At the 75th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, we awarded our highest honor, the Robert E. Petersen Lifetime Achievement Award, to Professor Gordon Murray CBE. Previous recipients include Carrol Shelby, Dan Gurney, and Mario Andretti. Former technical director of the McLaren F1 team and founder of Gordon Murray Automotive, Gordon has been designing F1 cars and road cars for over 60 years. Today, we know him as the genius mind behind some of the most uncompromised, ultra-lightweight, driver-focused road cars on the planet.
Gordon Murray's latest creation, the GMSV S1, is now on display at the Petersen Get tickets here!
Gordon Murray grew up in Durban, South Africa, where he studied mechanical engineering and eventually started building and racing his own car to compete in the South African National Class. A few years later, he moved to England where he was offered a spot on the Brabham F1 team. After being appointed chief designer by Bernie Ecclestone, he designed two world championship winning cars, the BT49 and BT52, as well as the famous Brabham BT46B “fan car”, known for its creative use of a fan on the diffuser, sucking air from underneath the car like a vacuum to generate immense downforce at all speeds.
The Brabham BT46B won its first and only Grand Prix
After developing a reputation at Brabham for innovative design and an innate ability to exploit the F1 rulebook, Murray accepted an offer from Ron Dennis to become technical director for McLaren in 1987. There, he oversaw the construction of Ayrton Senna's first championship winning car. Subsequently, he would oversee four consecutive McLaren constructor's championships with drivers Senna and Alain Prost.
His talent in F1 design carried seamlessly over into roadcars when, in 1991, he became the head of McLaren Cars and penned the legendary McLaren F1, widely considered one of the finest driver’s cars ever built. The F1 was designed without compromise. It was made from exotic lightweight materials, powered by a naturally aspirated V12 from BMW, sat three people along with their luggage, and reached a top speed of 221 MPH. To this day the McLaren F1 is the fastest naturally aspirated production car ever. It was also the last street-legal production car to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Few people realize that the F1 was also a “fan car.” Its fans were mounted underneath the rear bodywork and functioned slightly differently to the BT46B’s single fan. Rather than sucking air directly from under the car like a vacuum, the F1’s fans clear boundary-layer air around the diffuser, allowing it to produce more downforce. The MSRP of the McLaren F1 was around $800,000. Nowadays, they regularly sell for prices in excess of $20 million.
From left to right: the GMSV S1 LM, the GMA T.50, and the McLaren F1
Most recently, Gordon has created his own boutique manufacturer, GMA, to design modern road cars with the same core principles that defined the F1: lightweight construction, usability, instant response, and driver engagement. No one at Gordon Murray Automotive is worried about lap records or top speed. Their only goal is to create the best driving experience possible. The company’s first model, the GMA T.50, quickly established its reputation among enthusiasts, particularly thanks to its 3.9 liter Cosworth V12 which howls all the way to 12,000 RPM while mated to a 6-speed manual transmission, something exceedingly rare in modern hypercars. The T.50 harkens back to Murray's previous designs with a prominent rear mounted fan assisting its diffuser. At The Quail last year, Gordon launched a new branch of GMA, Gordon Murray Special Vehicles, dedicated to creating few-off, bespoke hypercar projects. They revealed their S1 LM, with the same Cosworth V12 now bored out to 4.3 liters, and with styling inspired by the McLaren F1 LM. At RM Sotheby's 2025 auction alongside the Las Vegas Grand Prix, the 5th and final build slot for S1 LM demanded a staggering price of 20 million dollars.
Dario Franchitti and Gordon Murray reveal the GMSV S1 at The Quail, 2026
Murray followed up with the S1 this year, a road-oriented variant of the track-focused S1 LM that does away with the aggressive aero elements and provides a more forgiving ride. 64 will be built, matching the production number of road-going F1s. The S1 is the resurrection of an icon, and a once in a lifetime opportunity to witness the construction of a modern supercar to the same standards as the legendary Mclaren F1 by the man who designed it. What better moment to thank him for a lifetime of devotion to automotive excellence.
If you’d like to check out Gordon Murray’s latest creation, it's on display for a limited time, only at the Petersen. Get tickets here
