Gordon Murray’s new Le Mans GTR is a love letter to longtails

What if Gordon Murray took his incredible T.50 and T.50S platform as a starting point and then built his ultimate (road-legal) homage to longtail racecars around it? Well wonder no more, because the new GMSV Le Mans GTR has been revealed… and we’re suddenly a little short of breath.

It’s the first of two, simultaneously-revealed, projects from the newly formed Gordon Murray Special Vehicles – the other being the S1 LM you can read about here. But this is the first under the ‘SV Design’ pillar, which focuses on ultra-low volume runs based on GMA production cars. There will only be 24 of these built, one for every hour of some race in France, and they’re all sold out. Sorry about that.

The fundamentals are a blend of T.50 and T.50S, so it’s a three-seater, six-speed manual and the engine is the T.50’s 654bhp, 4.0-litre, 12,100rpm V12, which let’s face it, is a handy place to begin. Beyond that it’s all new. The bodywork is inspired not just by Gordon’s own F1 GTR longtail racecar – built for the 1997 season when it won its class but came second overall at Le Mans – but longtail legends like the Porsche 917 and Alfa Tipo 33/3.

“Longtail racing cars perfectly combine aerodynamic benefit and aesthetic balance, I've always loved their mix of considered engineering and flowing design,” said Gordon, and who are we to argue.

The exterior lines have an organic flow to them, much like T.50 and T.33, but are sharpened up with more obvious aero appendages. If we had to position this in terms of road vs track focus, it sits somewhere between T.50 and T.50S. The vertical stacked lights give mild McLaren Senna vibes, the roof scoop is present and correct and the deep, full-width carbon rear wing is a thing of beauty. You’ll note there’s no fan at the rear – not needed here apparently as the elongated tail allows the top surface to taper down toward the rising underside, which offers all the aero efficiency and stability required.

The model we saw was without an interior, but renderings show the target is a more minimalist and focused feel than T.50… if that’s possible, with all-new dials and switchgear. Price? Not disclosed, but many millions, as is the norm now for these low-volume unicorns. Those lucky 24 owners can pick a spec to match their favourite longtail racer, or simply go wild with colour and trim. We’ll take ours in any colour we can get it.