Future Formula?: Gordon Murray Spills Wisdom

Legendary Formula 1 designer Gordon Murray and shell think the story of internal combustion can be tweaked instead of ended

He’s designed the most successful Formula 1 car over a single season, what was once the fastest production car in the world (faster than most today, which also dominated Le Mans in 1995) and a compact city car that has been embraced by a major automotive company (Yamaha).

Throughout these varying projects that have spanned nearly three decades, South African born Gordon Murray has maintained that automotive design, even for the future, has more to do with evolution rather than revolution.

Murray, who was at the IIT Madras campus along with representatives from petroleum and lubricants company Shell along with other automotive industry figures, spoke of the need for a rethink as far as legislation regulating automotive emissions was concerned.

Alternative propulsion like electric or hybrid power was (maybe predictably) discussed with scepticism as Murray became the most high profile advocate for the need to be efficient.

“Well you have to realize that a lot of the measures taken by automotive companies are due to the legislation on emissions,” said Murray. “The legislation only deals with tailpipe emissions rather than overall over the production cycle of a vehicle.”

Of course, this being a legendary F1 car designer, one couldn’t help but ask Murray what he felt about the biggest set of rule changes in the sport for 25 years (since turbocharged engines were abandoned in 1989).

“I think the new regulations are a bit of a mess,” Murray told autoX. “They needed more time to be thought through and maybe we could have waited another year or two before introducing them.”

And keep in mind that this was well before the season opening Australian Grand Prix got under way. Murray’s follow up comments on the matter drove home the philosophy of the self-confessed ‘petrolhead’ on racing and cars.

“Ultimately you have to think about the spectators in motorsport,” said Murray. “One of the reasons I don’t even go to Le Mans anymore is because the diesel powered Audis are so quiet!”

The aspect of loudness, while clearly important to Murray, was not as important as lightness when it came to car and racing car design.

Something that was evident by his pick for his favourite road and racing car of all time.

“The original FIAT 500 and the 1965 Lotus 25 F1 car,” came the near instant reply. Cars that reflect the philosophy around the lightweight T25 city car that Murray hopes will be adopted by car companies around the world instead of electric and hybrid counterparts.

One thing was clear after the lecture series, however, neither Murray nor the representatives from Shell believed that the era of the combustion engine was coming to an end anytime soon.

Whether they are right or if they are squeezing too much out of the last of what is left of ‘black gold’ is something that time will only tell.