Gordon Murray’s New Design Might Be A Ground-Breaking Innovation For Lighter And Sturdier Cars

3-Jan

Aiming for a lighter and sturdier chassis design for everyday commute cars, McLaren F1 designer Gordon Murray revealed a new chassis christened as the iStream Superlight chassis with a lighter and sturdier build and can find its application in a variety of automobiles.

The chassis is primarily built from an aluminium frame along with carbon-fibre composite panels. The iStream Superlight as Murray’s company states ‘brings Formula One-derived construction and technologies to mainstream car production.’.

“The new iStream Superlight approach to vehicle manufacturing is a paradigm-shifting innovation for the global automotive industry. It is a breakthrough that will deliver the lightest chassis technology for decades to come. The Gordon Murray Design team has created a unique, adaptable and cost-effective way for manufacturers around the world to dramatically improve vehicle performance and efficiency,” said Professor Gordon Murray.

The iStream Superlight project is the outcome of a collaborative research which is partly funded by the Innovative UK framework. The project is led by Gordon Murray Designs and a consortium of companies including Bentley Motor Company, Brunel University London, Constellium, and Innoval Technology.

How does a lighter chassis help?

A lighter chassis as claimed by the company, provides greater safety, lower emissions, improved handling and enhanced durability. The company also states that the new chassis design would help reduce up to 50 per cent of the vehicle’s weight when compared to a standard stamped-metal body.

The iStream Superlight

Apart from being light and rigid, the new chassis will also be corrosion resistant, with reduced Noise, Vibrations and Harshness (NVH). The modular construction of the new chassis widens its application in a variety of cars. In the same breath, the release also suggested that a new sports car under the sub-brand ‘Gordon Murray Automotive’ sporting the same chassis is also in the works.

The T.43 sports car:

Sporting the same chassis, further specifications of the T.43 sports reveal that weighing just about 850 kgs, the car will produce a total of 220bhp from a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine.