Filed under: Manufacturing/Plants, Lightweight
Gordon Murray's Type-25 city car gets fleshed out
Since first hearing that ex-McLaren F1 supercar designer Gordon Murray had left the famous racing company to create his own design house and that its first product was to be a revolutionary city car, we've been anxiously awaiting more details to come to the surface. Lucky for us, they just have. Murray promises that his low-cost car will cut emissions in half and be cheap to purchase and manufacturer. In fact, twenty-percent fewer parts are said to be necessary for the assembly of the vehicle. So far, no real details on what will power the vehicle are available.We do know that Caparo, makers of the extremely impressive T1 supercar, are heavily involved in the project. This leads us to believe that some major use of composites is in order as carbon fiber is a specialty of Caparo. Murray has no plans to actually produce the vehicle; instead he will sell the plans to other automakers for them to offer to the public. Interestingly, Murray also claims that shipping expenses will also be reduced as the vehicle can be flat packed Ikea-style.
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
armmat 8:52PM (7/03/2008)
What....now that Gordon Murray comes up with a design, everyone listens?
Ridiculous...this guy gets way too much credit for a one-off.
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Turbofrog 12:54PM (7/04/2008)
Given Murray's track record (no pun intended), I'm willing to give him some credit. Really, I'm interested in any novel attempt to solve problems, so I think the more people with ideas, the better.
a.brien 12:16AM (7/04/2008)
It should be fast and economical. It looks as a good idea.
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CM 12:59AM (7/04/2008)
Flat pack? Reminds me of the "inflatable car" idea that came, created a buzz, then sorta faded away. It, too, was supposed to ship in a few small boxes, then be assembled and inflated by the customer.
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GoodCheer 9:23AM (7/04/2008)
The business model of making up a neat car design and selling it to an OEM sounds great, but from what I understand that's a strong mentality of "Not Invented Here" for any commodity manufacturer when looking at the designs from other designers.
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Joseph 8:37PM (7/04/2008)
I guess that since he's already made one of the best, most expensive cars in the world now he needs to get started on one of the cheapest.
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Joce03 6:57PM (7/05/2008)
If you can get a hold of the magazine "evo" (British car magazine, but if I can get it in PEI, Canada, its gotta be available anywhere!), in which Mr Murray has often written, you'll see that he has always been about light-weight and efficient design. Although this car seems to be a far cry from the McLaren F1, if you follow his career a bit, you'll see that the Type-25 makes sense. And besides, an efficient, inexpensive car designed by the guy who made the F1... Sign me up!