The Gordon Murray T.27 - the perfect City Car
Gordon Murray has revealed more detail of the T.27, his electric city car concept developed for i-Stream production.
Gordon Murray is an automotive genius. He created the car many would consider to be the zenith in performance road cars – the McLaren F1. And now he’s turned his hand to what many consider the antithesis of the F1 – the Gordon Murray T.27 City Car. But really, it’s just another interpretation of Gordon Murray’s obsession with lightness and efficiency for purpose. The point is for his creation to be the best of its type it can be.
Gordon Murray isn’t trying to make an EV capable of replacing our current cars. That is a nonsense; the technology is just not there. Instead he’s set about creating a concept that offers the perfect city transport. Small, light, hugely efficient and decent looking, it has all the intelligence that went in to the F1, but in a car for the City.
The T.27 – and it’s internal combustion engined T.25 sibling – are designed to be built using Murray’s iStream manufacturing process. Using ultra strong composite sheets bonded to a steel tube frame, Murray wants to outsource production to companies who see the future of his creation. Murray says that the i-Stream process uses F1 Technology, but at everyday cost. Hugely promising.
And he’s not looking for a car maker; the process is too far removed from their way of production. Instead he’s looking for a visionary company to take on his creation. The Virgin City Car? The Apple iCar? The Tesco-Mobile? Murray’s up for them all.
So what does the T.27 offer? Well, apart from anything else it gets no real doors. Instead – bubble-car style – the front section tips forward to allow three in – driver and two passengers, just like the McLaren F1. Except getting in and out seems easier than it is in the F1 – particularly if you’re tall and not quite svelte (been there – done that).
The T.27 gets a 25kW motor and a 12kWh lithium-ion battery pack. The total weight of the T.27 will be under 1500lbs to make the range a sensible 100 miles – more than enough for a day or three of commuting. Top speed is 65mph and 0-60mph a leisurely 15 seconds. But that’s not the point. In city traffic you don’t need performance as long as there’s enough torque to jump away and play to 30mph (if that).
No pretence at re-inventing the car. Just the perfect implementation of an ultimate City car from an automotive genius. We decry electric cars all the time. We get pilloried for it. Only this week we’ve been called ‘…corporate lackey being paid to mouth these stupid statements’ and that our articles on electric cars are ” …attempt to misinform and destroy an electric car market”.
But we’re NOT anti-electric car. We’re anti the whole idea that electric cars can replace the internal combustion engine. That is palpable nonsense. But the Gordon Murray T.27 is the perfect product for our congested cities, and we applaud it. If I lived in the centre of London I’d be sending Gordon a deposit today.
Mind you, I’d still have the McLaren F1 for fun days out.
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