► New sister co. to Gordon Murray Design
► First project is new sports car badged IGM
► Inspired by same principles as McLaren F1
Famed automotive designer and engineer Gordon Murray is launching a new low-volume car manufacturing company, called Gordon Murray Automotive. Its first product will be a lightweight, driver-focused sports car badged under a new IGM brand, and the shadowy teaser image above is our first glimpse of its silhouette.
The first IGM car will be a ‘flagship model, with a return to the principles applied to the McLaren F1 [engineered by Murray when he worked at McLaren].’ It’s promised to ‘buck the trend for ever more complicated and heavy vehicles’ – don’t expect it to weigh much.
A compact, mid-engined fixed-head coupe, Gordon Murray Automotive promises the first IGM car ‘will incorporate some of the most advanced aerodynamics yet seen on a road car.’
It will be built at a new 1500m2 centre for the Gordon Murray Automotive company at Dunsfold in Surrey.
Why is the new car called the IGM?
IGM is a new sub-brand that references the badging on Murray’s first car design, a Ford-engined special built and raced by Murray in South Africa in 1967. The badge references his initials – Ian Gordon Murray.
All future in-house models built by Gordon Murray Automotive will come under the IGM brand.
Gordon Murray Automotive – a new low-volume car manufacturing company
The new venture will exist as a sister company to the existing Gordon Murray Design engineering group. As well as Murray’s own IGM projects, the company will also produce cars for external clients.
The new company will be geared around limited-run cars with innovative designs, built using the iStream process.
New ‘iStream superlight’ manufacturing method
The new IGM car will be built using an evolution of Murray’s iStream manufacturing process (a cost-effective construction method revolving around chassis designs using a combination of steel tubes and composite panels – as per the new TVR Griffith sports car).
Murray’s latest iteration of the iStream process, dubbed ‘iStream superlight’, uses aluminium sections in place of the steel tubes previously used in iStream design vehicles. That enables significant weight savings, and improved rigidity.
The IGM car was officially announced at an event called ‘One Formula’ at the company’s new Dunsfold premises, commemorating several anniversaries in one: 50 years of Murray’s design work, the 10th year of operation for Gordon Murray Design and the 10th anniversary of the company’s iStream manufacturing system. Forty typically innovative road and race cars from Murray’s design career were on display, including, of course, the McLaren F1 (below).
