After three years of non-stop details, Gordon Murray has finally unveiled his T.25 City Car. Design's T.25 City Car will make its first public appearance at the Smith School's World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford. Gordon Murray has designed some of the fastest cars ever, As the man behind some of the most successful McLaren Formula 1 cars and the incomparable McLaren F1 supercar.
Measuring 2.4 meters or 94.5-inches in length, 1.3 meters or 51.2-inches in width and 1.5 meters or 59-inches in height, the T.25 is smaller than Smart's minuscule Fortwo, yet Murray has managed to fit in three seats in a McLaren F1-style 1+2 layout with the driver sitting in the center of the car. The two passenger seats can be folded down allowing a luggage capacity of 720 liters.
Gordon Murray Design was established in 2007 to develop an innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing technology trademarked iStream® and the design and prototyping of the 2010 T.25 city car concept was central to both the development and validation of iStream®. Development of the process began over 15 years ago and it has already won the prestigious 2008 'Idea of the Year' award from Autocar who were given privileged access in order to make their assessment.
The small city car Power comes from a 660-cc three-cylinder engine located in the rear, that produces 51 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 57Nm of torque at 4,000 rpm, and 42 pound-feet of torque, making it about as powerful as the first-gen MG Midget (and about 400 pounds lighter). The car has a 5-speed clutchless transmission.
Fuel economy is estimated at about 74mpg UK, which is equal to 3.8 lt/100km and 61.9mpg US. Tipping the scales at around 575kg or 1,268 lbs, the T.25 accelerates from zero to 100km/h (62mph) in 16.2 seconds and reaches a limited top speed of 145km/h (90mph).
The first production vehicles based on the T25 concept car are expected in Europe by 2012. So far the T25 has been ruled out for the U.S., although there is speculation some form of the vehicle could arrive in 2014. The T.25 has the potential to be first to market for a new "World Car Class" for efficient vehicles, demonstrating new levels of efficiency and low emissions - creating excellent publicity and marketing opportunities.
Concept Car - Gordon Murray T.25 new City Car Concept