For many car enthusiasts, true sports car driving pleasure comes in the form of a convertible. Nothing can replace the feeling of driving a top-down car with the wind in your hair, and that’s why open-top cars have been one of the most important staples of the performance car world for decades on end, and the formula has resulted in timeless classics. Specializing in timeless classics in the world of performance cars is the legendary Gordon Murray, known for some of the most important contributions to automotive design and engineering ever made. His masterpieces include the hallowed McLaren F1 and Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, and with his Gordon Murray Automotive manufacturer, his portfolio only gets even more impressive.
In making a supercar dedicated to the driver, Gordon Murray has had the intention since the beginning of the project that became the T.33 coupe to make a spider version, having originally sketched the design with an open top to ensure that the 60s-inspired proportions would flatter such a body style. Like the T.33 Coupe, the new T.33 Spider features the same incredible Cosworth-built V12 engine with a sound and performance experience like nothing else in the world. However, from the A-pillar rearwards, the car is radically different than its T.33 Coupe counterpart.
Intense design work went into reworking the car into a Spider, and the result is, in typical Gordon Murray fashion, beautiful. However, Gordon Murray specializes in performance cars, and typically, open-top performance cars come with compromise. However, an advanced carbon fiber monocoque helps achieve incredible stiffness and strength, and the design makes the car only an estimated 44 pounds heavier than its coupe counterpart. With a manual transmission, it’s a car dedicated to the purest driving pleasure imaginable, and its 4.0-liter V12 engine and open top add to its timeless splendor.
With 608 horsepower, its power-to-weight ratio is superior to Murray’s masterpiece, the McLaren F1, and the truly incredible fact about the engine is the fact that it revs to 11,000 rpm, with 90% of maximum torque available from 4,000-10,000. While the car is made for incredibly fun cruising, hair-raising performance comes in the car’s ability to reach 208 mph. With modern engineering and a classic ethos, the new Gordon Murray Automotive T.33 Spider is one of the most purely driver-focused cars made, in a time when cars like that are a dying breed. That said, it will be rare itself, with only 100 being made. However, its existence in itself proves that the true driver’s car is still alive and well.
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