One of the world’s top car collectors, and owner of a rather special McLaren F1 LM worth upwards of $30 Million, Ralph Lauren, is first in line for Gordon Murray’s T.50. He shared the news with Paul Croughton in an interview published in Robb Report where he also detailed his obsessions with McLaren, the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing, and the Jaguar XK120, 140, and 150. “I got a new one,” he said. “It’s on the way, but I won’t see that for probably a year. That’s the only car I’ve bought in the last few years–the Gordon Murray T.50.”
Likely to go down as one of the last truly visceral supercars. It’s powered by an all-new bespoke 4.0-litres naturally aspirated V12 engine developed by Cosworth producing over 488 kW (654hp) at 11,500 rpm with a maximum torque of 467 Nm at 9,000 rpm. The best part? It’s mated to a manual transmission and weighs just 997 kg (2,198 lb). Logically, it’s the spiritual successor to the McLaren F1, which Ralph Lauren owns multiple.
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Similarities between the T.50 and the original McLaren F1 start with the same central driving position with two flanking passenger seats, the aforementioned 6-speed manual gearbox and V12 engine, ticket-window in the fixed side windows, dihedral doors, and fan-assisted ground effects.
At the same time, it addresses many of the shortcomings Murray struggled with in the original design of the McLaren F1 due to pricing constraints: “The spine is 50 mm too wide, the headlamps are like glow worms in a jar, the air-con was hopeless, the brakes squeak, the clutch needs adjusting every 5,000 miles, the fuel tank bag replacing every five years, loading luggage in the lockers was a pain. This all stuck in my head,” he said in a Top Gear article. We’ll let Mr Lauren be the judge of those changes.
So how much does all this greatness cost? The GMA T.50 is priced around AU$5.5 Million. And before you get your knickers in a knot, it’s already sold out. More information on the T.50 can be found linked below.