I'm not, I'm only at nine grand. You're smiling.
You know, it really is fabulous. Fundamentally, exactly like the other one. It just drives better. It brakes better. It accelerates faster. It turns better. Everything about it, it does better.
Well, enough of the sounds like this. Keep thinking I don't want to overrev it, but you can't.
That's right. It sounds like it's over revving. You know, a screaming engine.
You know, boy, this is a thrill of a lifetime. It really is great. You know, anytime you want to leave this at the garage, just let me know.
Yeah. Yeah. [screaming]
Well, welcome to a very special episode of Jay Leno's Garage. This is my interpretation of the Holy Trinity: three cars inspired by Gordon Murray. It starts with the legendary F1, then it goes to the equally legendary P1, and the brand new T50. This is Gordon's latest effort and just getting rave reviews around the country, around the world, actually. And we're going to drive it today. All these three cars are owned by a friend of mine. I own two of them. I have an F1, I have a P1. I don't have a T50. My friend Dan Hurr. Dan, come on in, my friend. We bonded over, 'Hey, is your McLaren ready yet?' 'No.' You know, [laughter] I heard he, I called him up once because there's only 63 of us in the world that have these things. So that's right. So we kind of bond together to know one another and it's been a lot of fun. You had yours here for a couple of months as I remember. Remember?
Yep. You did me a big favor. That's how we met, in fact.
That's right. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's, I called you up, 'Hey, how do you like yours?' And then we got to talk. So it's kind of fun. And you're the first guy, at least I know in the States, to have the T50. But let's just kind of compare the three of them because I don't think any of these cars would exist without Gordon Murray. I mean, the P1 takes a lot of cues from the F1. Although Gordon was not directly involved in the P1, I think his ethos, as you might call it, overflows in this car. I mean, it's really basically the same thing. Well, let's start with the F1. Now, this one is a '95, correct?
So, this is the oldest car here by a wide margin, but it still looks contemporary. I mean, if you come out with a design tomorrow, I don't think anybody would go, 'How old is that?' because sometimes you see styling cues from the '80s and the '90s with a lot of cars. If you come out with a car that looks like the '86 Countach, you'll go, 'How old is that?' You know, that's what I find so amazing about this.
I agree. It's just that Peter Stevens did a wonderful job designing this car. You forget how old this car is because people would say to me, 'How come he didn't get the carbon fiber brakes?' Well, they hadn't been [laughter] they hadn't come out yet. It might have been invented, but nobody had them on a car yet. You know, you can take this back to the factory and do that, and I guess they'll do it for you. But it's fun just to drive it as it is.
This car weighs about the same as a Miata. Pretty close. 23...
Yeah, 2,500 lb, which is pretty amazing.
And Gordon is such a fanatic for lightweight. Even the Kenwood stereo in the front has an aluminum magnet. Now, there's no such thing as an aluminum magnet, but aluminum is lighter than iron, right? So he took aluminum, the same shape as the iron, sprayed it with iron filings just to get enough magnetism to run and save eight ounces. I mean, that's kind of where you are with this car. You know, that was sort of the problem with the SLR because when the SLR came out, a little too much Mercedes, not enough McLaren. You had the electric seat, which you know, you're moving your butt when you get it. And when you sell it to the next guy, why do you need an electric motor? That was Gordon's thing. And well deserved, but Mercedes has to have certain things people expect from, you know, so they were kind of butting heads all the time with this.
All the time. That's right. We met because I found out you were an owner and I called you, right? And we commiserated, you know, because we both dealt with the salesman Harold Der.
Yep. Harold Dermont. Yep. Nice guy.
And the most English guy.
You can imagine, you know, most understated. 'Well, hardly. That's it. Oh, you might wait a year.' You know, everything was sort of because you paid the same as I did. I think it was $800,000, which is crazy money back in '94. You know, I saw a thing on 60 Minutes, Morley Safer went to the Lamborghini factory and he said, 'If you think it's an ad for the car, it's not. They're all sold out.' And by the way, they cost $100,000, like Dr. Evil, you know. And that was a lot of money because the Jaguar XJ220 and the Vector had come out and both of those were hugely disappointing and they were a couple of hundred thousand. Jaguar was supposed to have a V12, then had its V6. The Vector was going to be the most powerful and just had a twin-turbo engine and drive. So, and those were 250, 200,000, maybe 300,000. Suddenly a car comes along that's almost a million. Well, how, if those two, how could this? And that's, I think, plus it was a bit of a recession and people just didn't know the company, they'd never heard of it, and the company folded. And by that time all the magazine reviews that come out were people just raving about it and, 'Oh, what?' Then we all scurry to try and find one. So I called McLaren. They said, 'We have one here. We want 800,000.' I go, 'What's it cost new?' You know, I said, 'Well, no, we think they're going to go up.' All right. Okay. Finally figured, 'All right.' I said, 'I tell you what, if you haven't sold it in two weeks, I'll buy it.' That was my thing. I kept hoping they'd sell it. So everybody said, 'What are you spending? That's ridiculous to spend on a car.' And it is. But then I called Harold. He goes, 'Hasn't sold yet. We have someone coming in today.' All right, fine, and I'll take the car. You know, he does the old salesman, you know. So I bought it and I never regretted it. No. And it's the smartest purchase and the best investment I ever made in my life. If I'd spent that on stock, I don't think I'd be as successful.
No, I guess if you picked Apple or something, maybe, but... Right. Right. Right. Now, how did you come to hear about it?
Well, I was, one day I was in London on business and I was walking down Park Lane and there was a tiny little, maybe 25-foot wide showroom, and there was a McLaren F1, silver one, right front and center in that glass. And I was startled by it because it had such a different look, a whole... well, it was this car, you know, a road car. And this was about 19... had to be '93, '94, right? And became fascinated by it. But when I found the price, you know, I thought, well, I'm going to have to hold this for a while. And I did well and wound up coming back around through that very same little showroom. A fellow named David Clark, I think was his name, and he brokered a deal for me to buy one of Mansour Ojjeh's cars. And Mansour Ojjeh was one of the three big dogs at McLaren. You know, it was Ron Dennis and Gordon Murray and Mansour Ojjeh. They had come up with the idea to create a road car. Ron Dennis had the organization. Gordon Murray had the vision for the road race car, right? And Mansour had the money, right? And so the three of them made beautiful music together, produced the car, and it was startling. I mean, just it was way out of the bounds of cars at that time. And so I'd fallen in love with it early on. And when I finally got to scrape the money together, as you said, it was the best investment I ever made.
See, that's what I love about England. You go to a car show and it has one car. [laughter] And when they sell that, they move on.
That car was in the window for years.
Oh, for years and years and years.
They couldn't sell it. But I just like, you're the salesman. [laughter] Wait, you have one car to sell. That's all you got to do. And you can close the showroom. Forget... [laughter] Yeah. That's, it's the most English thing in the world. It's pretty fascinating. But I mean, everyone knows the story. Fast. I believe it's still the fastest normally or naturally aspirated car.
That's right. 47 maybe, I'm not sure. But it's in the 40s. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and still a wonderful car to drive. But it does show its age when you realize you don't have any traction control, no ABS, you know. I was...
Yeah. Yeah. I was on the freeway once and I just downshifted and nailed it and I got wheel spin. I'm going, [snorts] I'm going sideways. Yikes. And I'm going, okay, let me just get off the throttle easy. Oh, and it came around, but I didn't panic, but I'm going... [laughter] Yeah. I said, 'Oh, okay.' Because you have to... You drive the P1 and that has every driver aid. You know, that'll save your life. It makes it a great car. But this, of course, is the car that built the legend. And there's so much of Gordon in this car.
It's everything you believe. A lightweight stereo. Everything is... Well, it's just an incredible car. It's just incredible. And here's a Harold Dermont story. I had it one day and I couldn't get it started. Just nothing. So I called Harold. 'Hey, what's the problem?' 'Well, it shouldn't be, should be all right. I'll try this. Give it a minute. All right, I'll come back to you.' All right. So we start taking it apart and we got our alligator clips and trying to trace. Now, we got power. 'What's, Harold? Any idea?' 'No, I can't think of anything.' All right. So after about four hours, I said, 'Well, let me, I'll do it again tomorrow.' So I get in. I said, 'Harold, anything?' He says, 'Well, of course you know about the secret... the secret switch.' The secret turnoff switch. 'What secret turnoff switch?' 'Oh, yes.' 'You didn't tell me about it when I bought it.' 'Oh, I'm sorry. I must have forgot.' Well, there's a button in these. It's hidden. You press it and it disables the... So of course, I get in, I press it, it starts. I'm taking my alligator clips off. Yeah. It just made me laugh. It's that understated. 'Well, of course you know about me.' [laughter]
Which reminds me, I had forgotten it, but one of the first conversations you and I had, you said, 'You know about the secret switch, don't you?' I mean, you know, you definitely wanted me to know about it.
But you knew about it, right?
No, I didn't know about it.
Oh, you didn't know about it? Why would they not tell you this when you buy the car?
I know. Because you can hit it with your foot. I mean, yeah. And it turns it on, off, or... I mean, you have one car to sell. It's not like [laughter] you have one car in your showroom, you know. Oh, yeah. Tell people about these that just connects with... Yeah. Just... But I mean, that's what makes it wonderfully English. It just...
Yeah. It's just... Yeah. This is, I think, the car that, you know, much like an athlete in his prime or a rock and roll star or musician, there's a time in your life, like your Russell Wilson, it's 25 to 32 years old. That's when you do your best work. And you know Gordon does brilliant work, but this was his... what's it, opus? Is that the word you want? I mean, yeah, this is a... because it was so... I mean, that has pieces of this, but this was revolutionary when it came out. There was nothing like it. Smooth. This is more evolutionary, this is revolutionary. Yeah, that's right. Everybody from generation to generation should know this car won Le Mans overall, right? And that, I mean, I'm not sure that'll never be repeated. It hadn't been done before and it hadn't been done since.
Yeah. Well, back in the '50s, Jaguar would drive the cars to the race, win the race, and then drive them home again.
But because that's a different era.
I mean, this was a road car. They had to detune. They had more horsepower than Le Mans allowed. Yeah. They had to detune it. And it was not a purpose-built race car. Everybody else is, and it won overall. I think it was like one, three, four, five, I think that was it.
But it's a road car that beat all the race cars, reliability, everything. You know, always there's always things in road cars that just can't stand up to the pressure and the horsepower and all that kind of stuff. Metal fatigue, strength, nothing. Everything in this... first carbon fiber cabin. I remember this floor pan. It took 2,000 hours.
To make it. Now it takes like 45 minutes.
So, you know, it shows you how fast... it was a cutting edge car. No doubt about it. In 1995, you had the prototypes that were, I mean, Le Mans prototypes, right?
I mean, and this car beat those cars.
I mean, now I know it had a lot to do with the rain on all night long, right? All this, but...
Doesn't matter. You were on... this car ran in the rain. So, and this was the first car when I got it. They said, 'We have a computer.'
That you can connect with the factory in England. Wow. That's impossible. [laughter] That's ridiculous. I never heard of it. But they could actually kind of tune the car. What? Yeah.
I mean, it seems so naive now. But yeah, it was pretty amazing. And to this day, there's only a few of those computers left. And...
Try and find one. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure it works, but I've got it.
Got the little white little cotton gloves that you put on your little cotton gloves.
Yeah, that's all they're supposed to put on, cotton gloves. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] Very funny. Well, let's move on to car number two. By this point, Gordon Murray had left McLaren. The reputation, the image, see it in people's brains for life. I mean, you're not going to beat that. So this car is inspired by Gordon because this has things on it that Gordon would probably not like: traction control, ABS, all those kind of things. But being a modern company and constant government rules, and you've got to have ABS now, you've got to have... like this doesn't have a backup camera, but I think the later ones did. So this is most unlike these two, I think it's fair to say, but not enough to make it totally alien. I mean, you see, you can sense the DNA from this in this car. But this was another car that there were three cars out. There was the Ferrari LaFerrari, the 918, and the McLaren P1. And I remember at the time McLaren was very nervous because it was still... they had the MP4-12C, but it was still unproven. It was a lot of money. They're only building 399 of them and they were a little worried if they would sell, if people would get it, you know. But obviously they did. I mean, the reports came in and people loved it. McLaren to me has the best steering of any supercar. That's the one area. That's why they keep it rear-wheel drive only, just to give you that...
I do too. Yeah. I mean, I drive a lot of cars that are all-wheel drive and it's fun and you're probably faster and everything, but this just has such a light, airy feel for a... not a light... well, it's light by modern standards, 3,600 lb, something like that. As opposed to a Lotus, which is 1,500 lb. But yeah, but pretty amazing car. Horsepower's up to, what do we hear here? Oh, 903.
903 from what are we? 617 I think it was on, or 627.
Yeah, 617 on the F1. [clears throat] I've had mine for 10 years. No problems at all. It's been pretty bulletproof. The real trick to these is it's a hybrid and you just leave it plugged in when it's not parked. I have so many friends of mine, these rich guys buy cars. 'I went to Paris for two months. I come back, the car's dead.' Well, yeah, you can't. [laughter] Yeah, it's like an iPhone. You can't leave it on your dresser. It's going to... because it's a computer. It's running all the time. I'm, you know, I check my battery and I'm still at 92% 10 years later.
So, that was more 11 years later, which is pretty impressive just because when it's not running, it's got electrons going through it, you know, keeping everything moving. But yeah, these are pretty incredible cars. What's your feeling on this one?
Well, it's my favorite car to drive, right?
Yeah. Of the three cars. Now, honestly, I've only got about seven or eight hours seat time in the new T50.
And so, you know, I may change my mind. It may become my favorite car.
But presently, this car is astounding. I mean, you know, if I'm going to go out driving with a bunch of enthusiasts and we're going to, you know, drive aggressively on some fun roads, this is the car I'm going to take.
And either this one or the McLaren 675LT, which is like a baby P1.
And has the same suspension, the same architecture, same chassis, everything except the battery.
And so, you know, I can't talk enough. This is my second P1. And so that kind of tells you that...
Your second P1? What? Did you crash the first one? What happened?
Well, we had a little situation on track that didn't work out as well as I had hoped.
Well, that's the most British statement. 'A little situation on track. [laughter] It didn't work out as we hoped.' That's one you... getting more English every day. [laughter] Little situation. Yeah. The brakes don't not work. They progress. [laughter] They don't stop. They progress.
You know, I have a Bristol. You saw my Bristol 403. And in the manual, they tell you why the car does not have air conditioning because you will miss out on the pastoral [laughter] smells of the countryside as you ride through the country. You'll miss out on the pastoral smells. [laughter] You know, the fact that you're sweating and flies are in the car, that nothing... you just missed it. So that's funny. So you're... [laughter]
Yeah, that's good. All right, let's go to the past. Yeah, this is... this is another masterwork from Gordon. It is the fan car. It incorporates what he knew back in the '70s and '80s with... I love the fan on the back.
Do you? I do too. I've grown to love it. You know, at first when I first saw it, I thought, 'Oh, no.' But now I'm all into it.
Well, I love it because it's functional. It's not there, you know, like people use the word turbo when there's no turbos involved, you know, that kind of thing. I mean, there's nothing on a Gordon Murray car that doesn't absolutely have to be there.
That's true. And the reason for it is, I mean, his fan cars were so successful that they were banned. They said, 'Well, this is unfair to everybody else.' You know, I mean, that's how good he is, you know. And the fact that you have this in a road car, I think it just makes it really exciting. Plus, it makes it really different, you know, for people that have a lot of money and don't really know a lot about cars. 'What makes that different?' This is the thing that makes it different. It's the real selling point of it.
Aha. It's kind of cool. And it's functional, you know. It has a purpose. Yeah. Now, this car, like this is a Gordon Murray V12. This is probably the last normally aspirated V12 anybody will build, I think, probably in the world.
That's the way it was presented to us. And of course, people can do what they do, but Gordon stood up on his feet and made a presentation to a bunch of prospective buyers and he put this out and I think the cars were sold out.
You know, immediately because people were so excited about having this engine. It really was about the engine.
Yeah. You know, to me, that's always the sign of a real car company is when you build your own engine.
Yeah. That's the heart. That's the soul of the vehicle. Yeah. And it says everything you want to say. It's not the most horsepower, just as this was not the most horsepower, but it's the best to use everything it has most efficiently than any other car because this is about a little less than 700 horsepower, which is more than enough, really.
Yeah. And it's the weight-to-power ratio that makes the difference. That's where it is.
And this is lighter than the F1 car.
I mean, think about that. You've got to have steel door guard beams. You've got to have all the safety features, which this did not have to have, right? And yet it's lighter. And that's... yeah, that's impressive.
Yeah, that's impressive.
Well, Cosworth built the engine, as you know. Yeah. And it was a special commission from Gordon Murray to Cosworth for a certain number of engines were built to these specifications. And the 12,100 RPM redline and the 4-liter maximum displacement, those were two requirements that Gordon wouldn't budge from.
And it required Cosworth to build a bespoke engine. And so that's a pretty good story.
Because this... how many liter is this? This is 6.3 liter.
Yeah. Yeah. The F1. So it's a smaller motor.
3.95. It's a 4-liter engine basically.
Yeah. Yeah. Impressive. And of course it has the three seats.
Which make it a little tricky to get into the US, isn't it?
Yeah. You don't conform to the safety regulations. So, you have to have a show and display waiver.
Can we open the door? Let's open the door on both sides.
You have to use the key, right?
Oh, I said the whole... Oh, there you go. There's a party trick for you. Yeah. Yeah. [laughter] Okay. You're the girl with the best dress at the dance with this. [laughter] You know, you're pulling... nobody else going to pull in and run.
At my age, I need all the help I can get.
