Gordon Murray is finally ready to release his latest supercar into the world.
The legendary designer’s eponymous marque announced on Tuesday that it has begun production of the T.50 supercar. Murray even personally autographed the carbon-fiber monocoque chassis of the first example that will be built.
The news comes two-and-a-half years after Gordon Murray Automotive first announced plans to build the T.50. The company’s debut model is a spiritual successor of sorts to an earlier Murray supercar, the McLaren F1. Every example will be built by hand at the automaker’s production facility in Surrey, England. Each T.50 will be completely unique, with no two even having the same exterior paint color.
“From the very moment we announced T.50—conceived to be the world’s most driver-centric supercar—I’ve been looking forward to this day,” Murray said in a statement. “Designing and engineering the T.50 has been an incredible journey with much of the initial work completed during lockdown, so to witness the engineering art of the first customer car’s carbon-fiber monocoque ready for assembly, less than two-and-a-half years since reveal, is quite magical.”
The T.50 has some big expectations to live up to because of its lineage, but it should be able to hold its own. Murray’s latest supercar features a carbon-fiber monocoque chassis that weighs just 236 pounds. Thanks in no small part to this, the entire vehicle tips the scales at 2,174 pounds, or two-thirds the weight of most of its peers. It is powered by a Cosworth-developed, hybrid-assisted 3.9-liter V-12 that can generate up to 654 hp, 344 ft lbs of torque, and redline at 12,100 rpm. The driver-focused speed machine also comes equipped with a large ground-effect fan in the rear that increases downforce by 50 percent.
Gordon Murray Automovie remains adamant that it will build just 100 examples of its debut supercar. Unfortunately, the entire production run—along with that of the track-focused T.50S Niki Lauda and its follow-up, the T.33—is already spoken for, so you’ll have to hope that one eventually pops up on the auction market. Or you could wait for one of the all-electric SUVs the marque plans to make.