No Le Mans for Murray's new T50s racer

Gordon Murray has abandoned plans to return to Le Mans with his T50 supercar, saying that current regulations prevent the lightweight V12-powered machine from entering. The announcement follows the launch of a track-only version, codenamed T50s. Instead, the designer says he is looking to set up an affordable privateer GT series where buyers of the T50 racing version can compete with owners of rival supercars.

The weight limit for GT cars start at 1200kg; that wasn’t going to happen putting 300kg of weight in these safely,” he said.

Murray is now in talks with Stéphane Ratel from SRO Motorsports Group, which organises the GT World Challenge and 24 Hours of Spa, to develop a competition that revives the BPR Global GT Series.

“Stéphane has a great direction, where he starts a GT1 club, and owners of these cars can race in a series, a bit like the BP Rall over again, where you don’t allow works teams in and it’s an accessible race series. We’ll work with him on that.”

The BPR Global GT1 series began in 1994 before morphing into the FIA GT Championship in 1997. Production-based racing cars filled the entry lists.

“Whether we allow one pro driver and one amateur per car, or if it’s the endurance format, or shorter races, those are the things to talk about,” Murray continued. A run of 25 T50s racing cars will begin production in 2023 and have more power, greater precision and better aerodynamic efficiency than the road model. Murray says that details are still being worked out for the future of his series but that development of the T50s was shaped with an eye on its future racing prospects.“It’s worth building this car just to hear one come past on the track at 12,000 revs,” he adds.“A lot of people would enjoy that.