Steve Cropley: GMA T50's exhaust note is worth the £2.8m price
Our man marvels at the aural experience that is a Gordon Murray Automotive T50 in full flight
This week Cropley has been taking in the sights and sounds of Goodwood, enjoying a new Bond-themed exhibit at his favourite motor museum, and familiarising himself with Volkswagen's electric hatchback.
-FRIDAY-
Today, James Bond roared straight into the heart of the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, driving an Aston Martin DB5. At least, his alter ego did in the form of tuxedo-clad Lord Montagu, who runs the place. He was opening a new exhibition to coincide with the film No Time to Die, the latest and longest Bond extravaganza yet, peppered with automotive action that mostly features Astons, Jaguars and Land Rovers.
The film’s special effects supervisor, Chris Corbould, talked interestingly about the borderline between true-to-life filming and the computer-generated contributions of “our CGI friends”. Celebrated my visit by sponsoring a car, as you can do down there. ‘My’ motor is now a shiny black 1949 Jowett Javelin they’ve had on display for 50 years. My dosh will buy it a new master cylinder. The Javelin was an innovative post-war saloon that failed spectacularly in the showroom but was my delight as a five-year-old because one of my uncles had one.
-SATURDAY-
People who watch loud and powerful cars generally reckon they’re even more spectacular when seen singly rather than in a group. That proposition was proved beyond doubt at Goodwood’s Members’ Meeting by the shattering dynamic debut of Gordon Murray’s fabulous but tiny T50 supercar, driven on an energetic demo by Murray’s pal and former serial Indy winner Dario Franchitti.
Murray and Cosworth have talked a lot over the past year or two about the potential for spectacular noises generated by the V12’s 12,000rpm redline, but it was still a profound shock to hear the car in full flight past the pits. The T50’s after-tax price is a solid £2.8 million, but I’ll still bet that blood-curdling howl added to the waiting list.
-MONDAY-
One of the many pleasures of having a Volkswagen ID 3 around the place this week has been demonstrating it to friends, some of whom have no experience of pure-electric cars beyond the milk float or golf cart. Two of their impressions stand out: how universally impressed they were with the car’s silence, refinement and simplicity of operation; and how much they preferred this pure EV to the complexity of a plug-in hybrid (one of which I also had on the premises). Best of all was seeing people switch on to the fact that while the automotive future is going to be very different, it can also be exciting and enjoyable.
-WEDNESDAY-
Sign of the Times No 463: our stablemate Classic & Sports Car has decided that the all-electric Tesla Roadster, produced between 2008 and 2012, qualifies as a classic car. Editor Al Clements concluded this after testing one at Goodwood recently and his story appears in their latest issue. Apparently, there are only a few dozen Roadsters in this country and you’ll pay six figures for a decent example, even though the electrical gubbins, crude by modern standards, can be cripplingly expensive if it goes wrong. What amazes me is that it’s just 13 years since that car, my introduction to EVs, first appeared. Amazing to clock what’s happened since then.
-THURSDAY-
Think I’ve said this before: although there’s a fashion for declaring electric car range anxiety over, it has remained a problem for me. I hate coming across non-functioning chargers (still common) or arriving five minutes after someone who’ll be plugged in for the next half hour. However, a new bank of four Shell Recharge points near Newbury at Tot Hill on the A34, my main route to the south coast, shows how much better life can be in the future electric world. I stopped for coffee, plugged in for a rapid charge, and within 15 minutes I had enough juice to complete my round trip with ease. It was almost exhilarating.
-AND ANOTHER THING...-
So sorry to hear of the death of Brian Hatton, artist extraordinaire and a lovely guy, who I first met when weekly magazines still employed supremely talented people to create their drawings and cutaways. This Indian is a bike Brian owned; his wonderful work will live on.