Professor Gordon Murray CBE has been honoured for a lifetime of “unmatched design and engineering contributions” to the car industry by TopGear. These include Formula One and supercars including the McLaren F1 and the Gordon Murray Automotive T.50, a vehicle that has been hailed as one of the best driver’s cars in the world.
“This is a man who got his first F1 chief designer job aged just 26,” Jack Rix, BBC TopGear, Editor-in-Chief. “A man who went on to bend physics – and the rulebook – to his will and become one of the most successful F1 designers of all time. When F1 got a bit boring, he designed the McLaren F1 – and even into his 70s he spearheads a company that is behind the most brilliant, lightweight, analogue supercars the world has ever seen. His commitment to lightweight is matched only by his commitment to facial hair. He’s a legend in his own lifetime. Gordon, TopGear salutes you.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award, given by TopGear, “acknowledges the industry-leading innovation, imagination, and desire for absolute perfection that Gordon has exhibited for almost 60 years.”
“Throughout his esteemed career,” Gordon Murray Automotive says, “Gordon has built a reputation for clarity of vision, and a confidence in disrupting industry norms that is rarely seen across motorsport or road car production.”
Gordon Murray’s first car was designed in 1965 before he moved to the UK to join the Brabham Formula One team as its technical director. With them, he went on to win two world championships in 1981 and 1983, before becoming the technical director of McLaren. He played a part in its three consecutive world championships, 1988, 1989, and 1990.
He went on to establish McLaren Cars Limited after his 50 grand prix wins, where he developed the company’s first project, the McLaren F1 that was, in its day, the fastest production car ever made.
In 2007, he would go on to form his ow company, Gordon Murray Design Limited before founding Britain’s latest supercar maker, Gordon Murray Automotive in 2017. The goal with this new firm was to build the world’s greatest driver’s car, combining everything learned from decades developing road and race cars.
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