Gordon Murray Has Designed A Revolutionary Concept Car That Looks Utterly Ridiculous

Guess what! Gordon Murray, legendary F1 designer and the man behind the McLaren F1 has built another revolutionary car with a central driving position. But before you get excited, this is it. Yep, this tall, awkward looking thing which - aesthetically at least - is surely the love child of a G-Wiz and one of those Little Tykes Cozy Coupes.

However, leaving aside the frustration that these futuristic eco cars always have to look so damn awful (I’d like to think the future doesn’t have to be quite so ugly), from a purely practical perspective this concept is actually rather interesting.

Developed in collaboration with Shell, the car is a “total rethink” of the T.25 concept Murray came up with back in 2010. Despite its small size, it can seat three people, with two passengers sitting further back at either side of the driver, rather like in a McLaren F1. And while it doesn’t have dihedral doors, the way you get in it is pretty cool too, with a large section of the front of the car tilting forward to make entering those rear seats less awkward.

The McLaren F1 allusions end there though, as this is not a fast car. It’s powered by a Smart-sourced 660cc three-cylinder engine - albeit with extensive modifications - that runs a special Shell-developed engine oil that reduces friction further than traditional lubricants, upping efficiency by an additional five per cent. Stick to 45mph, and you’ll be able to clock a Greenpeace-friendly 107mpg.

Also helping the MPG stakes massively is the weight of the car. It uses Gordon Murray’s iStream manufacturing process, consisting of a simple tubular steel chassis clad in recycled carbonfibre panels (these can be produced at a quarter of the cost of conventional steel), leading to a pithy weight figure of 550kg. And to further up the future-iness of the whole deal, a fair few of the car’s components are 3D printed.

There’s no talk of bringing something like this into production just yet, but Dr. Andrew Hepher of Shell’s lubricant research team said: “we want to accelerate the conversation about how we make road vehicles more energy efficient and less carbon-intensive.” We can only hope part of that conversation will cover looks…