The Gordon Murray T.50 is set to be one of the most weird and fascinating exotics on the market when it makes its debut. A featherweight at just 980 kg (2160 lb), it's got a McLaren F1-style three-seat cockpit, placing the driver front and center with passengers back and to the sides. It's got a 40cm (15.7-inch) powered fan underneath it, which literally sucks the car onto the road for extra downforce, while pushing that air out the back to reduce drag.
It'll have a legitimate claim to the title of the world's most aerodynamically advanced production car, even in a world where the Aston Martin Valkyrie stalks the prairies, but its motor is going to be an absolute bottler as well.
The T.50's naturally-aspirated 3.9-liter Cosworth V12 aims to be "the highest-revving, highest power density, lightest and fastest-responding naturally aspirated V12 ever made for a road car." It's slated to make 650 horsepower, while shrieking down the road at an unprecedented 12,100 rpm. As we stated last time we wrote about this weapon of a thing, there are only two other cars in production history that rev higher than 10,000 rpm, and one of them is the Valkyrie mentioned above. The T.50 will be the screamiest by a long shot.
It'll also get an extra power boost when ram air is added at speed, and a further boost when the starter/generator is repurposed to add another 30 or so ponies to the drive shaft for top speed runs; together, that'll top this beast out at 700 horses.
We don't know if the Apocalypse of the Plague will allow Murray and his team to nail the T.50's original launch date next month; we suspect not. But in the interim, the Cosworth team has been working away on that motor, putting a 3-cylinder test mule version of it through preliminary rev tests and emissions screening.
Murray's team was nice enough to film these dyno tests for your rev-headed pleasure. Have a listen to the video below, and try to imagine that, multiplied by four. It's gonna be something!
Source: Gordon Murray Automotive
