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Gordon Murray
Photo: The original uploader was Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) at English Wikipedia. / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Engineers

Gordon Murray

Born 1946

Ian Gordon Murray

Formula One designer · Designer of the McLaren F1 · Founder of Gordon Murray Automotive

Designer of title-winning Brabham and McLaren Formula One cars and of the McLaren F1 road car; founded Gordon Murray Automotive in 2017.

Born
18 June 1946Durban, South Africa
Nationality
South African and British

Biography

Ian Gordon Murray was born in Durban on 18 June 1946 and moved to England in 1969, where he joined Brabham after meeting the designer Ron Tauranac. Between 1973 and 1985 his Brabhams won 22 Grands Prix, Nelson Piquet took the drivers' title in 1981 and 1983, and in 1978 he designed the BT46B, the 'fan car'.

Murray joined McLaren as technical director in 1986. The 1988 MP4/4 won 15 of the 16 Grands Prix and gave Ayrton Senna his first title. He then ran McLaren Cars (1991–2004), whose first car, the McLaren F1, debuted in 1992 with a 6.1-litre BMW V12 of 461 kW (627 PS); 106 were built. A modified F1 won Le Mans outright in 1995, and in 1998 the XP5 prototype reached 386.4 km/h.

He founded Gordon Murray Design in 2007, when the T.25 city car was announced, and Gordon Murray Automotive in 2017; its T.50 supercar was unveiled in 2020 and the T.33 in 2022. Murray was appointed CBE for services to motoring in 2019.

Timeline

  1. 1969Joins Brabham[1]
  2. 1978Brabham BT46B 'fan car'[1]
  3. 1986Technical director at McLaren[1]
  4. 1988McLaren MP4/4 wins 15 of 16 Grands Prix[1]
  5. 1992McLaren F1 road car debuts[2]
  6. 1995McLaren F1 GTR wins Le Mans[2]
  7. 2017Founds Gordon Murray Automotive[1]
  8. 2020GMA T.50 unveiled[1]

Cars

Gordon Murray in 1CARS stories

Related people

Sources

  1. Gordon Murray — Wikipedia · accessed 13 October 2026
  2. McLaren F1 — Wikipedia · accessed 13 October 2026

All people who shaped the car

Photo credits