Gordon Murray Joins Group Lotus

Gordon Murray was a great F1 designer

Murray was chief designer at the Brabham F1 team when he came up with the 'fan car' – the Brabham BT46B, which exploited the rules by having a large fan at the rear which sucked air from under the car to improve downforce – the team argued that it was to extract heat from the flat-12 Alfa Romeo engine. Niki Lauda won the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, the car's debut, after which it was banned.

Group Lotus is delighted to announce the appointment of Gordon Murray to the Lotus Advisory Council. Murray will work alongside automotive industry icons Bob Lutz, Tom Purves, Prof. Dr. Burkhard Göschel and Frank Tuch to advise Group Lotus on current and future development.

The purpose of the Lotus Advisory Council is to give advice and guidance on strategic issues such as product strategy, technology, quality, brand, marketing and distribution for Group Lotus.

It’s a little known fact that when Gordon began his motorsport career in 1969 he actually wanted to work for Lotus but a chance meeting with Brabham designer Ron Tauranac lead to him working for Brabham where he was later appointed Chief Designer by team boss Bernie Ecclestone.

During his time in F1, Gordon was responsible for designing many Grand Prix winning cars and was heralded by many as leading the way in terms of innovation and pioneering new technologies.

More recently Gordon established Gordon Murray Design to develop an innovative and disruptive automotive manufacturing technology trademarked iStream®. The design and prototyping of their T.25 Petrol and T.27 Electric Ultra Compact City Cars has been central to both the development and validation of this process.

Commenting on the appointment Group Lotus Chief Executive Dany Bahar said: “Gordon has never been afraid to trail blaze, take risks and do things differently, these are attribute that we are very familiar with and very proud of at Lotus. With his incredible and unique motorsport and design experience he will complement the existing council line up perfectly. We’re very much looking forward to working with him."

Gordon Murray said: “For years I’ve been a huge admirer of Lotus, I have great respect for the legacy that Colin Chapman created and I think what Dany and the team are doing is a really good thing for the brand. He’s taking the strength from Chapman’s principals and taking the business to the next level whilst still keeping the general ethos – not an easy task! I’m really looking forward to contributing to Group Lotus during this exciting time."