ALWAYS MEET YOUR HEROES – part 1

“What do you think of this?  Could be like the little brother to the T.50 – and that’s the grandson of the F1!”

So started our odyssey with the new British supercar manufacturer, Gordon Murray Automotive, just over three years ago. We have a client who has become a very close friend but he is low key so let’s call him A. We wassap most days about car stuff, about whether he really wants 4.0 997 GT3 RS over a 3.8, about what our dogs have been up to, about future plans, strength of the US exchange rate, fun road trips and – often – about cars or details of cars that we like.

We are lucky in having some great connections and had recently sold a red hot rod 911 for a certain Scottish racing ace, Mr Dario Franchitti, who had started to do more work with GMA. A and I noodled some more and put in a call to Dario. Dario agreed that the car would be epic. He introduced us to Henry Winkworth-Smith, the GMA Sales Director, and we were making progress.

Henry set up one of the first of many video calls (he will smile when he reads this as I continue to be useless at using Teams) and talked us through a car that was then known as Project 2. This was in about November 2021. The business was so new that it was operating out of temporary accommodation at Dunsfold Park and I visited it myself (A lives overseas) on 12 December 2021. All very cool, very relaxed, very friendly, very professional – all characteristics of GMA that have resonated again and again since then.

It's fascinating to look back at that first unit at Dunsfold now as it shows just how far GMA has come in the short time since then. Although we thought it was ‘mega’, it really was just a smart shed with a bit of a Gordon Murray car collection and some prototype T.50s being built. For us, as signed up Gordon Murray fanboys, though, it was just incredible. The replica drawing office, the jukebox, of course the Light Car Company Rocket – magic. I think the penny dropped straightaway that these guys wanted to be different (just more original and more open, I would say) as well as being deadly serious about making brilliant sports cars.

I rang a couple of friends to see what they thought:  former McLaren F1 owner said he was still a bit worried about there being enough demand for 100 T.33s. Experienced car collector and historic car company boss had decided not to proceed with one, preferring to keep his Porsche Carrera GT instead. However, king of YouTube, Harry Metcalfe was absolutely clear:  “no question, that will be an incredible car.”  Given that our primary interest was driving and the overall ownership experience (not investment), it seemed pretty close to a no-brainer, especially as the company seemed so genuine and personable – this, we felt, would be no remote “how many new SUVs and electric cars have you bought from us recently?” experience.

We committed to T.33 pretty quickly and were given a choice of chassis numbers. #99 (out of 100) seemed like a good option, a contract was signed and off we went. At 2022’s Goodwood Members’ Meeting, the Spider was unveiled and we did wonder about one of those as well but decided to hold out in case another T.33 option emerged.

I will always remember where I was (moving cars around in the sunshine in Bicester) when the next chapter of the story started with another relaxed meaning of life phone call:  “mmmmm, I’ve been thinking, do you think we might be able to get one of these T.50 prototypes?” We discussed it, for I certainly had not been expecting this request, and agreed that it could be interesting. It was, after all, the pinnacle of GMA, Gordon’s reimagining of an F1, three decades later. T.33 was looking extremely good but T.50 was just that much more unique.

Henry told us that our timing was good – they had just decided to place 2-3 more prototypes. Unusually, we were an existing GMA owner, thanks to the T.33, and that therefore opened a door that would not otherwise have been possible. For the record, A has never bought a new car from anyone else – his car choices are modest but expert:  from Nissan GT-R prototype through 987 Spider and 993 C2S to Lotus 340R and original Toyota Land-Cruiser.

We had a choice of chassis but one car absolutely stood out. At the Members’ Meeting, GMA had wowed everyone with a metallic claret red car (GMA Tartan Red, it turns out) that led around a Senna F1 single-seater – and made a better noise… Validation Prototype 1 – “VP1” – was that car and we could have it for a reassuringly huge amount of money. Blimey, a serious conflab was required.