor Gordon Murray?
Well, in the 1970s he designed a series of groundbreaking (and track record- breaking) Formula One cars. He has been technical director of the McLaren team and his cars have won numerous constructors’ and drivers’ championships.
Then, in 1993, he designed the most radical sports car ever seen - the McLaren F1.
Capable of 243mph, this three-seater lightweight marvel was at least a decade ahead of its time and F1s are now about the most sought-after second-hand supercars there are.
So when Gordon Murray says we need to scrap everything we know about cars - ordinary cars, not 240mph megamachines - and start again, the industry sits up and takes notice.
‘Everything needs to change,’ he says. ‘How the car is designed, how it is made, what it is made from, how much space it takes up on the road, how much fuel it uses.’
Murray is keeping most of the car under wraps until they get all the patents lined up. Hopefully the T25 will be unveiled in early 2010.
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