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"I saw a car at the auto show today, and I couldn't order takeout, I couldn't chat with people, and I didn't ask you to make a bed for the night. It treats itself like a car—like a neurosis. ”
People are frantically pushing cars towards anything other than cars: it's a smart terminal, it's the fourth space, it's an ai-powered robot, it's an emotional partner for the user... They can evolve, they communicate, they have emotions, they know warmth. When you watch it grow, when it lives with you, what cats, dogs, dogs, and dogs do you want to have children? Increase the birth rate, starting from being wary of car ads playing the emotional card.
Pull away, hug back. The good news is that there are still people in this world who feel: the car is still wide to return to the essence of transportation.
One of them, Gordon Murray, is approaching the New Year of the Tiger, and his self-reliant GMA (Gordon Murray Automotive) released its second model, the T.33, a cheap version of its people-friendly model. Ten days later, the limited 100-unit, $1.8 million two-seater coach sold out.
Don't rush to change the station, only look at the luxury car supercar as a consumer product that "I can't afford it, so it has nothing to do with me"? Pattern smaller friends.
Gordon Murray is no stranger to friends who love performance cars and is also an excellent tool for testing "fan purity". He is the lead designer of McLaren F1, one of The most expensive supercars in Bluestar (the higher value of the 250 GTOs, which strictly does not belong to the supercar), single-handedly created the latest four-wheeled motor vehicle legend with a hammer price of more than $20 million.
Of course, you may often hear that so-and-so crooked nuts are so-and-so car designers. But Gordon Murray and McLaren F1 are different, and around the 1990s, McLaren had no civilian car business, and there was basically no interference from other aspects. So the McLaren F1 was built almost exactly according to Gordon Murray's intentions, and has remained a god to this day.
Please find Mika Hakinen in the picture
The story of the McLaren F1 is not enough for decades (at least so far), and a book is completely insufficient (and indeed there are many Chinese and foreign books dedicated to telling). Ben Hu dared to help friends who didn't know anything about it condense a few key points: the unique three-seat layout of the mid-seat driver's seat, the V12 high-speed self-priming engine customized to BMW, the global speed record at the time of its birth, and the Le Mans race list in the late 90s.
Gordon Murray later worked on the SLR project with Mercedes-Benz at McLaren, but the SLR, influenced by Mercedes-Benz's needs, was a far cry from the car Gordon most wanted to build. The original McLaren F1 model team later scattered, and Gordon Murray set up his own GMA. Therefore, McLaren's latest tribute to F1 Speedtail, although it is the same layout of three seats, is in line with the F1 appearance of that year.
After the establishment of the GMA in addition to engaged in some technology development, by 2020 finally launched its first mass production supercar, directly positioning the McLaren F1 new era heir GMA T.50. As Gordon Murray's own autograph sequel, the T.50 and McLaren F1 are far closer to each other than the same brand's McLaren Speedtail.
In addition to inheriting the three-seat layout, the V12's high-spin self-priming and sticking to the manual transmission, the T.50 also added gordon Murray's first disabled tail active grounding fan designed by Gordon Murray on a Brabham F1 car in the 70s. The GMA T.50 is set at around $3 million, and if you have no idea about this order of magnitude, it is probably the level range of Bugatti Chiron and AMG ONE.
Then, Gordon Murray has a "pro-people" heart, and the T.33, which sells for only $1.8 million (presumably in the McLaren Senna range), arrives. Reduced some of the power, changed back to the normal two-seat layout, removed the light mix technology on the T.50, and the amazing large fan was of course cut. Even Gordon was sick, cutting out the carbon fiber monocoque body that is now standard in the supercar and replacing it with GMA's iStream Superlight aluminum/carbon hybrid body.
Well, that's the end of a slightly lengthy background introduction.
Pure super running news is too far away from everyone, all kinds of gorgeous performance data piled up is only too much of an addiction, these interested in the petrol heads, it is estimated that there are other channels to understand and like a number of family treasures. I would like to talk more about this retrograde car concept than the gordon Murray and GMA's two supercars themselves.
Whether you are interested in supercaring or not, in fact, the previous few pictures will feel that Gordon Murray's T.50/T.33 carries a strand of "Just this?" "Temperament. If the T.50 has a rear fan to hold the field, the T.33 doesn't have a $1.8 million sales appearance at all: it really doesn't look cheap (it's a sports car), but it doesn't look like it's "so expensive"
Recall LaFerrari, what kind of aura should be a million-level supercar, and we have not eaten pork and know a rough idea.
Although Gordon Murray is a performance car veteran of the Eight Classics, he is indeed a very special supercar designer. For example, the world-famous McLaren F1, his biggest dissatisfaction is "less luggage space", the simple grounding of the spirit of its utilitarianism, placed in the car forum is estimated to be scolded by keyboard heroes to withdraw from the net.
One hand shaped one of the most valuable supercars on the planet, and then complained there was nowhere to put luggage... One of the things Gordon Murray must do every time the GMA releases a new car is not to step on the accelerator to drift and pull smoke, but to demonstrate for himself whether it is convenient enough to open the luggage compartment.
Suitcase design of the T.33
In today's perspective, T.33 carries a sense of isolation from the era that is almost "not knowing what the traffic economy is", without any exaggerated and sharp lines, and without even a hint of deliberate attempt to tease the rich G-spot. Gordon Murray said that its inspiration comes from the 60s, and the soft and full lines of the T.33 are indeed like old Italian cars such as the Ferrari 250LM and Abarth OT2000.
Gordon Murray's attitude towards designs is "clean and simple as possible", and no part of it is a redundant design that does not have a specific role. So you will find that as a supercar T.33, there is nothing common in today's new cars - even 1.5T family cars - eight wind knives, six air intakes, four air outlets...
It is a top Hypercar that started with tens of millions of yuan and was born to be the focus of attention, but the traffic and eyeballs have never entered the scope of consideration.
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Performance is even more interesting, Gordon Murray's McLaren F1 was once the world speed record holder (1998, 386km/h), once won the top four of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, it can be said that the straight track two blossoms. Today, however, he says he doesn't care about performance – or more accurately, driving experience is a much higher priority than performance data (even lap times).
In terms of power, Gordon adheres to the fundamentalistic driving fun formula of self-priming + manual. Both the T.50 and T.33 feature 3.9L V12 engines from Cosworth, and the redline rev is 1.2/1.1 million rpm that drives Petrol Heads crazy. But the peak power of 600-700 horsepower is truly unremarkable in today's era of thousands of supercars. GMA put more energy into the engine's low-speed torque and power response speed.
The obsession with dynamic response led Gordon to join the light hybrid (T.50) rather than replace self-priming with a turbine. It is well known that self-priming high rotation is often unfavorable to low torque. So under his special request, the T.33 can start at 2500 rpm to output 75% of the torque, 4500 rpm or more than 90% of the torque - such a specific description is aimed at the real buyer, as for the seconds to break the hundred, horsepower numbers and the like, why should I meet the keyboard man.
The essence of GMA's brand is condensed into a few words: do not pursue popular fashion, do not pursue the top performance data, do not pursue sales, and never.
Small fans on the fringes like me and others love to think about it, and the new rich who don't really know how to drive don't have to be attached, just for 100 small groups of people who have money and leisure to know how to do things, to create products that are not eye-catching but they really enjoy. This is probably the entity of private domain traffic.
Gordon Murray and his GMA are the retrogrades of today's automotive world. Even if the supercar is the tip of the pyramid of the automobile industry, no big name dares to read these "no pursuits" in its entirety. In the entire automotive market, it is even more absolutely different. Even the pragmatist base, Wuling Hongguang, is embracing traffic, and you can't find anyone with a lantern who dares to say "I don't care" to those things.
Don't feel like the supercar is too far away from us, it all has nothing to do with us. The phrase in "The Queen Who Wears Prada" (don't think fashion has nothing to do with you) also applies to many industries such as automobiles, and if the pyramid really suddenly appears "from the virtual to the real", it may affect your and my car buying preferences in the not too long future.
“Simple and Honest”
We are in the "best" time in the automotive industry in the past century: the attention of the whole people, the top of the society, and the street chess masters all know Wei Xiaoliduo. New cars are like clouds, and you can find almost any of them for your taste. The moon in the water, the stars in the sky, what an outrageous idea to outer space, the car companies seem to be able to satisfy you, but you are afraid that you can't think of it yourself.
Only, if you talk about a new car that is honest and simple enough, "it is just a car quietly there", there is no, there will be no. No car company has dared to simplify itself, because "simple" things are thankless to go to the education market, and in today's era when it is difficult to spread than a sentence, the crude definition of oversatuation is regarded as the supreme truth.
Like a canvas containing any color in the world, it seems to exhaust the infinite possibilities, except for the transparent gray and white grid in Photoshop.