The third project from Gordon Murray Automotive could continue to draw its power from a naturally aspirated V12 engine, pushing back the young firm’s first hybrid unit until Project Four.
Speaking to Autocar, founder Gordon Murray said recent European exemptions to the 2035 new combustion cars ban – which allow car makers producing fewer than 1000 cars per year to continue sales (GMA plans to make around 100 cars) – opens the door to “squeezing out” another V12 model.
“When we launched T33 [the Spider, pictured below], we said that was absolutely and categorically going to be the last non-hybrid car that we would make,” said Murray. “But of course, with these rule changes, we might even squeeze out another with Project Three.”
However, there are obstacles in its way. One is here in the UK, where the government last week announced it would not mirror the EU’s plans, instead reaffirming new cars must be hybrid-only from the end of the decade and full electric from 2035.
Another is the US, which accounts for around half of GMA’s total sales. Currently, individual states are drawing up their own plans to tackle climate change. California, for example, has already confirmed it will ban new combustion car sales from 2035.
“We need to watch and see what happens there,” said Murray, hinting that those decisions hold the key to which powertrain Project Three will use.
Speaking about what form this car will take, Murray said that is still up for debate: “In my head, I’ve got all sorts of ideas.”
But he indicated it will continue in the same vein as the T50 and T33, as a limited-run sports car. When it arrives, Project Three will, like the cars before it, sit on an all-new platform.
A launch date of 2027 is expected, as Murray confirmed production of the third T33 variant, a hardcore model, will finish before it arrives and this is pencilled to run in 2026.
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At least in the past Autocar and Murray Ltd bothered to do a drawing about their next concept car, now they just write and let the reader fill in the gaps.
There's like 15 new articles about company cars and finance and tax. You should read them all and comment in every one about "tax dodgers" buying hybrids :-)
Only if it's relevant, unlike Murray press releases about teenage dream car drawings.
Given the price tags, low production volumes, and arguably overly analogue designs of GMA cars, I wonder if Autocar and other UK car magazines are giving too much publicity to what Gordon Murray is doing. Murray has had an interesting and varied career, but the McLaren F1 is very overrated and was released about 30 years ago; and most of his more recent projects, including the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, have been somewhat quirky and perhaps a little eccentric. From some of his interviews in recent years, I sense that he likes to swim against the tide of opinion about car design and manufacturing, but the exotic car market is very different now compared to when the F1and SLR were launched and some of his ideas might be those of a car designer out of his time. Overall, with so few new car launches at the moment, it looks as if anything Murray says or does gets disproportionate media coverage. Things might get more interesting when some proper motoring journalists finally get to drive the T.50 on roads and track.
Maybe, but he only has to find 100 extremely rich people who agree with his philosophioes. His cars are all sold out.
True, but that's probably on the back of how much the F1 has appeciated in value, especially over the last 20 years. Approximately 106 F1s were manufaciured (but only 64 were road versions). I am prettty certain that T.50s will not be a common sight on UK roads - but that's also true for a lot of other exotica that costs more than £1m.