Here it is: the first official image of Gordon Murray’s T.50, the spiritual heir to the legendary McLaren F1. You can certainly see shades of the ‘Big Mac’ in the sleek coupé, not least in the split side windows and the slightly raised spine. What the F1 didn’t have that the T.50 does, however, is a 400mm airflow-regulating fan dominating its backside. The feature, which Murray pioneered on the Brabham BT46B Formula 1 car back in the 1980s, will reportedly make the T.50 the most aerodynamically advanced road car of all time. There will be six aero modes enabling the driver to optimise dynamic and outright performance. These are Auto, Braking, High Downforce, Streamline, Vmax and Test. 

Murray has also revealed that further development of the T.50 – a car that will be powered by a naturally aspirated Cosworth V12 that revs to 12,100rpm and develop an astonishing 650bhp, have a manual gearbox, tip the scales at just 980kg and feature three-abreast seating (like the F1) – will be undertaken in partnership with the Racing Point Formula 1 team. Most of the 100 T.50s Murray plans to build have apparently already been sold, though there’s still time to secure an order if you’ve got a spare £2m (excl. taxes) lying around. For a car designed by one of the world’s greatest automotive engineers and that will no doubt shred the hypercar rulebook into pieces, we don’t think that’s an unreasonable price to pay. 

Photos: Gordon Murray Automotive