Former McLaren and Brabham design guru Gordon Murray has returned to one of his most revolutionary ideas with the new T.50 hypercar adding a fan that sucks air from under the car to provide down force. Murray, who was responsible for the insane record grabbing McLaren F1 production car, will be releasing this new machine under his own Gordon Murray Automotive brand. Like the F1, the driver sits in the middle. Only 100 examples of the $2.6 million dollar car will be made with deliveries expected in 2022, according to Autoblog.

3 Active Downforce

The most attention grabbing part of the new hypercar is the giant fan at the rear of the car. The fan actively pulls air from under the car to provide down force even when the wings don't have enough air moving over them to do the job. The fan has six modes that either increase down force, reduce drag, or help with braking. Braking mode is reported to reduce stopping distance from 150mph by 33 feet.

2 Banned in Autosports

This isn't Murray's first foray into the active down force game. While an engineer for the Brabham F1 team in 1978 he adopted a similar fan system that he told F1 stewards was meant to cool the engine. In 1979 F1 banned the fan car. Similarly, in 1970 Chaparral entered the 2J into the Can Am series that featured twin fans driven by snowmobile engines that sucked the car to the ground. That car was also banned.

1 High Revs

Pushing the car forward will be a 4.0l V12 with a sky high red line of 12,100rpms, 1,000 more than Mercedes AMG One's F1 sourced engine. The power plant is good for 650hp with the starter motor able to add an additional 30hp for three minutes when needed. All power goes to the rear wheels through a six speed manual transmission.

Source: Autoblog