Before getting down to the business, let us first take a trip down memory lane. Last year, Professor Gordon Murray who designed the iconic McLaren F1 and the radical Brabham BT55 Formula One car, came up with the T.50 – a supercar that improved upon the charming brilliance of the McLaren F1. There are a lot of things that make the T.50 special and stand out amidst the sea of modern-day supercars. For instance, it is powered by a 3.9-litre V12 which has been developed by Cosworth and claims to be the world’s lightest (178 kg), highest-revving, and most power-dense (166PS-per-litre) naturally-aspirated road car engine!
Watch video
In this video, Dario Franchitti visits the famed engine builder to hear the powerplant scream. The sound is immediately reminiscent of Formula One cars from the 1990s.
In this clip, the engine is doing a simulated lap of Le Mans. This makes the powerplant use the entire range of revs, including an extended stay near the redline. The sound is unlike anything we have heard in a while. Let alone road-legal car engines. The wail coming from the screaming V12 engine would even make the mightiest Greek Gods shriek with terror.
Specs and other details
Still not impressed? The motor revs all the way to 12,100 rpm and boasts of a mind-numbing throttle response time of 28,400 revs per second! It promises the best V12 sound ever and for numbers’ sake, it cranks out 663PS @ 11,500rpm and 467Nm @ 9,000rpm where 71% of max torque is available from 2,500rpm. Murray insists that the engine contributes to at least 50% of a great driving experience and a turbocharged motor just doesn’t do it.
The car also features Direct Path Induction Sound – a system pioneered on the McLaren F1 and refined on the T.50 to channel the sound of the throttle-induced induction growl into the cabin. From communicative steering, which delivers pinpoint accuracy, to the weighting of the six-speed manual transmission and titanium throttle pedal, the engineering focus has always been on driving perfection. Murray mentions that the McLaren F1 was a car which was difficult to manoeuvre at parking speeds. For the T.50, everything had to be pure but practical too. So they developed a steering system which is mildly assisted only at really low speeds and things go back to being a simple rack and pinion setup once the car gains momentum.
Limited to a production of just 100 units, the GMA (Gordon Murray Automotive) T.50 is unlike any other modern supercar out there. It doesn’t boast of monstrous output numbers and the fastest Nurburgring lap time. Doesn’t mean that the T.50 is slow by any standards, it just chooses to focus on what matters most.