Gordon Murray teases next-gen sportscar!

First IGM car by Gordon Murray Automotive

South African-born engineer Gordon Murray is probably best known as the designer of the McLaren F1 road car. Here's his latest project - although he's clearly not giving too much away at this stage!

It's been inspired by the engineering principles of the McLaren F1. The new design features the very latest materials and technology, focusing on light weight and driving pleasure.

The car is being built under the revived IGM brand. a re-design of the badging applied to Gordon Murray’s very first car – the ‘T.1’ IGM Ford Special, which Murray raced in South Africa in 1967 and 1968. The IGM brand will feature on all future in-house projects built by Gordon Murray Automotive.

The car commemorates 50 years of Gordon Murray car design, including more than two decades in Formula 1. He started his career at Brabham in 1969 and when Bernie Ecclestone took over he appointed Murray chief designer. As well as the championship-winning BT49 and BT52, his cars included the BT46B 'fan car'

Murray subsequently moved to McLaren as technical director between 1987 and 1991, taking over from John Barnard. Ayrton Senna won his first drivers' championship in 1988 in the Honda turbo-powered McLaren MP4/4. After that, Murray headed the offshoot McLaren Cars team designing road-going supercars including the McLaren F1 and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

He set up the Gordon Murray Design consultancy in July 2007.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.