- MORE THAN 40 ICONIC RACE AND ROAD CARS FROM GORDON MURRAY’S CAREER TO GATHER FOR CELEBRATION EVENT THIS NOVEMBER
- HIGHLIGHTS WILL INCLUDE BRABHAM AND MCLAREN FORMULA 1 CARS, McLAREN SUPERCARS, LIGHTWEIGHT CONCEPTS, ONE-OFF SPECIALS AND CITY CARS
- VENUE IS THE BRAND-NEW FACILITY FOR GORDON MURRAY DESIGN AT DUNSFOLD, SURREY
- INVITATION-ONLY EXHIBITION AVAILABLE TO ALL, VIA ONLINE ‘VIRTUAL TOUR’
- ANNIVERSARY EVENTS COINCIDE WITH EXCITING NEWS ABOUT ALL-NEW, GROUND-BREAKING VEHICLE
4.8.2017.- A unique exhibition will gather – for the first and possibly only time in one location – more than 40 iconic and historically significant race and road cars from Professor Gordon Murray’s 50-year career.
This landmark exhibition will celebrate Professor Murray’s five decades of vehicle design and engineering. And car and motorsport enthusiasts across the world will be able to take a ‘virtual tour’ online of the stunning exhibits themselves and hear some of Gordon Murray’s comments on some of the most iconic cars.
The collection on display will encompass almost every car that Murray has designed or influenced, including ground-breaking Brabham and McLaren Formula 1 cars, McLaren road-going supercars, lightweight concepts, advanced sports cars, one-off specials and radical city cars.
There will also be a host of displays that provide an insight into how these iconic cars have shaped the modern automotive world, as well as the many cultural inspirations for Murray’s work over the decades.
Professor Murray has masterminded the week-long exhibition in order to provide private viewings for the friends, colleagues and industry figures he has encountered throughout his career.
A detailed online ‘virtual tour’ of the exhibition will be accessible through the Gordon Murray Design website (www.gordonmurraydesign.com), shortly after the exclusive, invitation-only event. Any visitor to the website will be able to explore the various installations at their leisure, reviewing the unique characteristics and historical provenance of each vehicle.
The venue for the landmark celebration will be a brand-new facility in Dunsfold, Surrey, England. After the exhibition has concluded and the cars have departed, the site will be fitted out for Gordon Murray Design to use as its automotive centre, as well as for its design, development and production operations.
The exhibition coincides with other notable anniversaries for Prof. Murray in 2017: the 10th year of operation for Gordon Murray Design, 25 years since the McLaren F1 road car entered production and the 10th anniversary of the innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing technology, trademarked iStream®.
To add to the anticipation surrounding this event, on the first day of the exhibition, Friday 3rd November, there will be an exciting news announcement concerning an all-new, ground-breaking vehicle.
Vehicles on display will include:
- 1967 IGM Ford Special (T.1).
- 1978 Brabham BT46B ‘Fan Car’ (T.9).
- 1981 Brabham BT49C Championship Winner.
- 1983 Brabham BMW BT52 World Championship Car (T.15).
- 1988 McLaren MP4/4 Championship-winner (T.19).
- 1995 McLaren F1 GTR Le Mans Winning Car.
- 1996 McLaren F1 LM.
- 2013 Yamaha City Car (T.26).
- 2016 GVT OX (T.34).
“It will be a very proud and emotional day to see all these cars brought together, as they chart my professional life, as well as my perspective over the decades on complex challenges in vehicle design and engineering,” explains Professor Gordon Murray.
He adds: “Making this event happen presents a huge logistical challenge, as many of the vehicles are in private collections and distributed all around the world. Added to that is the fact almost all the cars are one-offs, and their value is greatly enhanced both by their rarity and, in many cases, by their race-winning pedigree. I am hugely appreciative of the generosity of those owners in granting us temporary custodianship of their cars for this unique event.”
Professor Gordon Murray moved to the UK in 1969 and joined the Brabham Formula One Team as Technical Director winning two world championships (1981 & 1983) during his 17 years with the team. Gordon joined McLaren Racing as Technical Director in 1988 and three consecutive championship wins (1988, 1989 & 1990) followed. 1990 saw a move away from Formula One, after 50 Grand Prix wins, to enable him to concentrate his efforts on establishing a new company for the Group – McLaren Cars Ltd. The Company’s first project, the F1 Road Car is still regarded as the world’s best engineered car. A racing version won two world sports car championships and the Le Mans 24-hour race on its first attempt in 1995. McLaren Cars then completed several other successful projects culminating with the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren programme. Gordon left the McLaren Group in 2005 to set up his new company. In July 2007, Gordon Murray Design was established to develop an innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing technology, trademarked iStream® along with the T.25, a radical city car, central to both the development and validation of iStream®.
Gordon Murray Design Limited is a British company operating from Shalford, Surrey. The Company is recognised as a world leader in automotive design and reverses the current industry trend for sub-contracting by having a complete in-house capability for design, prototyping and development. The Company is compact and focused and undertakes automotive and other engineering programmes in an efficient and innovative way. For more information please visit gordonmurraydesign.com
Source: Gordon Murray Design
Photograph: Gordon Murray Design
