Gordon Murray Design releases first official pictures and specs of T.25

Gordon Murray Design has just released the first official images of the T.25. The car will be presented for the public for the firt time at the Smith School’s World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, in Oxford, this Monday, June 28th. But you can check it out right now.



The new car, represented here by its prototype, the XP1, also called Lizzie (an hommage to the United Kingdom queen), is 2.40 m long, 1.60 m tall and only 1.30 m wide. It will allow two of these cars to share the same lane in roads and streets. And this is one of the objectives of the company: to protect personal mobility. Not appealing to easy ideas, but giving small cars some of the same solutions McLaren F1 has adopted back in 1992: bonded steel structure and central driving position.



Have a look at the steering wheel. Behind it you can see the pads used for changing gears. T.25 has a five speed semi-automatic sequential transmission that controls the three-cylinder 660 cm³ engine. It is able to deliver 52 bhp at 7,000 rpm and 57 Nm at 4,000 rpm. For a car that weighs only 575 kg, that is enough. This would allow the car to reach 156 km/h if it was not limited to 145 km/h. It also makes T.25 reach 100 km/h from 0 in 16.2 s. This may not be a very appealing performance, but, since the goal is fuel efficiency, something that the central gauge proves by indicating the fuel consumption, we may have to change priorities.



The last interesting characteristic of T.25 is its door, or else, its canopy, similar to the ones used in airplanes. Besides letting all three occupants enter and leave the car, it also works fine in tight parking places. The passengers travel just behind the driver and the car also carries 160 l of luggage. If no passenger is in the car, luggage capacity can reach up to 720 l.



Dinamically speaking, T.25 counts on full independent suspension, rear wheel drive, ABS, ESP and traction control as standard equipment. This is the first product of the iStream manufacturing technology, but it surely won't be its last. T.27, the electric version of T.25, is also on the works, but many more vehicles are sure to arise. Gordon Murray speaks of developing cars for specific countries, such as Brazil. We count on that.







Source: Car and Driver Brasil

Who will build the Gordon Murray Design T.25?

When you check the pictures below, you may think they are just a joke, but there may not be nothing more serious in the automotive world nowadays than that. The first picture of this post is the only official glimpse we have had so far on the Gordon Murray Design T.25, a microcar that promises not only to turn cars into more rational means of transportation, but also car production into something smaller, cheaper and more environmentally friendly.



The production system created by Gordon Murray, the father of machines such as McLaren F1, is called iStream. It consists on a simplified and flexible assembly process, which could reduce a current car manufacturing plant to 20% of its actual size. Capital investments would, therefore, be also only 20% of what is spent nowadays. Or even less, considering the same plant could produce many variants. Benefits would also reach carbon emission, which would be reduced both in the car and in the factory. We are sure if it was not a great idea it would not be called one of the most important steps in car production since Henry Ford invented the production lines.

Gordon Murray has already been contacted by 15 potencial clients in 12 different countries. The companies that have searched for iStream and T.25 are not necessarily established automakers, but companies that may be seeking to become one.

Check below some of the advantages T.25 and iStream are said to offer. If you believe no other car can be so extraordinary as McLaren F1, you should give these images credit. They have been done by the guy that made automotive dreams come true.

















Source: Gordon Murray Design