now. I’ve lived with a 720S. The 720S McLaren is probably
the most capable sports car I’ve ever driven, but it doesn’t
get the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. You get
out of it and think, “My granny could have driven that.” The
noise doesn’t get me going. I don’t like the styling – not just a
McLaren thing. I don’t like this excuse that the wind tunnel
made it look like that, or because we’re doing 260mph it has
to look like this. That’s cobblers, really.’
And then we’re back to the F1: ‘It reset the standards for
packaging, the complete driving experience, the noise of the
engine, the interaction with the steering wheel, the pedals
and the gearchange, visibility, plus everyday useability for
the fi rst time ina supercar– luggage space, aircon. And that’s
what we’re doing again. I think it will probably be the last
great true analogue driver’s supercar.’
So, I wonder, does he like any modern cars? I know he
loves his classics – there was a divine Lotus Seven Series 2
parked in the number one spot outside the front door of his
Surrey offi ces when I arrived, after all. ‘I’ve got a new Alpine
A110, which is great fun,’ he says with not a little amount
of passion. ‘Which just shows, once you get light you don’t
need the power, or the torque even. It’s plenty quick enough
to have fun. It’s not a supercar, but it’s a brilliant little thing.
If it was a little bit smaller it would be the perfect motor car,
but it’s just 100mm too wide.’ Murray never refers to ‘cars’, it’s
always ‘motor cars’.
It rapidly becomes apparent that there is a body of high-
net-worth individuals who won’tleave him alone when it
comes to creating ‘a new F1’: ‘I’ve been lobbied for a few years
- “please do another one”, “please don’t make it big”, “make
it small and useable, and manual gearbox”.’ That last point
caught Murray by surprise. ‘The one thing I was prepared to
give up on was the manual,’ he says. ‘I didn’t want to go to
a DSG because that’s a complete non-event and it’s a heavy,
nasty thing, but we were looking at a manual sequential, so
you’d still be involved, but I got lobbied saying, “Please make
it a manual”. These people are telling me they’re now taking
out their old 911s and classic cars to get some involvement
again, and I had other people telling me their supercars are
so wide they’re terrified to drive them in Britain, even on
A-roads. The T.50 is 30mm wider and 80mm longer than an
F1, but with more cabin and luggage space, and still has a
smaller footprint than a 911.’
To be fair to Murray, he’s not afraid to pick holes in his
own work. He calls the F1’s headlamps ‘pathetic’, isn’t that
complimentary about the brakes (‘we tried for 12 months
to make carbon brakes work, but couldn’t’), and tells me the
heating and air con set-up was a victim of weight saving (for
the sake of 1.4kg) and never did workthat well. But what
really gets himgoing, what animates him, isthe T.50’s engine
and aerodynamics, saying, tongue in cheek, obviously, that
‘you get the rest of the car for free’.
‘It was never going to be anything other than a naturally
aspirated V12. I wouldn’t look at anything else,’ he insists
fl atly. ‘I went to Cosworth with a spec. I started by looking
at a 3.3-litre, but when we did the sums a 3.3 won’tlet you
get under 900kg, so going to a 4-litre and still keeping it
under 1000kg was a better torque-to-weight sum from a
driving point of view. We actually call it a 3.9 and we make
more power than the F1 made from 6.1 litres. We’re doing
two engine maps: a discreet one with all the torque moved
down [the rev range] with timing and fuelling, which you
can now do with electronics [unlike the cable-throttle F1],
good for cruising or going to the shops. We call it Ferrari revs
- 9000rpm. And then you go to the 12,400rpm fast map...
I can’t wait. Ever since we started this I can feel this car; I
can see it in my head. It’ll be the best driving experience
you can have.
‘Paul Rosche [the BMW engine guru who designed the F1’s
V12] was a great friend and a genius. I said to himit has to rev
higher and have a better power density than a Ferrari, and it
did. It also had the fastest engine response – 10,000rpm per
second with its carbon clutch. F1 owners love putting it in
neutral and giving it a kick, as its like a 1-litre bike engine.’
The T.50’s engine takes things even further, of course: ‘I
said to Cosworthit mustrevto morethan12, and theysucked
through their teeth, but they’ve done it. And the engine pick-
up speed is 28,000rpm a second, which even as an engineer
Above:central driving seat, naturally aspirated V12, manual gearbox, and fan-generated downforce – the T.50 has everything customers asked for, and more