A Car Dear to my Heart - Gordon Murray F1 Designer

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Gordon Murray is a designer of McLaren Formula One race cars in the late 80's and the McLaren F1 road car of early 90's and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren. Murray has as much credential in supercar design as anyone in the car industry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Murray

Gordon Murray wrote about his experience with Honda/Acura NSX when he started designing McLaren F1 road car in late 80's. Below is some highlights of his thoughts:

Quote:
At the end of the 80s was the time when McLaren Cars was conceiving the idea for the McLaren F1. To that end, I was concentrating on coming up with what I wanted in a road car.

To my thinking, the ideal car is one in which I could get in the driver’s seat and be out for a drive in downtown London and then want to continue straight on to the South of France. A car that you can trust, with functional air conditioning and retains daily drivability. No offset pedals allowed. No high dashboards restricting your view either. Having a low roof hitting your head every time you go over a bump in the name of aerodynamics and styling is out of the question. It is essential that a supercar be a pleasure to drive, and anything detracting from that must be excised.


Quote:
I started by driving the cars known then as “supercars.” The Porsche 959, Bugatti EB110, Ferrari F40, Jaguar XJ220. Unfortunately, none of these fit the pattern of the supercar we were trying to build. What we wanted was a relatively compact, usable driver’s car. The Porsche 911 had the usability, but with the engine packed in the back, it had a weakness in its handling stability.

During this time, we were able to visit with Ayrton Senna (the late F1 Champion) Honda’s Tochigi Research Center. The visit related to the fact that at the time, McLaren’s F1 Grand Prix cars were using Honda engines.

Coincidentally, I spotted an NSX prototype parked near the course. I also learned at the time that Ayrton was assisting in the development of the NSX and that Honda rear mid-engined sports car–the NSX–was the friendly supercar that we had been looking for. This car had perfectly functional air conditioning, a reasonably roomy trunk and of course, it was a Honda, with the high levels of quality and reliability that implies.


Quote:
Then I had the opportunity to drive it. Along with Ron Dennis (President, McLaren Cars) and Mansour Ojjeh (Tag McLaren Group Representative), we drove the prototype on the Tochigi Research Center test course. I remember being moved, thinking, “It is remarkable how our vision comes through in this car.”

Of course as you know, the engine has only six cylinders; however, the NSX’s very rigid chassis is excellent and would easily be capable of handling more power. Although it’s true I had thought it would have been better to put a larger engine, the moment I drove the “little” NSX, all the benchmark cars–Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini–I had been using as references in the development of my car vanished from my mind. Of course the car we would create, the McLaren F1, needed to be faster than the NSX, but the NSX’s ride quality and handling would become our new design target.


Quote:
In my opinion, the NSX’s most special quality has long been overlooked.

That could be summarized with the words, “The NSX’s suspension is amazing.”

Both the body and suspension are aluminum, and it probably couldn’t be helped that journalists’ attention has been focused on praising the aluminum body. However, the suspension is the much more impressive use of aluminum.


Quote:
The NSX was also the first car to use DBW (Drive By Wire). It felt very pleasing. DBW is when instead of using a mechanical cable, an electronic signal is used to communicate throttle position. It achieved a very natural, linear feeling throttle, and I can now hide my embarrassment and confess that I copied the idea during the development of the McLaren F1 (laughs).

The low-slung NSX’s driver’s seat position also provided just the right head clearance and an amazing field of view. The NSX development team moved the air conditioning unit away from the dash and deep into the NSX’s nose in order to obtain more space. That air conditioning unit is an excellent one, and normally, you don’t notice whether it’s on or not.

On the day I bought the NSX, I pressed the “Auto” button and since then until selling it, I never had to touch it. It was that perfect. Ah, I also remember the audio system as being very good.


Quote:
In my opinion, the NSX, while being such a great sports car, had two large flaws in its marketing. First, at the time, the public was not ready to accept a Japanese car that was this expensive. The second is that for supercar customers, the power figures were not quite high enough. Of course, the prototype’s engine was not bad, and soon the VTEC engine was added. Whenever I hear that VTEC sound it’s amazing. I am repeating myself, but the NSX’s excellent chassis would have been capable of handling much more power.

With just a slightly lower price, or possibly selling it with a different brand name and a different badge, or perhaps endowing it with a touch flashier and more aggressive styling and additional power, there is no question the NSX would have reigned as a cult star of the supercars.


Quote:
However, during that time, in Honda’s philosophy there was a resistance to large engines with many cylinders. I am not certain, but probably at the time, the voluntary restraint on power limits was a factor. Being a fan of Honda engines, I later went to Honda’s Tochigi Research Center on two occasions and requested that they consider building for the McLaren F1 a 4.5 liter V10 or V12. I asked, I tried to persuade them, but in the end could not convince them to do it, and the McLaren F1 ended up equipped with a BMW engine.


Quote:
But what I really want to emphasize is the suspension. It is a a groundbreaking use of aluminum.

The NSX is a landmark car. It awoke not only a lazy Ferrari, but Porsche as well and sparked advances in usability, ergonomics, and handling. It may not have achieved success from a marketing standpoint, but many influential and important people have owned them. The NSX is also unusual in that it continued to be on sale for so long.

If I were to looking for that type of car now, I would–without a doubt–gladly own an NSX again.


http://beautifullyengineered.tumblr.com/post/66008108542/a-car-dear-to-my-heart-gordon-murray-on-the

The only minor discrepancy is the frst few years NSX had 15" wheels on the front and 16" wheels n the rear, not 17" as mentioned in the article.

Anther thing, Gordon Murray seems to obsess with working A/C, he mentioned A/C several times in this article.
 
I was surprised that the NSX did not become more popular. I guess if you don't have the marketing right the car itself suffers.

I drove one that belongs to a friend and I did not want to give up the driver's seat. When you consider that you may never get to experience the top speed of any of these super cars and only infrequently be able to experience the full acceleration beyond a few seconds the NSX makes sense. Another plus expressed by this NSX owner, the car has bullet proof reliability and can idle all day long in hot weather in grid lock traffic running the A/C without a complaint.
 
I agree, the suspension was and still is a work of both art and function.

I love lapping brand new Porsche's, BMW's, Corvette's and GTR's during track days
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