Gordon Murray, the man behind the design of the legendary McLaren F1 supercar has announced a new British design company operating from Shalford in Surrey.

The first project for Gordon Murray Design is the Type 25 or T25.  A new project number issued for each new vehicle Murray has worked on, the last being the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren - Type 24.

The Type 25 will be a radical, innovative design for a new type and class of personal transport vehicle which applies a “fit for purpose” approach to lightweight material usage in its construction to achieve an ultra low vehicle weight.

"Lightweight is the only tool we have available now that can make a significant difference to our energy usage and the current pollution figures.  Vehicle size is all we have to combat congestion and parking problems.  Congestion alone currently costs the world’s business community billions of pounds each year."

The Smart car has paved the way for the Type 25 project as an ever increasing number of people have understood the benefits of running a smaller car and have had proof that small cars can be relatively safe.  The Type 25 will offer a low sales price (c£5,000), drastically lower running costs, cult styling, a good standard of safety and a driver’s eye line equivalent to a normal saloon car.

Most of the work towards CO₂ reduction and other environmental benefits comes from the radical design and architecture of the car. The chosen power unit for the first version will be a lightweight, ultra efficient petrol engine but the same vehicle concept will accept almost any future powertrain and thereby further reduce the CO₂ damage.

This vehicle concept will be the first of its type which concentrates on Full Lifecycle damage rather than just running damage. It also addresses congestion and parking issues alongside manufacturing, running and recycling damage.