No information about performance specifics or how many pre-sale units have been sold is available 

GORDON Murray, who designed Formula One (F1) cars for McLaren, announced plans on April 4 to build a new supercar. 

The Gordon Murray Automotive T.33 Spider shares a naturally aspirated 609 horsepower V-12 engine and manual transmission with its coupe sibling but adds two removable roof panels and a rear glass window that drops automatically to allow for open-top driving. Made almost entirely from carbon fibre, it weighs 2,442lbs, 39lbs more than the coupe and far lighter than more mainstream sports cars like the McLaren Artura, which weighs just under 3,500lbs. 

A spokesperson for the company declined to provide performance specifics like top speed for the vehicle, and declined to confirm how many pre-sale units have been sold of the T.33 Spider, which costs £1.89 million (RM10.38 million). Production will be limited to 100 vehicles. 

The US$1.8 million (RM7.92 million) T.33 coupe sold out all of its 100 units almost instantly after debuting in 2022 via orders placed by deposit. Production is to begin late next year, with deliveries following, a spokesperson says. 

Gordon hopes to join the field of hypercar makers such as Bugatti, which claims the current land speed record. The latter sells track-eating monsters so rare they’re almost never seen after they leave the factory, including the Bolide and La Voiture Noire. Lamborghini’s SC18 Aventador is a one-of-a-kind supercar created from a blank sheet of paper known only to Lamborghini chief designer Mitja Borkert and its anonymous buyer. 

Gordon Murray Automotive is far from the only obscure brand to try its hand at following suit. 

Hennessey Performance Engineering, based in Texas, makes six-wheeled, spaceship-like concepts and record-breaking racers; its Venom GT set the world speed record in 2014. SSC’s Tuatara hypercar set the production-car speed record in 2020. The ultra-expensive, superfast Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista are still being produced; Pagani Automobili SpA announced its forthcoming Utopia hypercar last year. 

Companies such as Spyker NV did it with less success; the Dutch brand has reported multiple bankruptcies since it was founded in 1999. 

Major luxury automotive brands have long made multimillion-dollar hypercars constrained to ultra-limited volumes. Aston Martin’s Valkyrie costs US$3 million, for example, while Mercedes-AMG’s AMG ONE commands US$2.4 

million. Both have suffered production delays but claim that full-order books persist for their sub-300 production runs. 

Murray has more credit to his name than most less-known competitors. The South African expatriate has designed more than 80 supercars for employers from Brabham to Mercedes-Benz and debuted the first car bearing his name, the US$3 million T.50, in 2020. His McLaren F1, valued at more than US$20 million, is considered one of the most expensive cars ever designed. 

Production of the T.33 coupe is scheduled to begin in England by the end of 2024, and a spokesperson says T.33 Spider production will commence in summer 2025. — Bloomberg 

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• This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition