Gordon Murray Motors

Gordon Murray's T.50, with its record-smashing Cosworth V12 and fan-forced aerodynamics, is a fascinating car. And if you thought Murray was going to build it and not take it racing, you're nuts. There's a race version coming, and it's even nuttier.

The supercar of the year – perhaps indeed the decade, early though it is – has finally fully launched, and we've now got a trove of images of the first car that Formula One/McLaren F1 design genius Gordon Murray says he's truly 100 percent happy with.

It's one of the toughest engine assignments Cosworth has ever been given. For example, the T.50's 654-horsepower, 3.9-liter, naturally aspirated V12 has to rev from idle to its record-breaking 12,100 rpm redline in just three tenths of a second.

The 39.-liter V12 in the upcoming Gordon Murray T.50 aims to be "the highest-revving, highest power density, lightest and fastest-responding naturally aspirated V12 ever made for a road car." Here's a quarter of it on a dyno, screaming its head off.

It takes a lot to stand out in today's crowded super/hyper/uber/mega car market, but famed F1 designer Gordon Murray has found several ways to make his upcoming T.50 supercar a true contender without bothering to chase speed or power records.

The man behind the magnificent McLaren F1 is starting up a new company to produce something even more lightweight and extreme than his most famous creation. The 980-kg Gordon Murray Motors T.50 will begin deliveries in 2020 at a price around US$2.2 million.