Yahoo Autos Dario Franchitti Takes the GMA T.50 up the Famed Angeles Crest Highway
The motorcycle cop hit the brake so hard the rear tire smoked. He flipped around and rode up to where we were shooting photos of the Gordon Murray Automotive T.50, and I was sure that we were about to spend the day doing paperwork instead of winging the T.50's free-breathing 3.9-liter V-12 up to its exospheric 12,100-rpm redline. I'd underestimated two things, one being the irresistible charm of four-time IndyCar champ Dario Franchitti, and the other being the allure of the T.50 itself.
Franchitti made instant friends with the officer over bike talk, and by the time they'd moved over to the car and were raising its butterfly doors, it was clear that there would be no tickets, and that at least one highway patrolman would be pushing the CHP to spend just $3 million or so of its multibillion-dollar annual budget on a black-and-white T.50.
Gordon Murray Automotive has been working on the T.50—Murray's spiritual successor to his game-changing McLaren F1—since before the pandemic in 2020. The goal for Murray was to “fix” things about the F1 he would do differently if given the chance, and to create a car that offers a driver's experience that is raw and engaging while still making use of mechanical and material technological advancements.
The T.50 is a tiny machine, no bigger than a Porsche Cayman, with a custom-built Cosworth V-12 designed to Murray's demanding specifications. It comes only as a six-speed manual, treats power steering as a luxury for use only at low speeds, and seats three, if none of them are large. Yet it's not a Luddite's car. The engine makes use of an integrated 48-volt starter/generator to rid itself of sloppy belts. The bodywork is honeycombed composite for weight savings, and every internal switch was chosen with tactile satisfaction in mind.
We've seen the car at Goodwood and Laguna Seca, but in August 2024, we finally had a chance to go for a ride in a production model in Los Angeles. Registration details (the T.50 is only legal in the U.S. under a Show and Display import exemption) kept us from taking a turn in the center driver's seat, but if you have to turn the wheel over to someone else, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better chauffeur than Franchitti.
I thought the majority of the ride would be the engine howling and me and Franchitti laughing maniacally, which definitely did happen, but we also managed to learn a bit about the T.50 and what's next for Gordon Murray Automotive. We'll be going into detail about all that in an upcoming issue of Car and Driver. Meanwhile, join us for a ride.
You Might Also Like
