THIS is the GMA T.50! My FIRST RUN in the Dream Analogue Hypercar

You know that it's going to be a good day when you're walking beside a lineup of cars like this. Welcome to the Carmel Valley in California. It is Car Week and today I am here with Gordon Murray Automotive to bring you along for a first ride experience in the GMA T50. Not only that, we're going to be taking a look at the cars here, the T33 Spider in its new look, also the T33 prototype that we heard at the Goodwood Festival of Speed Hill Climb as well, plus a couple of T50s and the T50S Niki Lauda. The T50 is a car we have seen, we have heard, we have taken in the details, but it's time to see what it's like in person. Hi guys, I'm Shmee. Hello and welcome back to the channel. Let's do this. I cannot wait. Hopping on board the GMA T50. This is quite frankly a pretty amazing lineup, but to tell us a little bit more, we're here with Phil from GMA. How are you doing? Hi Tim, how are you? Yeah, good to see you. Can't complain, being out here in the sunshine, right, with this lineup. I'm living the dream. It's a dream job. So talk to me, out here, this is a big week for you guys. Yeah, we've got two T50s here running. We've got T50S, which will run on the track at Laguna Seca, and we've also got two T33s. One of them's a running prototype car and of course we've got the model of the Spider. So this is a car I know that you're very familiar with, the blue T50. Yeah, of course. Yeah, I've done a lot of miles in this car myself, actually. Yeah, and with UK roads though. I'm out with you on that car, I think, in the black car. But yeah, the T50 is a fantastic car. It's been brilliant for us. Big journey. We're a quarter of the way through production now. It's incredible to see. So my first encounter really in detail with the car, with the T50, I was lucky to join you for T33 unveils. You actually came by recently with the T50, with this very car in the UK. I did. It's now a little bit further away from home. Yeah, getting a sandwich, I thought I'd pop in, see your collection as well, which is amazing. Yeah, I mean the car, you can hear it from quite a while away, but yeah, it's great to be driving it on the roads. I mean, and in the sunshine, what a great car. So talking about T50, obviously for me it's a combination of different factors, right? It's the fan, it's the three-seat configuration, and it's a manual gearbox with a V12. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I'm pushing very hard as well, because I think this is where supercars is. Our philosophy is about dynamic cars that are lightweight. Customers, you know, really want the limited numbers as well. So we'll always keep to those limited numbers. But I mean, that V12 is a soundtrack to everything. I mean, you certainly hear everything as you go along, don't you? Well, I'm quite looking forward right now to actually hearing that as we head through the canyons. Yeah, yeah. But obviously it's 106 T50s. It's your first production model. Obviously, Gordon Murray's amazing history with F1s and really creating the best possible car now, right? That's the idea. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this car is unique because, of course, it's got the central driving position, the V12 there, and the aero fan. We will continue to use the V12 as much as we possibly can and push very hard to keep the soundtrack and the lightweight nature of the vehicles. But you can see where we're going with design language in terms of the T33. And we'll not do another central driving position, but T33 is like a more traditional configuration, especially for the US audiences as well. Because the US market is huge, isn't it? It is, it is. It's a really important market for us. And 50% of the cars come to the US. Wow. And it's a little bit difficult to all know. I mean, there's a coupe version already out there. The Spyder has been launched last year as well. All of them sold. The T33, this configuration here, this is a model. And you can see this will be in left and right-hand drive. But I mean, imagine, in this sunshine, you've got the roof out, soundtrack behind you. No better way to life, isn't it? It looks absolutely beautiful. The incredible thing every time standing around the T33 is how small the footprint is. I mean, T50 is a fairly small footprint to begin with. Yeah, people often get surprised by that because they expect them to be bigger. But modern cars have just grown so much. Yeah, cars are getting too big as well. And when you've got a car that's lightweight, packaged well, then you really feel it in the driving. You feel connected to it and connected to the road. The specification of this in this metallic orange paintwork over the dual-tone or tri-tone almost interior, there are removable panels, right, for the roof. They are. They stow in the front. So there's a lot, I mean, there's a lot of storage in this car, believe it or not. You can stow the panels in the front. These side panels came out and you can stow luggage in the right and left-hand pod here. And then on the Spyder version as well, the glass can drop and you can get the full experience of the V12. The nice thing about this engine configuration is it revs 1,000 less than the T50. So it's 11,000 revs. Only 11,000. Yeah, only 11,000. But of course, the air induct here as well is separated from the body. So it vibrates. So you should undo when you sit in that car. You really notice that. You really hear the sound. It's a very different sound between the T50 and this. I actually like this sound when it starts. And yeah, it's fabulous to drive. Because of course, I've certainly heard this car as it was blasting up the Goodwood Hill climb. Yeah, yeah. My goodness, what a tone. Well, I've driven this car quite a lot as well. I really, really, really enjoy being in this car. So dynamically good. I mean, what to say really? We are off the blocks really, really quick with this car. And I expected there'd be a lot more challenges. But we are now in a really good place for this now. So we're just starting to crash cars for the federal market as we sit here now. And we are due for delivery in 2026 with both the Coupe and the Spyder for the federal market and the European market. It's exciting how it's all coming together. And then of course, this has been turning some heads. This is pretty bonkers. Dario often says this is Gordon Unhinged. It's pretty much what we can do with a car without the regulations on the road. So of course, it's 100 kilo lighter. It's got another 100 horsepower. And of course, it's still three-seater configuration as you see us to sit in the front, but it is two seats. So you can take a passenger with you. All of the controls are therefore on the right-hand side. It's got a lot of downforce on this car. But I've not driven this car yet. Gordon and Dario won't let me drive this car. I'm not completely sure when I'll be able to do that, but I will do that. Coming soon. Yeah, yeah. Well, I can't wait to get in it. Because this is what happens when you take an already incredibly lightweight capable machine, you make it even lighter, give it even more downforce and say go. It sticks to the ground like glue. It's nearly one-to-one in terms of weight and horsepower. So it's nearly at the golden point as well. Remind me the number of T50s. So there's 25 of these. All of these are sold. We do have a couple of prototypes in terms of the way that we've been. This is a prototype. This is the first car XP1. But we keep the numbers very, very limited. And every car has its own identity and is worked on with the customer. So it's got and they're named after tracks that Gordon has won in his previous F1 history. So it's got that personal touch to it. Story. It's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. And then I think very shortly, this will be the T50 we're going to hop out in. This will be the car we go out in and we're on the US roads over here in beautiful Monterey. So we'll enjoy that. And I think Steve is going to drive us. Fantastic. I'm looking forward to this. I have to get it started up. I can't wait as well. It's going to be great fun. Right. It's going to be time to swing in here. I think first, I'm going to take a little listen to the startup of it because I know that this is a pretty phenomenal noise we're about to hear. That is the sound of T50. Right. Let me hop in. Join you in here. Squeeze into this side. So the technique, pull down the door. Did I succeed in closing? Yeah, we've got a soft close. Brilliant. Let's do this. Excitement is an understatement right now. Steve, how many miles have you done in these? Oh my God, I don't know. A fair bit now. We've sort of four years of driving them from, you know, right through from early XP's to production cars really. Yeah. Do you test each customer car? Yeah. Yeah. Each customer car goes to Millbrook and has a full shakedown. We go through loads and loads of different tests and yeah, just put them through their paces really. Just everything a customer can do or would do on it. We check everything, you know, works properly first. And we, you know, go through the engine performance. We check absolutely everything. Yeah. We want the customers to have the best experience and just enjoy it from the work. Yeah. Well, there aren't many modern supercars where you can sit three up. Right now, this is quite immediately spectacular. Just the view over your shoulder as well is actually awesome. Yes. It's always a weird sensation, isn't it? When you're sitting in the back there. So we crawl past my GT, which was away from my garage when the T50 came to visit. You can see how compliant the car is over speed bumps. Well, the roads we're going to be heading to, I know, are not particularly smooth. No, that's very true, actually. But the perspective I have here, it's almost that over-shoulder camera view. Yes. If you're a passenger in a car, normally you don't see the dashboard. You don't have that feel of the steering wheel. Yeah, that's very true. Whereas from here, the angle I'm looking at it, I almost feel like I'm the co-pilot much more than... Yeah, you feel connected into it, don't you? Yeah. It's a very unusual view, more of a panoramic view really, isn't it? I love the sound, even the low RPM. It's always, you're conscious of what's there. Yeah. Oh, and the valve opens. That little bark, a little taster of what's to come. Wow. The great thing is, is when you're... If you want to be quiet, which is rare, but if you want to be quiet, you can, I'm at 27 mile an hour, 25 mile an hour, fifth gear, 1500 RPM, and you can really just... Gosh, that's a lot of torque there. Yeah, even at that low RPM, that's what's so impressive about this car. Not only the fact that it revs to 12, it's that it will pull from such low RPM as well. The combination of lightness and a very good calibration on the engine as well. That was actually really quite, that was a proper acceleration. That wasn't... Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, just... No, it will just go. When it comes to suspension, it's a fixed setup. On this, yeah, yeah, yeah. We spent a lot of time just getting that. It's always going to be a compromise when you're trying to build a car that's good on all surfaces and good for people that want to take it to a track, you know, if they want to do track days or whatever in it. It's actually a really good car on track. It's finding that balance. Also, yeah, getting that compliance as well. I think we're pretty good. I mean, I've just driven down this road in the Ford GT the other way, and I can tell you it wasn't as smooth. When the cars all hit customers' hands, I know there's a lot of talk about many of them daily driving the car, using it for everyday tasks. Have you started seeing that with customers with their first deliveries? Yeah, we've had a few come back with their first service already. I mean, they can immediately come back, so 600 miles is the first. Yeah, they're knocking it out in a week, weren't they? And then they want it done and out of the way, so they can just get out and enjoy the car. Wow. That is unreal. Got a lot of pop and bang as well. Yeah. I just have a massive smile on my face right now. You're so used to it, but oh, no, no. Wow. It's so point and square, you know. And this is only about halfway up the rev range. Yeah, that's just that. But it shows the torque all the way through the range. There's no dip at all. It just gets faster and faster and faster. So I'm sitting here pondering, there's another 5,000 to 6,000 rpm above that. Like, that doesn't compute. Not very quickly, anyway. I mean, it happens quickly, but it doesn't make sense very quickly. Not even half what it can do at the moment. No. But even the right, you know, the handling has got... It feels, even from the passenger seat, so agile and nimble. Yeah. And it rides so well, so... Even as a passenger, I mean. So you can just stay in fifth gear and just enjoy it. You can use the revs if you want, but if you want to be quiet and just want to be relaxed, just stay in one gear, then that noise comes in. It's absolutely ridiculous. Just that response from the throttle as well, it just makes it so... Just cut into... We're just going to ESC sports. We're getting quite a lot of intervention. Yeah. The wheels are just chirping a little bit. Screams. Yeah, it's pretty quick. It's quick and it's an assault on every section of your body. Well, you can also... So if I accelerate and then brake... Oh, what did he say? Accelerate and brake now, what you can hear is the fan coming on. Yeah. So what you've got is the winds come up at the back, fan comes off, really stabilizes the car and you get this amazing braking effect where it keeps the car flat on high braking. I'll do another one. I don't want to make you ill, but I'll do another. Brakes are just so good. It's incredibly stable. Yeah, it just stays flat. You get a lot of cars with a massive amount of movement, but this just stays completely flat. So what's the fan... Talking about it at the moment, what's the fan doing in different modes, different speeds? Yeah, so you've basically got... We're in just auto mode at the moment, so that's just your normal mode. And what will happen there is you'll get the fan comes on under braking, but it's pretty... That's the only time it really activates. I'll tell you, four years of driving these cars and I still get that buzz. It's something you just never... It's an indescribable feeling, this car is. It's just so good. I'm 15 minutes in and I can tell you, I can imagine that entirely. I mean, listen to that, it's so good. It's actually surprising how the engine is so alive, even at sensible speeds, lower RPMs. Yeah, so it makes it fun. You can still have fun at low speeds. It's the thing, a lot of cars are great when you're going really, really quick, but this is still fun, enjoyable and engaging at these sort of speeds. Little squirts of throttle, it's just lovely. And the other thing that's surprising is relative, 650-odd horsepower. It's incredibly quick because it weighs so little. What are we talking for the dry weight, a thousand kilos, right? Yeah, it's pretty much a thousand kilos, yeah. Which is nuts, like a small hatchback 20 years ago was a thousand kilos. A small hatch now is 1,300, 1,400. Supercars or new M5 is, what, 2,400 kilos? Yeah, I know. You're only 40% the weight of a new M5 in this. Yeah. Should we give it another little squirt? I'm not going to say no. The hills are alive with T50. The grip is brilliant. No breaking loose there. You're getting awesome lightness, really. Oh, this is what I love. How this right now fits on the revs, enjoying the revs. This is a dream. This car is an absolute dream. How? An amazing team of engineers, Gordon's mind. It's a dream. Wow. Yeah. That noise, but also the pop it makes when it's coming back down. Yeah, yeah, it's cool. It's so characterful. Yeah, yeah. And you hear that on the road as well, don't you? When you're coming off throttle, you just hear this boom, this pop. And there's a flame coming out. It's so cool. This has been unreal. The other question I have to ask, though, is how do I open the door? Oh, you have to put it down the latch. It's a small... Just down either... Just the side of the seat, about here. There's just a little switch. Oh, okay, yeah, got it. That's it. Lovely. That was mega. Thank you very much, gentlemen. No problem at all. What an experience. That was so cool. That is an experience that's going to take some time to process. We actually have soft close on the doors as well. But as I mentioned, it's a sensory overload, basically. And standing here right now, surrounded by 60 cylinders of GMA cars, five V12s. It's the engineering, the work to create something that is all about that experience. Gordon Murray and the team, the engineers at GMA, producing the best car that can be done today in this sense, in terms of an engine that revs up faster than you can imagine, in terms of a gearbox that just slots snappily into the next position, the interesting feeling of the torque of the car. And it's really small. As you stand next to it, it's a tiny package. This is the first GMA car. That's one of the, I think, almost surprising things overall. This is where they've entered the market. Now, if you're wondering about door handles, by the way, because it's not necessarily obvious to pop open the doors on the cameras that are connected to the screens for the mirrors, there is a button. Press the button and the door will pop itself open, the dihedral doors. Then when it comes to the inside, to fit three seats into this still pretty compact space is actually quite impressive. Of course, it's not a Rolls Royce in terms of the amount of room you have the ride. Certainly not bad. But in terms of the space, what's interested me is you're sat quite close to one another. So conversations are actually easier than you might think for a front rearward position. Of course, you are slightly sat on this side, at least, given where you've got the shifter in the central tunnel, a little offset to make sure there's room for the driver to use that. But it's a very, very neatly packaged solution to offering that. And when you're the driver, you're in the middle. You're in the zone. Behind actually sits a little bit of storage and the fuel tank back there as well. But it's minuscule. I'm standing beside the car. It's amazing to think that they've managed to fit so much into it. In fact, come around towards the back of it as well, because we haven't really spent too much time looking at this. Obviously, we've been having an introduction to the different modes and how it works. But the unusual feature on the T50 is the fan. The fan doesn't transfer over to the T33. It's the unique element, really, to this car, sitting prominently at the back between the exhaust tailpipes, with a nice nod to that on the plate for the prototype PS2 with a fan. Nice one to have a UK plate out here as well. I mean, just taking all of this in, right, the different models, the lineup, to have arrived on the market only a couple of years ago and already introduced and offering this range of cars, is fairly impressive. It's fairly like it's a statement, right? And that's Gordon's experience, his work in all the F1 cars, in the McLaren F1 itself, and now in these out here at Car Week. Today has been really fun, really fun to head out with the guys in the T50. So I hope you've been able to get a little sense of what that's been like, what it's been about riding in this amazing thing. That's it for now, though. What a day, what an experience. A huge thank you to the GMA team, but that's it for this time, and I'll see you again very soon. Cheers!