Gordon Murray
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Gordon Murray (born 1946 in Durban, South Africa) is a renowned designer of Formula 1 race cars and the famous McLaren F1 'supercar' road car.
After moving to England in 1969, hoping to find a job at Lotus Cars, he first found employment at Hawker Siddeley as a missile designer. Soon afterward, however, Murray was offered a job at Brabham after coincidentally meeting Ron Tauranac (the then Brabham designer). When Bernie Ecclestone took over the Brabham team he appointed Murray as Chief Designer. There he designed many Grand Prix cars, some of which were World Championship winners. These designs include the extraordinary BT46B, also known as "the Brabham fan car", as well as the World Championship winning BT49 and BT52.
Between 1973 and 1985 Murray’s Brabhams scored 22 Grand Prix wins, finished 2nd in the Constructors' Championship in 1975 and 1981 and gave Nelson Piquet Drivers’ Championships in 1981 and 1983.
However, 1986 proved to be a disaster. Murray penned the radical and highly ambitious low-line Brabham BT55 in an effort to lower overall ride height, the cost of the project ran into millions and the racecar itself was not a success. At the end of the year Murray left the team, which temporarily withdrew from Formula One at the end of 1987.
In 1988 Murray joined McLaren. In 1988 Murray’s McLaren Honda won 15 of the 16 Grands Prix, and gave Ayrton Senna his first Drivers' Championship. In the Constructors' Championship McLaren's points score of 199 was an all-time high. Over 1988-92 the McLaren team won four consecutive Constructors' and Drivers' Championships: Alain Prost won Drivers' Championship in 1989, Senna won further Drivers' Championships in 1990 and 1991.
From 1991-2004 Murray headed up the off-shoot McLaren Cars team to design road-going supercars: the McLaren F1 and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
Murray also independently designed the Rocket, an ultra-lightweight, open cockpit roadster powered by a 1-litre motorcycle engine, which has an appearance similar to that of a 60's era Grand Prix car. It was built by former racing driver Chris Craft at the Light Car Company.
Murray has been appointed director of advanced concepts at Caparo Vehicle Products[1].
Murray is also a regular columnist for the performance oriented British Evo Magazine, and a Contributing Editor for Road & Track.[2]
[edit] External links
- ROAD & TRACK magazine: "Anatomy of a Supercar" — An article where Murray gives his opinion about the Bugatti Veyron.
