The Brabhams of Nelson Piquet and the McLarens of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna; in the 80's, Gordon Murray was the most coveted designer in Formula 1. It is possibly for this reason that in 1990, McLaren decided to temporarily remove his genius from circuits and entrust to him the design of a "supercar", the McLaren F1.

	Gordon Murray, was born in 1947 in Durban (SA).

The McLaren F1 attacked the Everest of endurance racing in 1995, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The GT beat the prototypes and won the race overall. Thereafter, they did not repeat the feat against increasingly tougher competition. Then, and now, to win overall you needed a prototype.

This was the project in which Gordon Murray started in the early 2000s. Under the code name "Project 6", the South African engineer developed an LMP900 (predecessor of the LM P1 regulations) with bold solutions such as radiators placed under the floor and raised nose. A model was set up and the first wind tunnel tests suggested great potential. "McLaren was ready," says Murray ... Alas, no real "Project 6" chassis was created in the workshops at Woking.

In late 2004, Gordon Murray left McLaren to create his own company specializing in small ecological city cars. After six years of work, he has just announced the sale of T25 projects (thermal engine) and T27 (electric motor) to a manufacturer – to be revealed at the end of the year - which will market both microcars in 2016.

Designed by Murray, the McLaren MP4/4 of 1988 is an iconic F1 car.	The F1 GTR won in 1995 in the hands of Dalmas, Sekiya and Lehto.
In 1997,the F1 had a "long tail" version that finished 2nd and 3rd behind a TWR Porsche.	Today, Gordon Murray designs microcars that he hopes will transform city streets.

Julien HERGAULT / ACO