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T.27 EV by Gordon Murray


You’re looking at a petrol version (T.25) of what will most likely be the world’s most efficient and exciting EV (Electric Vehicle), the T.27.

For those few who haven’t heard of Gordon Murray, he is the without doubt one of the most gifted automotive designers of all time, with more Formula One wins in cars which he designed, that I can possibly count.

While at Brabham, Murray’s cars (BT46B, BT49, BT52) scored twenty-two Grand Prix wins between 1973 and 1985 and finished the season in second place in the Constructor’s Championship in 1975 and 1981.

Nelson Piquet also won the Driver’s Championship in 1981 and 1983 driving Murray designed race cars.

His success continued unabated at McLaren, where his 1988 MP4/4 car won a staggering 15 out of 16 Grand Prix races and gave Ayrton Senna his first Championship win.

In fact, McLaren cars ‘by Murray’ would go on to win a remarkable four consecutive Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships between 1988-1991.

Murray was then asked to head up a McLaren division to produce road- going supercars, and he came up with what many still regard as the Holy Grail of the category, the McLaren F1.

While he also penned the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, some say it wasn’t in the same league as the F1, although we haven’t driven the car and therefore, can’t comment.

That said if Gordon Murray’s own company ‘Gordon Murray Design Ltd’ is designing what they have said, will be “The World’s Most Efficient EV, then that’s something I would definitely be interested in.

The T.27 is being pitched as a pure electric drive vehicle for use in busy cities and designed to “fully optimise packaging, weight and performance.”

But Murray’s design company isn’t providing the electric powertrain, that job falls to leading UK motorsport engineering company, Zytek, who’s engine management systems are found in many of today’s high performance cars.

Zytek Electric Vehicles was added to the group in 1994 and its first product was the Electric powered Lotus Elise, which was the star of the 1998 SAE International Congress.

Zytek will design a brand new fully integrated electric motor, battery and control system for the T.27 so get set for a series of unrivalled efficiencies with this car.

Projected emissions of just 48g/km CO2 for a combined cycle and an impossibly low 28g/km for the urban cycle, means the full lifecycle CO2 damage of the T.27 will be almost half that of an average UK petrol driven car.

The total weight of the diminutive T.27 will be 680 kilograms, while power is 25kW from the Lithium-ion battery pack.

Total length of the car is 2.50 metres and width is 1.30 metres, with a turning circle of a remarkable 6.0 metres.

Performance is of course not related to any of Murray’s previous supercar designs, so top speed is 105km/h and 0-100km/h will take less than 15 seconds.

The T.27 will be able to travel a distance of between 130 and 160 kilometres on a single charge.

Manufacturing costs will also be kept very low for this project, due entirely to Murray’s low energy manufacturing system called iStream, which substantially reduces the upfront capital investment to produce the car as well as the energy required during the manufacturing process.

It also means that Murray’s previously designed petrol powered T.25 can be manufactured at the same plant.

It’s an ambitious project, but certainly one, which we hope succeeds on every level, as I for one, would have no problem driving around in a Gordon Murray designed EV.

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