GMA T.50 test mule readies for 12,100rpm run – Evo
Wiskinny The latest launch on its YouTube channel, the Gordon Murray Automotive engineering group provides an replace to the T.50 enhancement programme, with 4 time Indy Automotive champion and typeer evo columnist Dario Franchitti introducing the XP prototypes and the Ultima based mostly powertrain mule, referred to as ‘George’. A second video Shall be revealed later displaying the car and engine in movement and working As a lot As a Outcome of the T.50’s focused 12,100rpm redline.
Cosworth and GMA have labored collectively to create this bespoke power unit, with goal pertypeance decides of 664bhp at 11,500rpm and345lb ft of torque arriving at 9,000rpm.
The three new physique-on prototypes proven in the film embrace two automobiles with early stage factors, XP1 and XP3, with XP4, The primary B pattern prototype, at a extra superior stage of enhancement. Although not current in the powertrain mule, parts Similar to a Outcome of the digital wing mirror shows At the second are in place, with The final inside format starting to take type. Testing May even be ongoing with Michelin to develop a bespoke compound for the Pilot Sport 4 S tyre that’s being developed particularally for T.50.
The reveal of XP2 in March marked The primary time that a T.50’s carbon chassis, physique and Cosworth-constructed V12 engine had been launched collectively. As A pair of of the anticipated supperiodutomobiles of The trfinishy period, the T.50 has Tons to stay As a lot as when It Will undoubtedly reveryes buyers in 2022.
The GMA T.50
The combination Of Almost limitmuch less inventive freedom and Murray’s technical brilliance is a potent one, and with authorities regulation closing in on extreme-velocity pertypeance automobiles such as this, it might properly be the final of its type – the final analogue supercar.
The T.50 itself is A completely bespoke, money-no-object machine designed to appeal toion to The driving strain above all; no compromise, no plattype sharing, no turbocharging, no automated geararea.
It’s beneathpinned by a carbonfibre chassis, has a central-seat format, is powered by a naturally aspipriced V12 engine, and transmits its power to the road by way of the rear wheels solely, Neverthemuch less it mixes these conspicuously straightforward components with technological developments gathered in the previous 28 years to create Murray’s current-day interpretation of the ‘good driver’s car’. It might properly be Definitely one of the biggest driver’s car ever. That is the rationale.
Chassis and Lightweighting
The T.50’s carbonfibre monocoque chassis and physique panels collectively weigh Decrease than 150kg – an astonishingly low decide confacetring The safety legal guidelines that Want to be adhered to in 2020. The cabin is Specified by A 3-seater configuration, with every of the three seats furtherly constructed from carbon. The driver’s seat weighs in at a scant 7kg, with every of the passenger seats even much less at 3kg.
Whereas carbonfibre was furtherly used on the McLaren F1, Murray admits that it was an early experimental software of The supplies in a road car, based mostly on his expertise in Formulation 1. The T.50 advantages from 30 years’ worth of enhancement in carbonfibre, enabling its chassis to be 20-30kg lighter than the F1’s, but twice as stiff and extra commodious infacet.
Each factor has been focused in the identify of saving weight. The pedal area, For event, Is out there in 300 grams lighter than the F1’s, while the super-skinny windscreen is 28 per cent lighter than typical automotive glass softwares.
Dimensionally the T.50 has an extremely compact footprint: it’s shorter and lower than a Porsche Cayman, and solely 40mm wider regardmuch less of its V12 engine, complicated aero and three-seat cabin. The outcomes Of these modest dimensions and the acagencying Lightweighting is a pretty astonishing kerb weight decide of simply 987kg, fluids embraced.
Powertrain particulars
The T.50’s V12 engine Is completely bespoke, and has been designed between Murray and Cosworth to A very particular set of goals in enhancement, performance and design. The 3994cc motor Consists of a 65-diploma cylinder-financial institution angle, with an 81.5mm bore and 63.8mm stroke. It is naturally aspipriced, runs at a 14:1 compression ratio, and has been designed for final response as a lot as its power decide.
Peak power of 654bhp arrives at 11,500rpm, with the 345lb ft torque peak at 9000rpm. The V12 has An affect density of 164bhp per litre, which means it outpertypes the 154bhp per litre of the Aston Martin Valkyrie’s 1000bhp, 6.5-litre engine – ancompletely different naturally aspipriced V12 designed and constructed by Cosworth, though GMA insists not a single factor is shared between The two.
The utmost engine velocity is 12,100rpm – a doc for a manufacturing car. However Much extra astonishing is its rev-obtain price, the V12 In a place to rising A surprising 28,500rpm per second. That is nearly 3 events faster than the BMW S70/2 V12 in the McLaren F1, and means the T.50’s engine Is in a place to hitting its rev limiter from idle in simply 0.3sec. To understand this, The wiskinny shifting parts have been shorn of as a lot weight as potential: the metallic crank is simply 13kg, and the connecting rods and valves are titanium, all To Scale again rotational mass.
This contributes in the direction of the V12’s extremely low genperiodl weight decide of 178kg – a doc for a V12 road car engine, and 28kg Decrease than the aforementioned Valkyrie V12. The crank May even be solely 80mm from the engine base, reducing All of the engine’s internals to The Benefit of weight distribution. Inner engine lubrication is by a dry sump system, naturally.
Virtually obsessive measures have been taken in all factors of the powertrain’s ancillaries, too. There Are not any belts on the V12 – everyskinnyg is gear-pushed – while a 48V delicate-hybrid system that employs an integpriced starter motor and genperiodtor streamlines the electrical facet of skinnygs. The V12’s ancillaries are located out of sight, which means solely the headers, exhaust manifolds and consumption plenum and trumpets are seen by way of the car’s glazed engine cowl.
The V12’s consumption is fed by way of a roof-mounted ram-air scoop that borrows Direct Path Induction Sound tech first seen on the McLaren F1. The system primarily amplifies the consumption sound from the roof scoop into the cabin, but runs on The cas quickly aspt of throttle place pretty than engine velocity, primarytaining the relative noise down when The driving strain lifts, while making sure a extra intense sound beneath huge throttle softwares at lower revs.
The six-velocity guide geararea is ancompletely different bespoke fee, this time designed and constructed by Xtrac. It weights simply 80.5kg, which – you’ve guessed it – is ancompletely different road-car doc. The shift really feel is being painstakingly gooded by Murray himself with A quick-throw movement on the compact gearlever that sprouts from The biggest-hand facet of the central driver’s seat.
Specs
GMA T.50
Aston Martin Valkyrie
Engine measurement
3994cc
6499.01225944cc
Construction
65-diploma V12
65-diploma V12
Max power
654bhp @ 11,500rpm
1000bhp @ 7000rpm
Max torque
345lb ft @ 9000rpm
546lb ft @ 7000rpm
Peak RPM
12,100
11,100
BHP/litre
164bhp/litre
154bhp/litre
Engine weight
178kg
206kg
Airflow administration
The GMA T.50’s distinctive aerodynamic package deal embraces enhancements of options from Gordon Murray’s Formulation 1 automobiles As properly as to trfinishy-day F1 and road automobiles.
Dominating the package deal is a rear-mounted 400mm fan, Which might acceleprice the air passing beneath the car and out of the rear diffuser To enhance downstrain. The fan works Aprolongedside facet a Selection of movable aero mannequins in the T.50’s beneathfloor, infacet the rear diffuser and On the trailing Fringe of the car’s rear finish. The beneathfloor ducting, Together with the fan’s distinctive design, does away with The need for the ‘skirt’ found on the Murray-designed Brabham BT46B ‘fan car’ of the late Nineteen Seventies. The fan furtherly doubles as a cooling assist for the mid-mounted V12 when required.
The T.50 has An complete of six completely different aero modes, two of That are mechanically engaged with out driver intervention, and The completely different 4 being selecdesk. Auto Mode is the default, and permits the system To answer variably to driver inputs, while a Braking Mode then prompts beneath heavy braking, lifting the aerofoils and working the fan at extreme velocity, doubling downstrain and subsequently enhancing the tyres’ buy on the road floor for The solely braking pertypeance.
The 4 further modes embrace High Downstrain Mode for quick road or monitor driving. This prompts the fan and aerofoils To reintypeationrce trmovement and extreme-velocity cornering grip by elevating downstrain by 30 per cent over the default mode. Streamline Mode, in the meantime, reduces drag over the default mode by ten per cent For prime- and low-velocity cruising, and closes All of the beneathphysique ducts and prompts the fan at extreme velocitys to extfinish the trailing wake of air behind the car, in influence Making a digital prolonged-tail.
Vmax Mode shares this slipperiest of set-ups with Streamline Mode, but provides almost 50bhp of electrical power from the integpriced starter-genperiodtor for As a lot as three minutes, elevating peak power to Throughout the 700bhp mark.
To validate these modes, GMA partnered with the Racing Level Formulation One group to utilise its rolling-road wind tunnel at Silverstone. The first quarter of 2020 furtherly noticed the opening of the Gordon Murray Automotive buyer expertise And restore centre at Dunsfold Park in Surrey, aprolongedfacet The agency’s headquarters and manufacturing facility, Which can start constructing automobiles in January 2022.
Design and inside
As with so many completely different parts of the T.50, it’s incas quickly asivable To not appeal to parallels between The mannequin new car and the McLaren F1. Their shared DNA Is apparent in the design, with comparable proportions beneathpinning an aesthetic that’s extra complicated and modern on the T.50 than its ’90s predecessor.
The roof-mounted ram consumption Signifies That huge-scale air consumptions Aren’t required in the physique facets, affording them a simplicity not seen on rivals Similar to a Outcome of the Valkyrie or modern McLarens. The cowl-like cabin has a equally ‘glassy’ really feel to the F1’s And will be enhanced with optionally available glazed sections in the primes of the butterfly doorways. The facet house windows are as quickly as as quickly as extra sectioned, Neverthemuch less there Are not any rear house windows this time, rearward visibility being dealt with solely by camperiods, The footage from That are displayed on screens both facet of the cockpit. As a Outcome of of this, there Are not any door mirrors both.
Any complicatedity to the T.50’s design Is nearly solely saved for the rear-finish, which needed to integprice the fan, beneathphysique diffuser, cooling, lighting and exhaust retailers in A comparatively compact stempo. Whereas the F1 shared its Taillights with an Iveco truck, the T.50’s LED mannequins are bespoke and, as you’d anticipate, Lightweight.
The car’s central-seat format has largely pushed the inside structure, Neverthemuch less the interfaces and administrations are pure Murray. The steering wheel Is Freed from cluttering administrations, while touchscreens Aren’desk by their absence; Instead The driving strain intperiodcts with the car by way of six milled administration knobs flanking the instrument cluster. The centrally placeed rev counter is analogue (seems Lexus’s declare thOn the LFA required a digital rev counter To primarytain tempo with its quick-revving V10 might have been a unusual case of Japanese adornment), while both facet are digital shows splitting driver intypeation and intypeationtainment/navigation.
The guide transmission lever sprouts to The driving strain’s proper on a cantilevered carbon and aluminium construction that furtherly exposes the lever’s movement beneath.
The money
A complete of 100 T.50s Shall be constructed, commencing in 2022 and priced from £2.36m earlier than native taxes or costs. Given the McLaren F1’s popularity, it’s not surprising To Take heed to ThOn Almost all of the construct run has already been allotted, with A strong reception from Japan and the US.