Legendary McLaren F1 supercar designer, Gordon Murray has unveiled his T.25 City Car at the Smith School’s World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment.
Seemingly light years away from the McLaren F1, at least in design language, the T.25 does happen to share the same three person seating architecture.
While it might seat three, the T.25 is very small and at just 2.4 m long, 1.3 m wide and 1.6 m tall, two of these car’s could travel side-by-side in a single lane.
If parallel parking is an issue for you, then you might want to give this car a go, as it has what is most likely the world’s smallest turning circle at just 6 meters. That said, you might be able to simply park nose first toward the kerb and park between two cars, as can be done with the Smart.
Powered by a tiny 660cc 3-cylinder engine, producing 38 kW and 57 N.m of torque, top speed is limited to 145 km/h and the benchmark 0 – 100km/h sprint, will take all of 16.2 seconds.
It’s no land speed record contender, but the T.25’s running costs could shatter a record or two, with fuel consumption listed at a staggering 3.83 l/100 km and emissions at an ultra green 86 g/km.
Potentially more exciting than the car itself, is the extraordinary manufacturing process used to build the T.25, which is called iStream. Designed to be environmentally friendly, the plant facility can be designed to take up just 20 percent of a conventional operation. Those in the know are calling iStream the biggest revolution in high volume manufacturing since the Model T Ford.
Apart from the massive reduction in space and plant, there is also an 80 percent reduction in the capital investment, which is revolutionary on its own and could change the face of automotive manufacturing, as we know it.
