Gordon Murray Automotive: The supercar stars of Goodwood
This week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed will celebrate the 60-year career of Gordon Murray CBE. From his early days at the Brabham F1 team to establishing his own car company, Murray is one of the motoring world’s greatest innovators.
Born in South Africa, the young Murray designed, built and raced his own ‘IGM-Ford’ sports car. He was subsequently hired by Bernie Ecclestone at Braham, where he helped Nelson Piquet win two Drivers’ World Championships and developed the revolutionary BT46B ‘fan car’. A move to McLaren in 1987 yielded more F1 success – not least the all-conquering MP4/4, which won 15 out of 16 races during the 1988 season.
In 1992, Murray realised his vision for the ultimate road car: the McLaren F1. Still regarded as a high watermark for supercars, it went on to spawn the Le Mans-winning F1 GTR. Twenty five years later, the F1 also inspired the T.50: the first car from Gordon Murray Automotive.
I visited GMA’s newly constructed factory, where CEO Phillip Lee gave me a guided tour. We discussed plans for Goodwood, the GMA story so far and what is next for Britain’s most exclusive and exciting car manufacturer. One thing is certain: after six decades of pushing boundaries in automotive design and engineering, Gordon Murray doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon.
It’s the featured marque at Goodwood Festival of Speed
As the featured marque at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2025, the cars of Gordon Murray will be displayed on the enormous sculpture positioned in front of Goodwood House. “Having the central feature will make me so proud,” said Phillip Lee. “Our statue will be very different to any that have come before. We’re very keen to talk about the history of the brand, and of Gordon himself.”
All will be revealed later this week, but expect to see a mixture of road and racing cars that reflect Murray’s long and distinguished career – including at least one vehicle from Gordon Murray Automotive. GMA supercars will also be doing timed runs up the Goodwood hillclimb, if you want to hear what a naturally aspirated V12 screaming to 12,100rpm sounds like. And take it from me, you absolutely do.
The GMA T.50 reimagined the McLaren F1
Gordon Murray Automotive’s opening salvo was the T.50, a modern reimagining of the epochal McLaren F1. Unflinchingly analogue and driver-focused, it emulates the F1’s three-seat layout, V12 engine, manual gearbox and lightweight ethos.
The entire 100-car T.50 production run sold out in 48 hours, despite a price tag of £2.8 million. Yet the car’s gestation was far from smooth, as Lee recalls: “The GMA T.50 was due to be announced in March 2020: exactly when the first wave of Covid hit the UK. The whole car ended up being designed in people’s living rooms using CAD and networking on Teams. Without face-to-face interaction, it was a very difficult project.”
When we visited GMA’s new Highams Park facility in Windlesham, Surrey – located close to the former Longcross test track, where the McLaren F1 was shaken down – there were 18 examples of the 663hp, 226mph T.50 left to assemble. The site will then gear up for production of the track-only T.50s Niki Lauda, followed by the T.33 and T.33 Spider.
A new GMA T.33 Sport is coming soon
The T.33 is the second rung in the GMA range. Less extreme than the T.50, it only has two seats and no downforce-generating rear fan. Nonetheless, a 615hp version of the same free-breathing Cosworth V12, combined with a dry weight of around 1,100kg, make it a serious supercar.
Gordon Murray Automotive revealed the targa-topped T.33 Spider in 2023, priced at £1.8 million, and all 100 cars swiftly sold out. Now a third model, the T.33 Sport, is almost ready – and tantalisingly hidden beneath a cover when I visit GMA HQ. The car pictured here is one of the T.33 development mules, known internally as ‘James’.
Lee’s original plan was to reveal the T.33 Sport at the Festival of Speed, but uncertainty over US trade tariffs has delayed its introduction. Instead, key customers will be invited to a “soft launch” later this year, followed by a public debut “most likely in 2026”. Fulfilling the promise of its name, Lee says the Sport offers a “much sportier setup” but is “still very much a road car”. We predict more downforce, less weight and potentially more power – albeit not enough to eclipse the flagship T.50.
CEO Phillip Lee was employee number one
Gordon Murray hired Phillip Lee in 2019, making him the first employee (and CEO) of his nascent car company. “Joining Gordon was a chance to start from the ground up and work with my childhood hero,” explains Lee. “I can remember watching the McLaren F1 review on Top Gear and excitedly showing it to my dad. I was obsessed even then, and I have followed Gordon’s career ever since.”
Before starting at GMA, Lee travelled the world working for a plastics supplier, then returned to the UK in 2015 to launch the LEVC TX – the current, hybrid-powered iteration of the London taxi. LEVC’s parent company, Chinese automotive giant Geely, then tasked Lee with buying Lotus. He joined the business as CFO, then became the interim CEO. And it was at Lotus that Lee finally met his childhood hero.
“Gordon had a sketch of what would eventually become the T.50, and asked me what was needed to turn it into a proper business. Gordon Murray Design, as the company was back then, had done a lot of prototyping work, but not a full model programme. I produced a report, which he read carefully and then pushed back across the table at me, saying ‘Phil, I want you to do this’. I thought about it for all of three seconds.”
Lee has done the school run in a T.50
Some car company bosses are accountants, others are diehard petrolheads. Phillip Lee is both. So when opportunities arise to get behind the wheel of a GMA supercar, he jumps at them.
“I have done more than 6,000 miles in the T.50 now. It’s very usable,” he says, pointing out the roomy side pods for stowing luggage (288 litres in total) and the car’s modest footprint, which is similar to a Porsche Cayman. “I even took my children to school in it.
“Many people don’t understand what it’s like to drive a really lightweight car [997kg without fluids]. The instant torque is incredible – a feeling you only tend to experience in a powerful EV – and revving the engine out to 12,100 rpm is like watching a movie in surround sound. You feel totally at one with the car.”
And while some GMA customers tuck their vehicles away in collections, many are keen to drive and enjoy them. “The average mileage so far is around 2,500 miles a year,” adds Lee. “We had one client who picked up his car on a Friday, then brought it back here for an initial service the following Monday, having covered 700 miles over the weekend.”
You can design your own bespoke supercar
Those who visit the Highams Park factory can also spend time in the customer lounge, complete with its own bar, vinyl jukebox and retro pinball machine, plus some of Murray’s favourite music-inspired art on the walls. It’s a lovely place to sit and ponder the myriad options for your new supercar.
Full size wooden bucks, one with three seats, the other with two, allow customers to tailor their exact driving position for a T.50 or T.33 respectively. There are also leather samples and stacks of paint colour swatches, along with an ‘inspiration book’ of suggested specifications. “Some customers really struggle to make a choice,” says Lee. “But nothing is off the table.”
For those who want (and can afford) to go further, Gordon Murray Automotive offers what it calls ‘commissions’. These combine the mechanicals of a T.50 or T.33 with a body designed by an external coachbuilder – or even by the car’s owner. These will either be one-offs or very limited-run vehicles, along the lines of Ferrari Special Projects (SP) or Rolls-Royce Coachbuild cars. How about an orange T.50 that riffs on the McLaren F1 LM? If my EuroMillions numbers came up…
New ‘Special Vehicles’ are in the pipeline
Beyond individual commissions, GMA also has plans for a range of ‘Special Vehicles’ that will broaden its customer base and allow Gordon Murray’s design genius to flourish.
“Gordon has a lot of cars in his brain that he wants to make in small numbers,” explains Lee. “They won’t wear a GMA badge, though. We have a clear product strategy that stretches all the way to 2040, and fitting a new car into that would be difficult and disruptive. Having Special Vehicles creates a different route to bring these ideas to market. They will be sports cars, and positioned within the luxury sector, but that’s all I can say for now.”
More will be revealed later in 2025, beginning with the new Special Vehicles badge, but expect light weight, clever packaging and driver involvement to remain top of the agenda.
Gordon Murray has very eclectic taste in cars
Those values are also evident in Gordon Murray’s large and very diverse car collection, some of which is displayed at Highams Park. The orange car on the right in this photo, for example, is a lovingly crafted replica of the homebrew IGM-Ford that started it all. Alongside it is a Mark IV Cooper 500, a classic Formula 3 racer that Murray can remember his father working on. And then there’s a 50cc Maserati motorcycle: one of the pedal-equipped ‘buzz bikes’ popular in South Africa during the 1960s.
Also in Gordon Murray’s collection is the world’s only surviving Brabham BT44 F1 car, a Light Car Company Rocket (conceived as a reinvention of the Lotus Seven), a Smart Roadster, a De Tomaso Vallelunga and a Honda S800. A Midas kit car with a mid-mounted Alfa Romeo boxer engine proves Murray isn’t averse to modifying his vehicles, either.
Finally, pictured on the left here is a full-scale model of the GMA T.50s Niki Lauda. Weighing less than 900kg and powered by a 772hp V12, the real thing is the wildest car yet from GMA – and production of the 25 examples starts soon. Beyond that, it will be the T.33 models, including the Sport, and likely the first of the Special Vehicles. And then? Lee remains tight-lipped on future plans. However, like at any moment during the past 60 years, it will be fascinating to see what Gordon Murray does next.
Tim Pitt writes for Motoring Research