All his own work

From city-cars to supercars via Grand Prix racers and a mini-truck, Gordon Murray has applied the same depth of thought to every vehicle he's designed

- Richard Heseltine

IGM

Murray originally aspired to becoming a racing driver, and campaigned his self-built IGM (Ian Gordon Murray) in the National Sports Car Championship in 1967-68. The original car no longer exists, but a faithful replica (pictured above, front left) was constructed by the prototyping team at Gordon Murray Automotive. As an aside, IGM briefly looked set to become a sub-brand in 2017.

IGM Minbug

Murray created the IGM Minbug (pictured overleaf) in the early 1970s using a scrap Minivan as a basis. This vaguely Moke-esque machine employed a spaceframe chassis and was considerably lighter than the donor car, and he covered 40,000 miles in it. The Minbug still exists, along with a replica.

Duckhams Special

Alain de Cadenet persuaded a moonlighting Murray to design his 1972 Le Mans challenger, the Duckhams Special (pictured left) being based in part on a Brabham BT33 F1 car. Murray charged him £250, working into the wee small hours for three months straight during the run-up to the great race. However, the privateer entrant was £50 short when it came time to cough up. He did, however, have a Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator. He offered this by way of settling the outstanding balance and Murray accepted.

Brabham BT42

Murray joined Motor Racing Developments (Brabham) in 1969 and was appointed chief designer three years later after stakeholder Bernie Ecclestone acquired the remaining shares. His first design was the BT42, which was campaigned by the works in 1973 and later fielded by privateers such as The Chequered Flag, Hexagon of Highgate, and Scuderia Finotto.

Brabham BT44