Rethink on manufacturing rules

The T.25 city car may be coming to a parking space near you soon. Photo / Supplied

Gordon Murray knows a thing or two about cars and car design. It all began in 1964 when the 18-year-old engineering student began designing and building cars and engines to race in South Africa.

Then in 1969, Murray arrived in Britain to pursue his dream of designing race cars. Murray worked with the Brabham Formula One team for 17 years and then had 18 years at McLaren Formula One, designing the F1 car and the road-going McLaren.

In 2007, Murray launched Gordon Murray Design, raising funding from US-based venture investor MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and the UK-based Caparo Group to enable the design, prototyping and development company to undertake automotive and other engineering programmes in an efficient and innovative way.

The fledgling company wanted to be a world leader in automotive design and reverse the industry trend for sub-contracting by having a complete in-house capability for design, prototyping and development.

The team has a huge amount of experience collectively, having more than 300-man years working in the automotive industry and in excess of 1100-man years of co-working experience.

Within a year, the T.25 programme was well on the way to fruition, exhibiting innovative vehicle packaging and lightweight design. It also offered solutions to reduce congestion and parking problems while addressing the problem of full lifecycle CO2 damage.

The manufacturing process was a complete re-think on building cars and hoped to revolutionise vehicle production.

The T.25 was designed to protect mobility, personal freedom and driving "fun" while reducing the environmental damage from manufacturing and use.

Towards the end of 2008, Murray won the "Idea of the Year" at Autocar's annual awards ceremony and earned industry recognition for the T.25. A full size model of the city car was on display at the awards ceremony, which is one of the highlights of the sector's year, attended by more than 400 industry leaders.

Autocar editor Chas Hallett says of the award: "Gordon Murray is looking to completely reinvent the cars that we buy and the way they are made. And from what we've seen, it doesn't get a much better idea than that."

The T.25 architecture includes a separate body/chassis assembly, which can be adapted to many new powertrains, fuels and body styles.

The T.25 City Car has been packaged to accept three people and the central driving position has been named "iCentre", although the actual concept dates back to 1966 when Murray first came up with the idea during his mechanical engineering studies at the Durban Institute of Technology in South Africa.

The three-seat configuration was put into production with the McLaren F1 and then resurrected in 1999 during the original study for Murray's City Car - then known as Project 3.

The central driving position gives control and visibility while supporting the ultra-flexible interior space. It gives the car a potential market advantage over the Smart Fortwo, which is purely a two-seater with a small luggage capacity. In shopping mode, the T.25 can be driver only but offers 750 litres of stowage space that is equal to six shopping trolleys.

The two pedal vehicle does not have a gear lever, but instead relies on push buttons with the options of fully automatic or manual using forward, reverse and neutral.

The car has a mere six-metre turning circle that will help with urban manoeuvring and parking even more enhanced by its 1.3 metre width. The T.25's short length also opens an opportunity to park end on to the curb and the door opening allows three cars to be parked in one parallel parking space.

Having achieved his aims with a petrol-engine car, Murray now has his sights set on an electric version.

The T.27 will be the world's most efficient electric car due to its low weight and clean sheet of paper design, says Murray. This ambitious target cannot be achieved by applying a conventional stamped steel construction design, nor with a drive train using existing gearboxes, motors or batteries.

Instead, an entirely fresh approach is proposed; accepting no compromise in safety, performance, range, space, weight, rolling resistance and ride quality.

By applying iStream methodology, a new manufacturing process developed by Gordon Murray Design, to the T.27 and fully integrating it with a custom-designed lightweight, highly efficient drive train from Zytek; every aspect of the vehicle can be optimised.

This holistic approach results in a car slightly smaller than a Smart, but with more interior space.

A similar approach was used by the T.25 and the T.27 hopes to set new standards in environmental sustainability. High-level lifecycle analysis derived from T.25 data predicts life-cycle emissions 63 per cent less than the average car and, for the T.27 lifecycle, emissions 27 per cent less than the nearest EV rival.

Additional information: www.gordonmurraydesign.com