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More details: Gordon Murray's Type-25 city car
If such projections as cutting the cost of driving and vehicle emissions in half sounds a bit radical to you, that's exactly the response that Gordon Murray is hoping for. Before completely dismissing these claims, remember that Murray is the man most responsible for the road-going supercar known as the McLaren F1, as well as quite a number of race winning Formula 1 cars from a few decades ago. Note too that Caparo, makers of the awe-inspiring T1 are also heavily involved in the project. Considering that the team is only halfway through the design process, we hope that they are able to follow through with their early projections.Murray claims that his newest vehicle, designated the Type-25 (his 25th clean-sheet design), will revolutionize personal transportation by being cheap to produce, purchase and operate. Safety is not forgotten either, as the new vehicle is fully expected to pass all applicable crash testing. What's more, the new car is
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zamafir 5:41PM (7/03/2008)
i cannot wait to see this car come to fruition, easily the most dynamic mind designing cars, and he's been talking it up for years.
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4agze 5:55PM (7/03/2008)
ill give him a A+ he did made the McLaren F1, FORD, chev and GM should take a lesson from this person.
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Max 6:07PM (7/03/2008)
Given Caparo's involvement with Tata, I have no doubt they can get the cheap part down. Hopefully this car won't fall short on the technology end though.
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CraigM 6:12PM (7/03/2008)
Gordon Murray's been talking about this for a long time, I can't wait to see where that deep thought will lead. Don't be fooled by Gordon's CV, he may have designed some of the fastest cars in the world, but his heart is in small cars and solving transportation. And he runs a Smart Roadster Coupe, the man is alright in my book...
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Rick 6:26PM (7/03/2008)
Cool. When does the suburb car come?
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Bungle 9:04PM (7/03/2008)
My sentiments exactly. I have a lot of respect for Gordon Murray, but if he wants to revolutionize transportation, I think he should aim at the other 95% of the market - highway commuters.
Maybe he's taking the standard route, though, doing these first to raise customer confidence and interest, to generate some income and reduce the cost of production even further, and then he can mass-produce something with a little more impact on the real world.
Temple 6:33PM (7/03/2008)
I doubt they will be using carbon-fiber in an econo car due to cost reasons. So far, it looks like a million other city cars, but we'll have to see how original it is.
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GMinsidenewssucks2 7:04PM (7/03/2008)
Why aren't ford, GM, etc. doing this? A cheap car able to be packed up and shipped in parts, sounds like a no-brainer to me. Order online and its shipped to your door on a TT unit. Assemble and away you go.
Everyone knows its not hard to build a cheap car. Everyone knows its not hard to make a small car safe, F1 cars can hit walls at 200mph and the driver is fine. Everyone also knows the automakers have refused to do this.
Hopefully Murray can deliver. He won't, but it would be cool if he could. He won't because these types of efforts have ALWAYS failed. There a threat to the big manufacturers and they stop all threats.
- GM Inside News (.com) Sucks Moose Balls.
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Bungle 9:14PM (7/03/2008)
I don't think there's some conspiracy like you're suggesting. If it were so easy (and it needs to be profitable, too), we would have seen it by now. Companies exist to one-up and outsell their competition, after all, not to conspire to keep outside competition down (assuming that were even possible).
It's easy to make cheap small cars. But it's not at all easy to make a cheap, *profitable* small car. And I don't know what you've been reading, but small cars and safety do not usually coincide. The Smart ForTwo is safe for what it is, but there's about 2 feet in front of you to absorb the energy of a high-speed collision. An F1 car has several times that, not to mention materials and engineering (and no engine up front) that you'll probably never see at the price point of a typical consumer vehicle.
Regarding assemble-it-yourself, I doubt that would ever fly. People shop for cars to drive off the lot, not ones that they have to assemble in their driveway. And can you imagine the liability issues? I think the point is that these could be made to ship to dealers for on-the-lot assembly that would significantly decrease the typical $750 destination charge.
Manny Fold 4:56PM (7/06/2008)
Seems to look an awful lot like a Smart car.
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