South African-born Gordon Murray, an experienced F1 designer and the father of the McLaren F1 supercar has been recruited by Caparo, the automotive consultancy firm that will put the F1-inspired road car formerly known as the Freestream T1 into production.
South African-born Gordon Murray, an experienced F1 designer and the father of the McLaren F1 supercar has been recruited by Caparo, the automotive consultancy firm that will put the F1-inspired road car formerly known as the Freestream T1 into production.
CAR reported in its April issue that two ex-Mclaren engineers, Ben Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead, whose previous projects included the Mclaren F1 and Mercedes Mclaren SLR, had co-founded the Freestream company and designed an F1-spired two-seater based around a carbon/aluminium honeycomb monocoque chassis with a separate front crash structure and a tubular steel rear spaceframe. Thanks to the extensive use of carbon fibre panels, a bespoke 2,4-litre V8 engine that weighs just 85 kg and a 30-kg magnesium-cased sequential transmission, the T1 weighs 465kg.
The engine has quad cams, five valves per cylinder and supercharged induction and produces a touch under 375 kW at 10 000 r/min, giving the supercar a staggering power to weight ratio of about 747 kW per tonne! Freestream claimed that the T1 would accelerate from zero to 100 km/h in 2,5 seconds, reach 160 km/h in 5 secs and reach a top speed of over 320 km/h depending on the adjustable aerodynamic set-up. Furthermore, the T1 has awe-inspiring aerodynamic efficiency and can reportedly deliver race car levels of downforce (capable of cornering and braking loads of over 3g, says Caparo).
A few interesting design features of the T1 include rear-view mirrors built into the front fenders, LED taillights in the rear wing endplates, a data acquisition system display in the steering wheel and centre-mounted coil-over shock absorbers in clear view of the driver.
Recently, Caparo bought out the Freestream T1 project, but Scott-Geddes and Halstead (who had worked with Prof Murray in his days as the chief designer of the McLaren F1) were kept on as design and engineering directors. The Group still intends to launch production versions of the T1 on the UK market before the end of the year at a price of about R1,65 million each.
Murray won’t only be working on the headline-grabbing T1 project, but has been hired as director of advanced vehicle concepts, with the aim of making lightweight vehicles a reality.
The idea, said Angad Paul, chief executive of Caparo, was to help reduce vehicle CO2 emissions, as lighter cars are more efficient and therefore produced fewer pollutants.
“Our aim is to help car makers reduce the weight of their vehicles with affordable and practical composite solutions,” said Paul, who is pictured here with Prof Murray. “As well as supplying composite materials, with Gordon’s help we can assist car makers not only in the design of individual components and complete vehicle systems, but also the whole car if required.”
Prof Murray, who has also worked on the 390kg Rocket sports car, is reportedly keen to put his extensive knowledge to use on a mass-market car, a British report said.
