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The Gordon Murray Interview iven the nature of Low Flying‘s readership it might seem almost patronising to write an introduction to this piece. If you know anything about GFormula One design or about the fi rst (and arguably still the best) ‘hypercar’ ever made - the McLaren F1 - then Professor Ian Gordon Murray won’t need any introduction from me. Feel free to cut straight to the chase and read Gordon’s thoughts on my questions, but be warned - no punches are pulled. Do try to remember his full name though as it helps with the answer to my fi rst question. If however, you are reading this Lowfl ying in the dentist’ s waiting room whilst angsting about the root canal work you’re about to have done and this magazine just seemed to offer a better read than the ratty copies of Hello on offer, this intro is just for you. Gordon Murray was born in Durban in 1946. He emigrated to the UK in 1969 and worked for Brabham, becoming head designer in 1973 and going on to design some of the most beautiful Grand Prix cars ever made, the BT 44 and BT 52 being especially outstanding. Successful too, with 22 Grand Prix victories for drivers including Reutemann, Lauda, Watson and, of course, Nelson Piquet, who won two Drivers’ Championships in a Brabham. Like all great designers, Murray can think a very long way outside the box and the astonishing BT46B ‘fan car’ and his re-introduction of fuel stops to Grand Prix racing in 1983 bear witness to this. He moved to join McLaren as Technical Director and was thus part of the team which so dominated Formula One with the all- conquering, if highly volatile, combination of Prost and Senna. Ron Dennis then tasked Murray with producing the ultimate sports car and with the help of a mighty BMW V12, the McLaren F1 tore up the supercar rule book. The F1 was only ever intended to be a road car but with a tiny budget of £750k and a couple of days’ wind tunnel work the F1 GTR was created, which went on to win Le Mans at the fi rst attempt. Murray once commented that his only regret was that they didn’t then drive it back home on public roads… In 2007, the Gordon Murray Design consultancy was set up and since then it was been involved in the creation of new approaches to both design and construction. You can read about the iStream process and lots more besides at gordonmurraydesign. Rocket Man com. If you check out the website you might speculate, as I did, on the relevance of the mermaid motif ‘with a comb and glass in An Interview with her hand‘ and all that Lorelei stuff. It had me wondering – and I had to ask - it originates from the Murray Clan crest. Gordon Murray Gordon Murray is also known as a Bob Dylan uberfan, a red wine connoisseur and a John Aston managed to scoop this exclusive and Hawaiian shirt afi cionado. And now let’s hear illuminating interview for Lowfl ying. what he has to say…. 12 Lowfl ying November 2015 This Parmalat-liveried BT 52, designed for the Brabham team’s 1983 season epitomises the purity of design and elegance of simplicity which Murray was able to deliver. Photographic www.latphoto.co.uk LAT Credit: There is a huge difference between a power-to-weight ratio and a weight-to-power ratio Can we begin by talking about the fi rst racing to track that car down again through media took me six months to fi nd employment, but I car you designed, the IGM, which you raced appeals in magazines and TV. Several people ended up with the Brabham Formula One team successfully in 1967 and 1968? It was very Lotus came up with cars which were similar and so although I had an immediate regret that I Seven–esque in appearance – was that because it one looked so close I fl ew out to Cape Town had not got the Lotus job to work with Chunky was seeking to answer the same set of questions? to have a look but it wasn’t the real thing. A (as Chapman was often called – jpa), in the end I raced that car in the A Class sports car friend in South Africa got a lawyer on the case it was possibly a good thing because I probably category for sports cars up to 110 0 cc; I was and it turned out from the paperwork trail that wouldn’t have got into Formula One. racing against a lot of specials, a Lotus Seven at some point the car had been crashed and After Watkins Glen in ’74 where the and a Mallock U2. But in National Racing I written off. I’ve still got all the drawings for Brabhams fi nished fi rst and second, having was up against imported stuff like Lotus 23s, the chassis so I could build a run-on of chassis started fi rst and second on the grid and set Elfi ns, Porsche 904s and so that was entirely a which actually I’d like to do one day. But I the fastest lap, Chapman walked down the different story… couldn’t redo the engine - I built that myself pit lane to see me. Previously, I’d only had When I built the IGM I made all the and made my own pistons and camshafts and the odd nod from him, but now he shook aluminium parts of the bodywork myself I don’t have the drawings for them any more. my hand and said ‘That’s the way to do it‘. but to save time and money I bought a When you came to the United Kingdom you That night, David Phipps (on behalf of Colin Lotus Seven nose and some wings from wanted to work for Lotus – but that didn’t Chapman) offered me a job and that probably a guy in Durban – he’d taken a mould of happen. How much of a regret has this been happened every year until Chapman died. But somebody’s Seven and was selling the stuff for you? I never took it because by then I was pretty for about fi fteen quid a set. That’s why the It’s a strange story really; I wrote to Colin well established at Brabham and also because car looks like a Seven, but the frame was Chapman about six months before I left South I’m a single minded designer as was Chapman, completely different. It was lighter, much Africa, telling him I’d built my own engine so I don’t think it would have worked - we more triangulated and was also about six and car, had raced it reasonably successfully were both too strong to be in the same team. inches lower at the dashboard. So it was an and so on and he said ‘Come for an interview‘. I am sure the Chapman mantra of ‘Simplify, even lower car than a Seven, much more like He gave me the name of a guy called Brian then add lightness’ infl uenced your work – so a Mallock. When I left South Africa, I turned Luff, who was Lotus’ head of engineering – not does it sadden you that a Veyron weighs 800kg it into a road car – putting on softer springs the Formula One team though, the road car more than a McLaren F1 and even a McLaren and dampers, fi tting a proper windscreen and side. The fi rst full day I had in the UK, I went P1 weighs 250kg more? even wipers. Importing a Lotus Seven in those up for the interview but I hadn’t been in touch Chapman’s words have been a huge infl uence days was very expensive; I built the IGM for with them for three months or so; there was on me and I think the weight of such cars is £200 and sold it for £600. I tried for years now a recession and so I didn’t get a job. It then just ridiculous. It is just so counter-productive Lowfl ying November 2015 13 The Gordon Murray Interview for a sports car; there is a huge difference that stuff. I’m still following that Chapman drove for us (Brabham) for a short time and he between a power-to-weight ratio and a weight- mantra; if you look at a McLaren F1, which is the was killed in a light aeroplane crash. Pace was to-power ratio. The way that Bugatti develop same footprint as a Boxster, with two people on fantastic, he had oodles of natural ability and a power-to-weight ratio … it’s a thousand board it has the same luggage capacity as a BMW he was very fast, very easy to get on with and horsepower in a two tonne car but what you 3 Series – and it’s got a V12! So you can expect both Bernie and I thought he had the capability never get is the handling, especially transient a similar level of good packaging from the TVR - of being world champion. And there are lots of handling in direction changing. So you can good boot space and easy maintenance. other drivers I saw who I just thought were in the have as much power-to-weight as you like, So are you involved directly in its styling too ? wrong team; it’s not just about having a fast car.