Gordon Murray to make car for the masses

With the formation of his own company, automotive design and engineering guru, Gordon Murray, is turning his attention away from sound barrier-troubling hypercars and towards radically packaged cars for everyday use.

Gordon Murray, one of the major forces behind the McLaren F1 supercar, is now embarking upon a venture that may see the results of his automotive genius placed within easier each of the general public.

South African born Murray left McLaren a couple of years ago and has now secured financial backing from venture capitalists MDV and the firm behind the manic T1 hypercar, Caparo. He has set up his own prototyping and development firm, Gordon Murray Design Limited which will be launched on July 4.

In an interview with UK’s , Murray expressed his intention to develop highly radical and efficient cars for mass production. “My passion lies in small, light, strong advanced vehicles,” said Murray, “The next project will be a personal transport thing. The vehicle is so radical that you’d have to let people try it in everyday use.”

Indeed, Murray renowned for disliking the heavy nature of most modern cars and there were indications that he was less than happy with the development of the Mercedes McLaren SLR – a bulky, heavily equipped car that seemed at odds with such lightweight developments of the past, such as the ultra-lightweight Rocket.

He has, however, often expressed his admiration for lightweight, practical, yet quirky models such as the Smart ForTwo and the Renault Kangoo. In spite of their efficiency and practicality, such cars have often met with mixed praise from the public due to the their styling and brand packaging – these are areas that Murray hopes to address with his ambitious new project.

”My passion is packaging”, explained Murray, “If you want to make something that takes a step forward or helps people with congestion and the environment, it’s all about packaging”. His involvement in Project Kimber (a plan to resurrect the AC Ace on a Smart Roadster platform) is testimony to his enthusiasm for such cars.

Ok, so another 389 km/h hypercar may not be on the cards in this new venture, but the idea of a talent such as Murray’s being applied to more publicly accessible cars is an exciting prospect, as Angad Paul, Caparo group boss, is keen to point out.

“Finally Gordon will have his own voice in automotive design, and we want to bring a lot of his thinking to fruition,” said Paul, “Gordon is a hero and a legend and it’s phenomenal for me to be able to work with him.”