T.25 New City Car First Public Appearance

Gordon Murray, onetime Formula One engineer; designer of the McLaren F1 Supercar, has revealed the T.25 New City Car.

T.25 First Public Appearance

For the past three years Murray and his team, based in Shalford, south east England, have been working on the design for the T.25 New City Car but until now have kept the designs a closely guarded secret.

The UK's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment in Oxford showcased the T.25's first public appearance on Monday.

Smaller than Diamler AG's fashionable Smart Car, the T.25 New City Car is less than 8 ft long and just over 4 ft wide, can reach speeds of 80mph and will retail for around $9,000 for the petrol engine model.

T.25 New City Car

Murray has borrowed some of the popular design aesthetics from the McLaren F1 Supercar to create the T.25.

Perhaps the easiest to spot is the centralised driving position, instrumentation and controls, a well known trait of Formula One.

Others that are not so obvious, but by no less important to the overall design of the T.25:

• Tubular steel Chassis with cored composite structural floor for aerodynamic efficiency, and the body panels are easier to replace in the event of an accident.
• Fuel efficiency of the T.25 New City Car is in the region of 74 miles per gallon, owing mainly to the fact it weighs in at just 575 kilograms.
• Turing circle of the car is just 6 meters, compared to the Smart Car's 9 meters and the BMW's Mini – over 10 meters, making it easier to manipulate in built up locations.
• Interior of the T.25 New City Car allows for 6 different layouts to accommodate passengers and luggage alike and is easily adjustable.
• Wing mirrors sit within the overall width of the car – just over 4ft wide.
• Fuel caps situated on both sides of the car for ease.

The T.25 New City Car also has an electric version, the T.27 which will have cost about $18,000 and have cover a distance of 80-100 miles before needing to be recharged.

A new manufacturing process has been designed by Gordon Murray Design especially for the T.25:

'iStream' allows all main segment to be fitted directly on to the chassis before the body panels are fitted, simplifying the auto assembly line. This could mean smaller more efficient auto plants, lowering the overall carbon footprint of the car.

The 'iStream' concept was independently analysed and the principles verified by Holger Erker, Managing Director of IPE Engineering, a German Engineering Consultancy Firm.
Erker, who has worked as an auto industry consultant for the past 2 decades, maintains that the 'iStream' provides more flexibility than any other car manufacturing process currently in use.

According to Erker “It is the most radical change in, let's say, the last 100 years of car body making. With "iStream" one of the most cost intensive production steps -- body panel press shop -- is completely eliminated"