Reply With QuoteLooks stunning but £2.3 million and prob disappear in the collections of oligarchs, despots and rock stars. Be nice to have seen some sort of groundbreakiñg electric technology.
Makes the icon F1 look like a pram!
Fascinating 53 minutes for the petrolheads
https://youtu.be/NT8PMXCMrsM
Last edited by GraniteQuarry; 4th August 2020 at 21:24.
Looks stunning but £2.3 million and prob disappear in the collections of oligarchs, despots and rock stars. Be nice to have seen some sort of groundbreakiñg electric technology.
His personal Mk1 Escort commission was an interesting series.
F.T.F.A.
Price is nuts, when you consider what you can buy for less than 20% of that, all 100 will go to rich Russians and Arabs never to be seen again. Then there are the Mercedes and Aston Martin HyperCars, how big can this market be.
Fair play to the bloke. This sort of thing probably, no, definitely, is the last hurrah for the internal combustion engine. I’d love to hear it at full chat - 12,000 rpm V12. Glorious.
Cheers,
Plug
Proper cutting edge sports car engineering - naysayers begone!.Originally Posted by GraniteQuarry
Makes the icon F1 look like a pram!
Fascinating 53 minutes for the petrolheads
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Why is it?
If you have to ask, you have not really understood where GM has come from, what he has done previously and this car.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Did you watch the video?
The video give no details about the car other than cosworth have produced a normally aspirated engine the revs to 12k, they already produce engines that can do that, as do other engine manufacturers. Unlike the F1 this time there is a lot of competition with “proper” Engineering out there for a lot less cash.
The game has moved on, it is unlikely it can compete with the hybrids because of the way they make their power.
Last edited by adrianw; 4th August 2020 at 22:56.
I think this and the Valkyrie will be the era defining cars, much like the F1, F40, Diablo, Testarossa, XJ220 were in the 80's/90's
So what of the tub, aero systems, engine integration, lighting etc.
The game has changed - this changes it again.
If you are suggesting this is not 'proper' engineering then you are wide of the mark.
Name the the 'hybrid'.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Outright performance isn't everything.
This is more about the way performance is achieved. What it gives the driver. And two close friends, of course.
Murray's background means he is a purist. No unnecessary wheel sizes, no lazy splitters - the car reminds me of the smaller classics such as the Dino.
I love how it's designed as a road car first and foremost and with driver enjoyment being the priority. A manual gearbox, sub 1000kg weight and a 650bhp V12 that revs to over 12k... Bliss.
No doubt the new Aston and Merc hypercars will obliterate it around a track (with a very proficient driver onboard), and a Taycan or Tesla never mind the new EV hypercars coming from Lotus etc will embarrass it at the traffic light GP, but that's not what this one is all about and that's why it should be celebrated.
My only complaint is that the styling isn't very adventurous and no gold plated engine bay. It's also close to £3m after taxes too but that's not something I'll ever be in a position to worry about.
I wonder if Retropowercars are watching it and thinking, "Shit, this makes our custom Escort parts look like a joke"?
Obviously these will all be bought by the stupidly rich, but please let a few of the buyers be motor sport enthusiasts that let their car be raced (so we can see them). When you've got a billion, how much do you care if your 3 million pound car gets damaged?
If you watch the video with Henry Catchpole, he mentions that the final car might have some gold plating if there are any particular hotspots in the engine bay that the conventional heat deflecting materials can’t manage. There’s still quite a bit of development work left to do!
I cannot tell you how excited I am about this car, even though I will have zero chance of ever driving one, let alone owning one. The F1 is still *the* car for me, after all of these years - I even have a recording of the sound of that BMW V12 at full pelt on my iPod!
I suppose there will be people who don’t get cars like this and are more in love with the upcoming crop of two tonne 2000 horsepower electric hyper cars that do 0-60 in 0.1 seconds...but for me, there’s just nothing better than the combination of a compact, sub 1000kg car, an N/A engine and a manual gearbox. To drive, there is simply nothing more engaging and exciting at any speed. Go out and enjoy your MX-5, Elise or - if you’re lucky enough - GMA T50 before they’re consigned to the history books altogether!
I found the video fascinating and especially when the designer talks you through design aspects that you would have no clue about if you simply looked around on your own. There's definitely F1 DNA in there which is hardly surprising and I think it's a lovely looking thing aside from the fan at the rear but I totally understand why it's there (after Gordon Murray explained it). I would love to have a drive but it won't happen and learning that the highest mileage F1 is at just 60,000 miles shows how lovingly these cars are cared for and sparingly used.
I've owned a few powerful cars (2xTVR, Ferrari, Lotus, 3xAudi RS6) and I know this would knock the socks off any of them. However, at 55 years of age I no longer have a desire to own an out-and-out sports car and the current chariot is a 730bhp/698lbft Audi RS6, somewhat breathed on by Milltek and currently at the dealership I bought it from to have the stupidly loud Milltek exhaust quietened or replaced.
I think the point is that this is a McLaren F1 MkII, with the various issues that car had, sorted, and it costs 1/10th of what an F1 would cost you today.
What’s not to like?
I think it looks awesome and to only weigh 980kg with a v12 propelling it along as well
The last hurrah for the NA V12 and the culmination of a 50 year pursuit of excellence.
Attention to detail and 'adding lightness' has produced a car with 700BHP/tonne but also with massive downforce without looking like it's driven through a branch of Halfords.
Just a place on the waiting list will change hands for £1m, I suspect.
I'd still rather have an F40, though, and that is a realistic possibility, unlike the chances of ever owning a T.50
Interesting to see GM fully utilising YouTube to publicise the car with various interview slots for Harry, TopGear, Autocar, Drivetribe....................
I only watched the TopGear one where they brought along an original F1 for comparison and the insight that GM provides on how that was built was really interesting.
I'm in the 600+ bhp per tonne club already but like you would go for the F40, to think I could have bought one for 80k about 15 years ago, if only id known and had 80k at the time.
NSXs used to be common for well under £20k, some with manual boxes.
C2 993s for less than £10k.
It's too painful. I'll stop there.
Having owned three NSX’s I can tell you that those selling for well under 20K were quite long in the tooth, but yes, they were available.
Did they cost much to run?
I'm guessing hardly anything.
I did (have the money) but bought a house instead
Arses.
What about a Dino 246GT for the price of a Granada, Sir? Or we have a 5000S qv for similar money.
Yes, I know you have to eat but food is over-rated.
You could live in the car, Sir.
But how can Gordon Murray call himself an engineer when he has clean fingernails?
/sarcasm
They were pretty good until things go wrong and then parts were horrendously expensive.
New Bose head unit, that will be £4500+ VAT please sir. New space saver wheel and tyre, that will be £1200+VAT please sir.
The list goes on. Fortunately being a Honda they were pretty reliable. Indeed the last one I had (2004 Formula red) never missed a beat and I feel like crying when I see what they go for now.
Thanks for posting, fascinating stuff.Makes the icon F1 look like a pram!
Fascinating 53 minutes for the petrolheads
https://youtu.be/NT8PMXCMrsM
Aside from the fact they're incredibly valuable now, they're also set up to go fast, the clutch doesn't take to any kind of slipping, and despite the fact it was capable of driving you to the south of France and back again (as stipulated by Mansour Ojjeh), if you enjoyed your driving you might need a clutch on return. I've heard everything from £10k to £30k to change the clutch. A service can take weeks.
And F40 for me too. For me a proper car needs to actively try to kill you when you drive it fast. As much as I love the NSX, you can thrash the pants off it and it takes it all in its stride. I bet the F40 costs a fair chunk to maintain though.
This Murray is an amazing thing though, I can't wait to have a look at one.
"A man of little significance"
^Yes, I like difficult cars, too.
930 Turbo for me.
And for something to just look at, 288GTO.
Yeah, a few years ago, I used to look in C&SCC and think - Yeah, a moderate lottery win (not a Euromillions jackpot) and I'd sink £150K into an F40 the next morning - It would have been a good investment!
It's still my favourite supercar (not that I've ever driven one!), mostly for the time one passed us quite gently coming back from Le Mans one year - You could hear all the mechanicals of the engine working, pure magic!
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Thoroughly fascinating and the attention to engineering details floats my boat, that was a great watch - thank you to the OP for posting.
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If you've watched the GM Escort build you'll know the answer. Here's the latest in their new weekly format for a short peek into their standards . . .
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