Gordon Murray's Tiny Sports Car Will Weigh 850kg, Produce 220bhp
Gordon Murray - the Formula 1 designer - first started making noises about making a small sports car around 10 months ago. The attributes it would supposedly have sounded very much like a petrolhead’s dream car - a low weight figure, a power output you could actually use on the road, and a manual gearbox.
It was little more than a wish list, but now, we actually have some juicy facts and figures to share. Gordon Murray Design is promising a 220bhp output from a 1.5-litre inline-three turbo engine (perhaps a powerplant borrowed from the Ford Fiesta ST?), a weight figure of just 850kg, a six-speed manual ‘box and some fairly tiny dimensions.
It’ll be 1750mm wide, and the rolling chassis will be just 3640mm long. It’s hard to tell exactly how much longer the finished product will be, but it’s almost certainly going to be significantly shorter than a Porsche 718 Cayman, which measures in at 4379mm.
The diminutive size of the ‘T.43’ - as it’s been christened - is only part of the story, though: the 850kg weight figure is thanks in large part to Murray’s ‘iStream Superlight’ manufacturing principle. It’s based around a tubular frame made from high-strength aluminium, to which “honeycomb recycled carbon-composite chassis panels” are attached.
The result? A structure that’s about 50 per cent the weight of a stamped metal body-in-white. The platform is modular too, so it can be used for more than just a small sports car.
The first company to use the technology is TVR with its all-new Griffith, although the intention is to license iSteam as well as the T.43’s platform as a whole to many more customers.
As for the T.43 itself, there still isn’t even a rough time frame given as to when we might seen the full car, rather than just some platform images. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait too long…
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Thats gonna be fast
IIS GONNA BE VEERY QUIIIICK
You know, THAT is the new car Lotus should build… But no, instead they’re building yet another fat, ugly SUV.
True, an SUV is not something for Lotus.
Ifkr!
To be honest, if it sells enough to warrant greenlighting a small sports car production, I wouldn’t mind if they sold drugs too.
SUVs make money, Lotus needs money.
Easy math
Well think about it like the lotus Carlton. It was some lame Gm POS until lotus got their hands on it an made It a sleeper
If it comes out in mid 2020s and is priced fairly well,
I AM SURE AS HECK BUYING ONE
light: check
manual: YESSSSSSS
Stying: It’s Gordon Murray ffs it’ll be a beaut
cough Indian import and registration fees cough
Literally perfect
Whatever happened to the Yamaha Sport Ride?
It was supposed to be entering production last year, so presumably it’s not happening
Yanno what these are? Realistic, useable numbers. Not some 1800hp bs of which you can only use 35% of the power most of the time. It’s lightweight and has 220 horsies which can be used to their full potential ANYWHERE.
35% is still 630bhp
thats still way too much
I’m sorry but this is BS.
Driving a Huracan, C_Two or this at 70 mph is exactly the same in all 3 cars.
If you want to have a 0-100 kph in 6 seconds you can do that in a 720S too. Except with a 720S you can always go faster on a track, with this you can’t. You get the same experience thru corners in most sports cars, so why would extra power be a problem?
dammit, this was my idea!
I HAD AN ENTIRE CAR COMPANY BUILT ON THIS IDEA
THIS WAS MY LIFE LONG DREAM
damn you Gorden Murray and your amazing ideology!
In fairness this was my idea as well. I had planned it for the year 2035. :P
I mean, I want to be excited. The figures sound like a small affordable sports car. But it just won’t be, it will have some price tag that just isn’t feasible for us mere mortals.
Nice to here that however… if you think it will be more hardcore and direct mx5 - it won’t. It will be lotus elise, but even more expensive so bot for avarage petrol head :( still, I love to see lightweight true sports car.