Supercars get tested in a number of interesting ways but long road trips aren’t always on the menu. With Gordan Murray’s latest creation, the GMA T50, that isn’t the case. The folks from Top Gear just took one out for some 900 miles (about 1,450 km) and what they have to report should be of interest to every car enthusiast.
The recipe sounds great on paper. A V12 engine that revs to over 12,000 RPM, 654 hp (488 kW), a proper manual transmission, a central seating position, a curb weight of 2,174 lbs (986 kg), and styling cues that truly nod to the McLaren F1. According to Cosworth, the engine can rev at 52,000 rpm per second. To put that into context, this thing can go from idle to redline in 0.2 seconds. Could the final product really live up to all of that hype laid down in ink and online?
To find out, Top Gear’s Ollie Marriage took a prototype from Barcelona to Bilbao. A 900-mile trip up through the mountains to reach its final destination. “This is not a lightweight car to operate… It’s a lightweight car to drive but the operation of it, the steering, the clutch, the gear change takes a deliberate hand. The reward of it, the satisfaction of it is getting all of those things right,” says Marriage.
Read: The McLaren F1 Wasn’t Gordon Murray’s Only Crazy 1990s Sport Car
What isn’t perfect about the T50? Well, Marriage has a few tiny gripes after his trip. For one thing, managing things like toll booths from that center seat isn’t necessarily optimal. The styling isn’t as iconic in his eyes when compared to the McLaren F1, and the key is somewhat chunky and large compared to the rest of the vehicle.
Despite those tiny drawbacks, Marriage calls it the pinnacle of cars. What Gordan Murray has done in his eyes is create possibly the finest car ever made. I guess GMA will just have to loan us one sometime so that we can check Ollie’s work.
Why is this report so interesting to enthusiasts from all corners of the automotive globe? It serves as a testament to what’s possible. That we are in fact, losing something good with the introduction of more sanitized vehicle designs. And that precise engagement behind the wheel might be the key to automotive happiness.