Gordon Murray and the McLaren F1


Creators Podcast

Episode #11

10.23.2024

When Gordon Murray set out to design the McLaren F1, the goal was to create, “quite simply, the world’s best car.” The only way I know that for sure, is because I found an amazing book with his design notes photocopied right into the book.

The goal was to make the McLaren F1 the absolute greatest car the world had ever seen. That initial proclamation, including all the details of every step along the way is documented in Gordon Murray’s notebook.

Once I read the incredible book, “Driving Ambition: The Official Inside Story of the McLaren F1,” by author Doug Nye, I realized an amazing fact. Gordon Murray and his co-directors at McLaren called their shot.

Not only did they set out to build the best car ever made, but they did exactly what they said they were going to do. And now, over thirty years later, we are still trying to make sense of what was accomplished with this amazing car, the McLaren F1.

Gordon Murray’s Notebook

I’ve been patiently waiting for my chance to crack open this amazing book, “Driving Ambition,” and the day finally arrived. What a treat this book was to read. The complete story on how the McLaren F1 came to be.

But what I found most fascinating was just two chapters into the book, were the original photocopied pages from Gordon Murray’s personal notebook. The very beginning of the McLaren F1 project would begin with a four-page summary of the goal, and how it would be achieved.

mclaren F1 gordon murray

Included in this great book was all the notes, sketches, checklists, schedules, and budgets straight from Gordon Murray himself.

After listening to every single interview that Gordon Murray has ever done, I learned that he’s very focused on achieving a certain goal, and then moving on to what’s next. He’s always looking for the next challenge.

Creating the McLaren F1

With Gordon Murray winning racing championships with McLaren the previous 3 years, he was searching for his next goal. It just so happened that the other three principles at McLaren were thinking the exact same thing.

Ron Dennis, Mansour Ojjeh, Creighton Brown, and Gordon Murray were all sitting at Linate Airport in Milan in 1988. Instead of wasting time, they began a conversation about the future plans for McLaren.

The idea of creating the ultimate road car was discussed, but it seemed like a huge leap because McLaren had never built a road car before.

But as the four racing executives finally boarded their flight and headed home, the idea started growing in each of their minds.

All four of them were lifelong car enthusiasts, and the challenge to build the greatest road car of all time seemed like the perfect challenge.

The Plan for the McLaren F1

There were many reasons each of the co-directors had for wanting this challenge. Mansour was quoted as asking, “Why do I have to go to Italy to buy a supercar?”

Ron Dennis added, “The simple truth is that all four of us there that day were essentially car nuts.” He continued later, “I really appreciate being associated with an achievement or a product of which one can be proud. Mansour shares that appreciation. And I believe Creighton and Gordon too. As the discussion developed we were all agreed that one of our motivations was to leave something worthwhile behind us at the end of the piece.”

So they were in agreement on what to do, now the question turned to, “How are we going to do it?” That’s where Gordon Murray comes in.

Gordon Murray’s Design for the McLaren F1

Designing great cars was nothing new for Gordon, he’d been designing Formula 1 race cars for over 20 years. And they weren’t just great designs, they won championships. Lots and lots of championships.

As Chief Designer for Brabham, he created cars that would go on to dozens of victories. Then with McLaren as Technical Director, the racing championships didn’t stop their either.

If you were going to design and build a supercar in the 1990s, there’s nobody you could want other than Gordon Murray. But it would still be a huge undertaking. This was the first road car McLaren would build, a completely different beast from race cars.

Gordon had a clean sheet of paper for his design. McLaren principles basically turned over full control and waited for a proposed design.

“The prospect of – in effect – taking on Porsche and Jaguar and Ferrari and Lamborghini all on their own territory and exceeding anything which they might have been liable to achieve was a fantastic challenge… and one that, I believe, really appealed to the Racer in each of us.” -Creighton Brown

But you still need a complete design of the car approved before you start any real work. And that’s where this amazing book comes into play, and how it blew my mind. The plan for this car was carefully laid out by Gordon Murray in his notebook, and it’s all in the book.

Designing a Car for the Road

One fascinating thing in the book that I had not realized, Gordon Murray was not afraid of the road car regulations for his new design.

You might think all the rules and regulations to building a car are immense, and you would normally be right. But this is Gordon Murray we are talking about here. He had been designing race cars in Formula 1 for twenty years prior.

He talks about this in the book. And he says the more he learned about the requirements for road car design, the more excited he became. He said it was, “like being let out of jail.”

In the book, there’s a quote from Gordon where he says, “road car regulation is fantastic, because in effect, there isn’t any!” Pretty amazing quote if you consider how many rules there actually are in car design, but for Gordon, it was nothing but a breath of fresh air!

Going Back to College

Now there’s one very significant decision that was made early on for the McLaren that would set the stage for almost every other decision moving forward.

Way back when Gordon was in college, he began sketching and doodling a vision for a sports car with three seats. One driver seat in the middle, and then two passenger seats slightly behind the driver, offsetting the hips and shoulders of the passengers and driver.

This is the exact seating arrangement he would propose to the McLaren partners for the new car. And I can’t imagine the initial reaction, I’m sure there was some hesitation among the group. This was a very different proposal than any other super car design, but of course, looking back now, Gordon absolutely nailed this decision.

And all other design decisions fell into place around this amazing “one plus two” seating arrangement.

The Goal of the McLaren

So the goal was to blow away all the competition, but how do you do that?

There’s already a handful of super cars out there, and those manufactures had been building cars for decades. And now you think you can beat them at their own game?

Where do you even start?

Here’s what Gordon Murray’s plan was going to be.

Rounding Up the Competition

So what Gordon began to do, was round up every great super car already out there, and test them vigorously.

Here’s the cars Gordon would initially study, the best of the best from what was already out on the roads.

  1. Ferrari F40
  2. Porsche 959
  3. Bugatti EB-110
  4. Jaguar XJ 220

Now, the next thing you might be thinking – so Gordon just went out and tested these four amazing cars already made, then picked out what he liked from each one, and built his car, right?

Wrong.

That’s not what Gordon did at all. And if you watch every interview from Gordon Murray, each one comes to this point, where the interviewer says, “so you looked at these cars and found out what you liked in each one?”

And every single interview Gordon Murray says the same thing. He says, “no, that’s not what I did, I looked at what I didn’t like…”

So he’s very careful to make that distinction in each interview, and I think it’s such an important clue as to how the hell Gordon was able to pull this thing off, and create a car that we are all talking about decades later.

He performed what he would call, an “exorcism.” He was removing the bad, extracting the demons, if you will.

Gordon was wise enough to know that to just simply copy what was out there wouldn’t fly. He was going for the best, not just pulling nice features off a Ferrari and a Porsche, and whatever else he could find.

It was this mindset from the very beginning that made the McLaren F1 the greatest car of all time. And created this legendary car.

“If we as McLaren were going to build a sports car it would have to be not only the finest sports car the world had ever seen, but also the finest sports car the world was ever going to see.” -Ron Dennis

Back to the McLaren F1 Design

Now Gordon had a good idea of what he didn’t want his car to be, thanks to Ferrari, Porsche, Bugatti, and Jaguar. And don’t forget, he’s making notes all along the way in his notebook. Which can now be seen in this amazing, “Driving Ambition” book that I keep talking about.

Anyways, he knows what not to do, and he’s making detailed notes on what he doesn’t like about every super car he’s tested.

Great, but how do you know if you’re on track to create the greatest car ever, or if you’re simply just making something different from the others, but it’s still not any better than what’s already been done?

Great question, I’m glad I thought of it.

This is where Gordon Murray introduces us to another amazing guiding principle that he used in his car design.

He needed a benchmark.

Gordon Murray’s Benchmark

When I set out to learn about the McLaren F1, I had no idea where it would lead. I knew the car was amazing because of it’s renowned respect and admiration, almost universally. There’s almost nothing anyone has ever said negative about the car, I mean, overall, the reviews are glowing, still to this day.

What I always enjoy is the surprise along the way. And this surprise was what Gordon Murray used as a benchmark in his super car design process.

The Honda NSX

The McLaren racing team had a solid relationship with Honda, and was thinking perhaps Honda would help them design an engine for their new road car, what would become the McLaren F1.

So on a trip to visit the Honda test track, a certain car caught Gordon’s attention. Sitting over in the corner of the test track was the Honda NSX.

After catching wind that Ayrton Senna was helping Honda develop this little car, I’m sure Gordon’s interest was piqued a little further.

So Gordon and his team had the chance to drive the NSX on the test track, and what they found blew them away.

Here’s how Gordon explains it in the book after driving the NSX, he remembers thinking –

“It’s remarkable how our vision comes through in this car.” -Gordon Murray on the Honda NSX

And now Gordon has his benchmark. It’s the Honda NSX. And he would carefully critique the car and borrow several things that he loved about the car for his new design.

“A Car Near and Dear to My Heart”

If Gordon Murray spotted the NSX in the corner of a test track at Honda, then loved the car so much that he used it as his benchmark to develop the greatest car in the world, then I also need to learn more about this car, the NSX.

So I spent some time trying to figure out why Gordon loved the Honda NSX so much, and then I stumbled on this amazing article that answered all my questions.

The article was originally posted on the Honda.co website, and it was completely in Japanese.

Once I translated it, I discovered the article was written by none other than Gordon Murray himself, and the title of the article was, “A Car Near and Dear to My Heart.”

It was an article by Gordon Murray explaining exactly why the Honda NSX was such a great car. Exactly what I was searching for. And the entire article was amazing, I highly recommend you read it.

So the article explains, in detail, exactly what we are talking about here. So you’ll have to read the whole thing. But here’s one great point Gordon makes when he explains his process for using the NSX as a benchmark during the design of the McLaren F1.

He wanted a car that, when you hopped in the driver’s seat in downtown London, you just wanted to keep going all the way to South of France. That’s about a 12 hour drive. So he wanted a car you were just crazy about driving.

Now, he defined a few key features the car would need, if it was to be irresistible to drive. A few features such as, great windshield visibility, plenty of headroom, and well-functioning air conditioning.

But here’s the quote I really love. Gordon talks about how easy it can be to be caught in certain pitfalls when designing cars.

He says you can begin to, “unknowingly convince yourself,” that you are making progress, when, in fact, you are not.

And he gives an example of at the end of a long day of testing, you might believe the efforts to “reduce low speed harshness” have been successful. Gordon says it’s at this time when you need a benchmark to compare with.

And then he says, or admits, that it was at these points when the NSX would reveal to him that he was not making the progress he thought. I just love that idea. It’s so simple the way Gordon lays that out.

The Fastest Production Car of All Time

There’s one thing that was never planned out from the beginning. From all the notes, sketches, and to-do lists. Never once did I find something that says, “Make the fastest production car ever.”

And Gordon admits this as well. He says, “As far as I can recall at that point no-one mentioned any possibility of it also becoming the world’s fastest production car.”

But of course, the McLaren F1 would become the world’s fastest production car. And you have to see this video to believe it. It’s awesome.

The McLaren F1 would break the record and reach speeds of 240 miles per hour. Much faster than the planned 200+ miles per hour that’s mentioned in a few of Gordon’s initial design notes.

And really that’s all the proof you need to understand what Gordon Murray and his team accomplished here. Focusing on creating something amazing and speed records fall, without even trying.

When a car is built to perfection, and excellence is achieved, then unintended consequences of greatness start to accumulate from all directions. That’s the McLaren F1.

Finally, the Approval to Build

You’d be amazed to find out how much work went into the initial design for this car, before McLaren even officially approved the project. The book really details the amazing effort to build a proposal, and then now, it’s finally approved.

The new road car project can now proceed, and Gordon, along with Creighton Brown, can begin to build out their team, hire talent, build an office space to work, and start the production process for the McLaren F1.

And this is where I found the four page draft of what Gordon Murray set out to achieve in this car. The design proposal, handwritten on graph paper, reflects the focus of the team for the next several years.

Gordon Murray’s Notes

Again, we come back to the notebook. This was the best surprise of the entire story for me… so far. To see Gordon’s notes in every aspect of this project, it really brought the entire vision to life.

This is from the book:

“The Murray way of working commits almost everything to paper. Job lists for himself and others, thoughts, considerations, pros and cons, equipment requirements for the new factory which would have to be found, design concepts – the distinctively neat hand printing which, again, had become habitual in his college days, covered dozens of tearsheets from squared graph paper notepads. Thoughtful, but loose-styled, exploratory free-hand sketches covered more.” -From the Book, “Driving Ambition”

“Styling”

Here’s a few awesome excerpts from Gordon’s initial design notes on the F1. He says, “Styling,” and then proceeds to lay out his goals.

He says, “stunning from all angles,” and then, “a combination of contemporary and classic without any pronounced angular lines, grilles, scoops, etc. which tend to date a vehicle quickly.”

And this goes on and on, Gordon lays out exactly how, then why the car should include certain features. Another amazing note is that he mentions, “Quality,” then immediately follows it with, “to be instilled in the staff from day one.”

That’s so cool to see this grand vision play out through this book. Gordon knows that if the car is to be of the highest quality, then it must be instilled in the staff or they will fail.

“The Correct Exhaust Note!”

Another amazing item I picked out of the design narrative was this one, “reasonably quiet but must have the correct exhaust note!”

I’m going to go out on a limb and say this “exhaust note” Gordon mentions is the actual sound of the exhaust coming from the McLaren F1. And when he says it must have this correct “note,” he really did follow through on this idea. You could say the McLaren F1 exhaust note is an unforgettable feature that was perfectly executed.

“Engine”

Gordon explains the preferred engine for his future car, and it should be a 3.5 liter, naturally aspirated, and a derivative of a Formula 1 engine.

And this is one of my favorite parts on the engine. Gordon explains why it should not be turbocharged.

  1. All future racing programs to be 3.5 liter based
  2. Turbo image is “faddy” and is often looked as a “cheap & cheerful” way to acquire horse power.
  3. A naturally aspirated engine will sound better
  4. Discomfort from turbo driving technique

Those are all really great reasons to avoid turbocharging, which they did. And of course, he nails every single aspect.

Now, for a long, long while, the car is in production and Gordon has no engine identified.

That’s completely insane for me to think about, and totally terrifying. But that’s why I’m not a super car designer, and Gordon Murray is. Even though the book explains how not having a deal in place for the engine was beginning to be concerning, the team didn’t panic.

They would eventually end up making a deal with BMW to supply an incredible V12 engine that would produce enough power to make it the fastest production car of all time.

Just another example of how a potential problem to find an engine was turned into the greatest of results.

Not Even Started to Understand the McLaren F1

I must admit, I’ve spent a lot of time learning about the McLaren F1, mostly from this amazing book, and I hate to say this but I haven’t even scratched the surface.

Everything we’ve just talked about covers the first TWO CHAPTERS of this book… There’s TWENTY more chapters to go!

Next is all the production details, testing, assembly, certifications, the entire engine story, the race car they would build from the McLaren F1, there’s a ton to talk about that we haven’t even started to cover.

So I’m pumped to learn more about this amazing car.

If you love the history of cars, and how they were created, please check out my other episodes on some amazing car creators. There’s Horacio Pagani, Karl Benz, and Enzo Ferrari.

And now I can include Gordon Murray with these other automotive legends. But reading all about the four auto legends was so much fun, and I’ve only just begun uncovering everything that made these icons great.

I’m really looking forward to more episodes, and sharing everything that I’ve learned. Have a great rest of your day!