We've been writing about Gordon Murray's innovative T.25 City Car for some time with great anticipation - after all, three of them will fit in a single parking space. Now, at long last, we can reveal the internal layout which is designed around a central driving position with six reconfigurable layouts within the same vehicle.
The T.25 City Car has been packaged to accept three 95th percentile occupants and the central driving position has been named ‘iCentre®’, although the actual concept dates back to 1966 when Gordon Murray first came up with the idea during his Mechanical Engineering studies at Durban Institute of Technology in South Africa. The three-seat configuration was put into production with the McLaren F1 and then resurrected in 1999 during the original study for Murray’s City Car - then known as Project 3.
The central driving position gives unparalleled control and visibility whilst supporting the ultra-flexible interior space. This gives the T.25 a potential market advantage over the Smart Fortwo which is purely a two-seater with a small luggage capacity. In maximum ‘shopping mode’ the T.25 can be driver only but offers 750 liters of stowage space which is equal to 6 shopping trolleys in volume!
The two pedal vehicle does not have a gear lever but instead relies on push buttons with the options of fully automatic or manual using Forward, Reverse & Neutral.
Gordon Murray Design is currently in discussions with several interested parties to move the car into production using the iStream® Manufacturing process. iStream® is a unique, innovative method of producing cars invented by Gordon Murray Design which, amongst other things, reduces the area and investment of a typical car factory by 80%.
Benefits from this layout includes better accident protection for the driver and passengers in full frontal and offset collisions.
International standard driving position-no need to change layout for right or left hand markets.
My only concern is the social dislocation of having a passenger sitting behind rather than alongside the driver, but this would take a bit of getting used to and is small price to pay for the space utilisation benefits and added accident safety factors.
Good luck Gordon!!
Andrew B (Designer)