Obscure F1 designer Gordon Murray unveils his new T.33 Spider.
(Bloomberg) — Gordon Murray, who designed Formula One cars for McLaren, announced plans on April 4 to build a new supercar.
The Gordon Murray Automotive T.33 Spider shares a naturally aspirated 617ps (609hp) V-12 engine and manual transmission with its coupe sibling but adds two removable roof panels and a rear glass window that drops automatically to allow for open-top driving. Made almost entirely from carbon fiber, it weighs 2,442 pounds, 39 pounds more than the coupe and far lighter than more mainstream sports cars like the McLaren Artura, which weighs just under 3,500 pounds.
A spokesperson for the company declined to provide performance specifics like top speed for the vehicle, and declined to confirm how many pre-sale units have been sold of the T.33 Spider, which costs £1.89 million ($2.3 million). Production will be limited to 100 vehicles.
The $1.8 million T.33 coupe sold out all of its 100 units almost instantly after debuting in 2022 via orders placed by deposit. Production is to begin late next year, with deliveries following, a spokesperson says.
Gordon hopes to join the field of hypercar makers such as Bugatti, which claims the current land speed record. The latter sells track-eating monsters so rare they’re almost never seen after they leave the factory, including the Bolide and La Voiture Noire. Lamborghini’s SC18 Aventador is a one-of-a-kind supercar created from a blank sheet of paper known only to Lamborghini chief designer Mitja Borkert and its anonymous buyer.
Gordon Murray Automotive is far from the only obscure brand to try its hand at following suit.
Hennessey, based in Texas, makes six-wheeled, spaceship-like concepts and record-breaking racers; its Venom GT set the world speed record in 2014. SSC’s Tuatara hypercar set the production-car speed record in 2020. The ultra-expensive, superfast Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista are still being produced; Pagani announced its forthcoming Utopia hypercar last year.
Companies such as Spyker did it with less success; the Dutch brand has reported multiple bankruptcies since it was founded in 1999.
Major luxury automotive brands have long made multimillion-dollar hypercars constrained to ultralimited volumes. Aston Martin’s Valkyrie costs $3 million, for example, while Mercedes-AMG’s AMG ONE commands $2.4 million. Both have suffered production delays but claim that full order books persist for their sub-300 production runs.
Murray has more credit to his name than most less-known competitors. The South African expatriate has designed more than 80 supercars for employers from Brabham to Mercedes-Benz and debuted the first car bearing his name, the $3 million T.50, in 2020. His McLaren F1, valued at more than $20 million, is considered one of the most expensive cars ever designed.
Production of the T.33 coupe is scheduled to begin in England by the end of 2024, and a spokesperson says T.33 Spider production will commence in summer 2025.
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