Gordon Murray, whose everyday car is a Smart Roadster, admitted that designing the T.25 was a very exciting challenge. “Designing an environmentally friendly city car is a much harder challenge than creating a supercar like the McLaren F1, one of the exciting factors is that it will effect many more people on the planet,” Murray told Auto123.com.
“The majority of the team has worked on various other supercar projects. To design a small, low cost, environmentally friendly vehicle is much more of a challenge,” Murray added.
The T.25 is designed to have a lower parts count, faster assembly, low weight for efficiency and be powered by lightweight gasoline engine.
The engineers at Gordon Murray Design faced four design challenges. The T.25 had to cost less than other cars, be cool, be as safe as a small hatchback and not be daunting to drive in traffic.
Murray also wanted three T.25s to fit into one standard UK parallel parking space. Furthermore, he desired that the T.25 have a better power-to-weight ratio than the typical two-litre luxury saloon, and keep accident repair costs very low by way of replaceable body panels.
Murray is also planning to introduced a new assembly process he called iStream. The process centres on a separate body chassis assembly process. During the first part, the powertrain, wiring harnesses, brakes, suspension and all major components can be fitted directly onto the chassis prior to the body panels being fitted.
The body panels are delivered to the line pre-painted. Finally, the body panels are ‘married’ to the completed chassis near the end of the assembly process, helping to reduce paint damage normally associated with a standard assembly line. All external panels can be mechanically fixed to the chassis.
“Having worked in Formula 1 gave me a very good understanding of the composite construction, which is the basis on which iStream has been developed.”
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| Different configurations of the T.25 (Photo: Gordon Murray Design) |
“The majority of the team has worked on various other supercar projects. To design a small, low cost, environmentally friendly vehicle is much more of a challenge,” Murray added.
The T.25 is designed to have a lower parts count, faster assembly, low weight for efficiency and be powered by lightweight gasoline engine.
The engineers at Gordon Murray Design faced four design challenges. The T.25 had to cost less than other cars, be cool, be as safe as a small hatchback and not be daunting to drive in traffic.
Murray also wanted three T.25s to fit into one standard UK parallel parking space. Furthermore, he desired that the T.25 have a better power-to-weight ratio than the typical two-litre luxury saloon, and keep accident repair costs very low by way of replaceable body panels.
Murray is also planning to introduced a new assembly process he called iStream. The process centres on a separate body chassis assembly process. During the first part, the powertrain, wiring harnesses, brakes, suspension and all major components can be fitted directly onto the chassis prior to the body panels being fitted.
The body panels are delivered to the line pre-painted. Finally, the body panels are ‘married’ to the completed chassis near the end of the assembly process, helping to reduce paint damage normally associated with a standard assembly line. All external panels can be mechanically fixed to the chassis.
“Having worked in Formula 1 gave me a very good understanding of the composite construction, which is the basis on which iStream has been developed.”
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| Gordon Murray looking after Nelson Piquet's Brabham BT50-BMW. (Photo: Gordon Murray Design) |