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John Mahoney23 Feb 2021
NEWS

Track-only Gordon Murray T.50s Niki Lauda edition arrives

Lighter, more extreme version of T.50 gets 540kW V12 but costs $5.5m

Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) has launched a new hard-core version of its V12-powered hypercar that it has created for wealthy track-day fans.

Called the Gordon Murray T.50s Niki Lauda, GMA says it will make just 25 cars priced at an eye-watering £3.1 million plus taxes ($A5.5m), but all will be designated track-only and not be legal to use on the road.

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For that huge sum of money you get a Gordon Murray T.50 that has had a huge aerodynamic makeover, power boosted from 485kW to 540kW and weight slashed from the road-going version's already admirable 1000kg to a skeletal 825kg.

It retains the road car's central driving position but substitutes one of the two passenger seats for a fire extinguisher.

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Claimed to not share a single body panel with the regular T.50, the 2021 Gordon Murray T.50s Niki Lauda is the result of yet more exhaustive wind tunnel testing and astonishing attention to detail that even extends to a revised monocoque with a different construction.

Pivotal to generating huge levels of downforce is the Le Mans-style racer central dorsal fin that runs down the spine of the car that's combined with a large fixed rear wing and joined by the T.50's rear-mounted fan and an enormous rear diffuser.

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Up front, there's an aggressive front diffuser, barge boards and blades that direct air to either cool the radiators or reduce lift over the front axle.

Like the road-going version, the entire body is made of carbon-fibre, while the T.50s gains ultra-thin glass to save weight.

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Thanks to the new body and aero, the Gordon Murray T.50s Niki Lauda is capable of producing up to 1900kg of downforce, although that figure was reduced to 1500kg for the sake of the driver, who would struggle to cope with cornering g-force at the higher levels of downforce.

Beneath the rear bootlid, GMA's wild Cosworth-developed 3.9-litre naturally-aspirated V12 has been thoroughly overhauled for track use that includes new cylinder heads, camshafts and a higher 15.1 compression ratio.

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To save weight, the standard car's variable valve timing was dumped to cut 16kg, with the engine weighing in at just 162kg. The catalytic converters have also been deleted, while the exhaust gets smaller, lighter silencers designed for track use.

Still capable of revving to 11,500rpm, the T.50s produces 522kW and 485Nm at 9000rpm, with the final 18kW liberated by the roof-mounted ram induction system.

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With its featherweight mass and screaming V12, GMA says that the T.50s has a power-to-weight ratio that matches a naturally-aspirated LMP1 race car.

To keep pace with the track action, the six-speed manual transmission has been swapped out for a paddle-shift sequential box with the same number of cogs.

Said to use a pre-selector function, the new transmission is claimed to offer near-instantaneous shifts.

GMA will offer different ratios for different tracks with the T.50s capable of up to 338km/h, although a close-ratio set-up that maximises performance in-gear limits speed to 274km/h.

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