Gordon Murray

Gordon Murray ( born June 18, 1946 in Durban, South Africa) is a South African engineer and former designer of racing cars in Formula 1

Career

The way to England

Murray grew up as the son of a car mechanic in Durban. After school and military service, he studied at the Natal Technical College, now the Durban University of Technology, Mechanical Engineering. During the study designed, built and drove his own race cars and engines Murray.

Since Murray saw no future in South Africa for his racing ambitions, he went in the hope of finding a job to Lotus in England. There, however, a chance encounter with Ron Tauranac earned him a job at Brabham. He was employed there for three years at the side of Tauranac as a designer and as Bernie Ecclestone took over the team, Murray was assistant chief designer Ralph Bellamy. End of 1972, Ecclestone promoted to Technical Director.

Brabham

The first, developed by Murray Formula 1 car Brabham BT42 was, which was driven in the 1973 season of Carlos Reutemann and Wilson Fittipaldi. Brabham finished in fourth place in the constructors' championship. In the next generation BT44 Reutemann won three races in 1974. 1975, with the BT44B, Reutemann and Carlos Pace each won a race and took second place in the Constructors' Championship. Murray wanted a flat 12 - cylinder engine with 180 ° cylinder angle, to improve the aerodynamics to 1976. Ecclestone commissioned Alfa Romeo with the construction of such an engine, which was used in the BT45. However, the car did not work as desired and Reutemann left the team mid-season. The revised car for 1977 brought an improvement, but the Alfa engines were not reliable.

In 1978, the BT46B used, which became famous as the " vacuum cleaner " cars. A big fan sucked the air from under the vehicle and produced by a vacuum which pressed the car on the road. Niki Lauda won so the Swedish Grand Prix, the car was, however, declared shortly afterwards by the FIA ​​for illegal.

When the ground-effect car began to enforce, Murray needed a different motor constructed to the vehicle underbody to make aerodynamic. Alfa built a new V12, which was used in the less successful BT48. Murray then built the BT49, which was powered by a Cosworth engine. Nelson Piquet was able to win three races in 1980 and 1981, the World Cup.

Starting in 1982, drove Brabham BMW turbo engines. Piquet won the Canadian GP in BT50 and BT52 again in 1983 for the world title. In the following years could win occasional race Murray's car, but no longer build on the successes of the early 1980s. For 1986, Murray developed his last Brabham BT55 with the flat built BMW turbo in which Elio de Angelis was killed during testing.

McLaren

End of 1986, Murray went to McLaren. Developed by Steve Nichols McLaren - Honda MP4 / 4, who won 15 of 16 races in 1988, was based on Murray's concept of the extremely flat design, which he had already realized the Brabham BT55. After this season Neil Oatley took over the development department and Murray moved to a Manager post at McLaren Automotive, where he developed in 1989 as Head of Design, the McLaren F1. In this project, he again worked with Paul Rosche, who had already developed the BMW turbo for Brabham and was now responsible for the 6.1 -liter engine used in F1.

Gordon Murray Design

Murray remained until the beginning of 2005 with McLaren and then started his own business. In July 2007, he presented his plans for a new road car concept to the public, which he developed with his company Gordon Murray Design. The car should be small, lightweight, low emissions and unconventional. As with the McLaren F1 is a key element of the design should be a particularly refined " Packaging". After Murray's view have the arrangement of the modules and the division of the base a much greater impact on the ability of a car than technical details. The vehicle called T.25 was introduced to the public in June 2010.

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