Ian Gordon Murray (born June 18, 1946) is a former Formula One racing car designer from South Africa and the United Kingdom. He is best known for working as the lead designer for the Brabham and McLaren Formula 1 teams from 1969 to 1986 and from 1987 to 1991, respectively. Later, he designed high-quality, high-performance sports cars and other creative automotive projects.
After leaving McLaren, Murray started the Gordon Murray Design consultancy. In 2017, he also founded Gordon Murray Automotive, a company that makes a small number of special cars. Both businesses are now part of the Gordon Murray Group.
Early life
Murray was born and raised in Durban, South Africa, to parents who were immigrants from Scotland. His father worked as a motorcycle racer and later helped prepare racing cars. Murray studied engineering at Natal Technical College, which is now called Durban University of Technology.
During 1967 and 1968, Murray built and raced his own car, the IGM Ford, in a racing competition in South Africa.
Formula One career
Murray moved to England in 1969, hoping to get a job at Lotus Cars. However, Murray was offered a job at Brabham after meeting Ron Tauranac, who was the Brabham designer at the time. When Bernie Ecclestone took over the Brabham team, he named Murray Chief Designer. At Brabham, Murray designed many Grand Prix cars, some of which won World Championships. These designs include the BT46B, also called "the Brabham fan car," as well as the World Championship-winning BT49 and BT52. Murray became known for his creative ideas, which he applied to car designs, small details, and race strategies.
Between 1973 and 1985, Murray's Brabhams earned 22 Grand Prix wins. They finished second in the Constructors' Championship in 1975 and 1981. They also helped Nelson Piquet win the Drivers' Championship in 1981 and 1983. For the 1986 season, Murray designed the Brabham BT55, a car with a low ride height. This was achieved by tilting the engine and placing the driver in a lying-down position. However, the car was not successful, finishing only seven of the sixteen races that season.
- Brabham BT42 (1973–1974)
- Brabham BT44 (1974)
- Brabham BT44B (1975)
- Brabham BT45 (1976)
- Brabham BT45B (1977)
- Brabham BT45C (1978)
- Brabham BT46 (1978)
- Brabham BT46B (1978)
- Brabham BT46C (1978)
- Brabham BT48 (1979)
- Brabham BT49 (1979–1980)
- Brabham BT49B (1980)
- Brabham BT49C (1981–1982)
- Brabham BT50 (1981–1982)
- Brabham BT49D (1982)
- Brabham BT52 (1983)
- Brabham BT52B (1983)
- Brabham BT53 (1984)
- Brabham BT54 (1985–1986)
- Brabham BT55 (1986)
In 1986, Murray accepted an offer from Ron Dennis to join McLaren as Technical Director. He took over a role that John Barnard had previously held. Murray shared his Brabham experience with the McLaren design team, led by Chief Designer Steve Nichols. The 1988 MP4/4 car, powered by a Honda turbo engine, won 15 of the 16 Grands Prix that season. It also gave Ayrton Senna his first Drivers' Championship. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren earned 199 points, a record at the time. Murray also helped design the 1989 MP4/5 and 1990 MP4/5B, both powered by naturally-aspirated engines. These cars won both the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships in their respective years. From 1988 to 1991, the McLaren team won four consecutive Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. Alain Prost won the Drivers' Championship in 1989, while Ayrton Senna won it in 1990 and 1991.
McLaren Cars
From 1991 to 2004, Murray led the McLaren Cars team to design cars for regular roads. The first car they created was the McLaren F1 in 1992. In 1995, a slightly changed version of the car, called the “LM,” became the last road-legal sportscar to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race outright. It won in all classes, including race positions 1, 3, 4, and 5.
Business ventures
In July 2007, the Gordon Murray Design company was created. It shared early information about its T.25 (Type 25) prototype city car and mentioned plans for a future lightweight, fuel-efficient supercar. The T.25 would be smaller than a Smart Fortwo. In 2008, Murray received the "Idea of the Year" award at Autocar magazine's annual event for the manufacturing method used to build the T.25.
In November 2009, Gordon Murray Design and Zytek Automotive announced plans to create an electric version of the T.25, called the T.27. This car was developed through a partnership between Murray's company and Zytek, a British technology firm responsible for building the car's power system.
The T.25 won the 2010 Royal Automobile Club’s Future Car Challenge, achieving a fuel efficiency of 97 miles per gallon during a 60-mile test drive from Brighton to London. The following year, the T.27 won the electric car category and the overall competition.
In 2017, Murray founded the Gordon Murray Automotive company to design and hand-build supercars based on his principles for "driver-focused cars."
On August 4, 2020, Gordon Murray Automotive announced the T.50 sports car, described as the "logical successor" to the McLaren F1. It included the "fan car" concept from the Brabham BT46B. Production of the T.50 began in 2022.
On January 27, 2022, Gordon Murray Automotive introduced the T.33 supercar. This twin-seater vehicle could be used for daily driving and shared the same engine as the T.50, but it was built on a new platform intended for three other future models.
Later, Murray created the broader Gordon Murray Group, which includes Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) and Gordon Murray Technologies (GMT). GMT focuses on engineering and technology, with an emphasis on electric vehicles, lightweight designs, and future mobility systems.
In July 2023, CYVN Holdings, a company based in Abu Dhabi, gained control of Gordon Murray Technologies. This investment aimed to support GMT's growth and speed up its work on electric and self-driving car technologies.
In 2025, Gordon Murray Special Vehicles was added to the Group. It introduced two new supercars: the GMSV Le Mans GTR and the GMSV S1 LM. The first S1 LM was sold at auction during the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 21, 2025, for $20.63 million.
Other projects
In 1981, Murray worked on improving cars made by Midas Cars. Murray designed the Rocket on his own. The Rocket is a very light, open driver's area sports car powered by a 1-litre motorcycle engine. It looks like a car from the 1960s Grand Prix racing series. The Rocket has a single seat, but it can also fit a passenger next to the driver. The second seat is hidden under a cover that can be removed. The Rocket was built by Chris Craft, a former racing driver, at the Light Car Company.
In September 2016, it was announced that Murray would help create the OX truck. The OX truck is an inexpensive, easy-to-assemble vehicle made for the British charity Global Vehicle Trust (GVT). GVT started a program called OX Delivers to use the OX truck design to improve transportation in developing countries. Murray made four early models of the OX truck called XP1 through XP4. XP2, XP3, and XP4 belong to OX Delivers. One of these vehicles was changed to run on electricity. OX later built two more electric trucks based on the original design. XP1 is kept in Murray’s personal collection.
Starting in 2015, Murray worked with TVR to design new car models. In 2017, TVR showed the first model of the Griffith car. However, the Griffith has not yet been produced in large numbers for sale.
Honours and awards
In 2019, Murray was given a CBE for his work in the car industry. He studied at Durban University of Technology, which honored him with the title of Honorary Professor in 2002 and an honorary doctorate in 2011.
In 2019, a special event called One Formula celebrated 50 years of Murray’s work in the car industry. The event displayed all of Murray’s Formula One car designs, the McLaren F1 roadcar, cars from his personal collection, and hundreds of T-shirts from rock bands that Murray collected over time. A book titled One Formula – 50 years of car design was published to share details about Murray’s car designs.
In 2022, Murray received the first-ever FIA President’s Innovation Medal for his creative ideas in designing race and road cars. In 2024, he was honored with the BBC Top Gear Lifetime Achievement Award, which called him "arguably the greatest and most original thinker in both Formula One and the wider automotive sphere."