McMurtry founder Sir David McMurtry has died

Sir David McMurtry, founder of the eponymous car company, has died. He was 84. While his name is familiar to you, his background probably isn’t.

An engineer to the core, he came into the automotive business relatively late in life. The remarkable Spéirling was initially born out of a desire to drive something small, sporty and nippy on the roads around his Gloucestershire home, but the project snowballed into the deeply radical fan assisted single seater that’s the fastest car ever up Goodwood’s hill.

McMurtry was born and brought up in Ireland, before heading to the UK in 1958 to train as an aero engineer. A successful career led him to becoming assistant chief of engine design for Rolls-Royce, working on the RB199 engine that powered the Tornado fighter jet, before moving on to work on Concorde.

It was while attempting to measure a small diameter pipe without deflecting it – impossible with the existing measuring equipment – that he had a brainwave and came up with the touch trigger probe. The prototype was built over a weekend at home, but the invention would go on to make McMurtry his fortune.

Now used almost universally for a whole range of purposes, Sir David and a colleague from Rolls-Royce, John Deer, set up Renishaw in 1973 to capitalise on this invention. Today it employs over 5,000 people having diversified into many other areas including additive manufacturing (3D printing), working on projects across areas including medical, aerospace, smartphones, EV batteries and Team GB's Olympic bikes.

Renishaw was also involved with the Bloodhound land speed record project. McMurtry himself was named on 47 patents at Rolls-Royce and over 150 at Renishaw.

McMurtry Automotive is now eight years old, but Sir David, knighted in 2001 “for services to design and innovation”, was heavily involved in all aspects of the car’s design and execution, including driving the first prototype in November 2021, aged 81.

The car he helped create, named after the Irish word for thunderstorm in a nod to Sir David’s heritage, is now busy obliterating lap records around the world. It comes to Dunsfold soon, having already been crowned our track car of the year. We can think of no more fitting tribute to the innovative engineer than the ultra-radical car that bears his name.