Gordon Murray awarded CBE, crowns 50 years of automotive design with royal recognition

Gordon Murray, automotive designer and engineer, has been made a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year's Honours list 2019, for his ‘services to motoring’.

Designer of some of the most successful Formula One cars of all time, Murray helped Brabham win two world championships (1981 and 1983) and McLaren win three (1988, 1989, and 1990), before he began to focus on road cars.

Establishing McLaren Cars Ltd, Murray designed the McLaren F1, a three-seat sports car which, at 243mph, became the world’s fastest supercar and which, in race form, won the 1995 Le Mans 24 hours. 

He also led the creation of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren while, independently, driving forwards other projects such as the design of the Light Car Company Rocket. 

In 2005 he established Gordon Murrary Design Ltd, a Surrey-based design and engineering consultancy which has had a hand in the new TVR Griffith, the OX commercial vehicle, Yamaha Motive-e and has also created iStream manufacturing technology.

“It is extremely humbling to receive a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours,” Prof. Murray said. “I’ve spent more than 50 years doing what I love, working with a wealth of highly-talented and creative people around the world, but primarily in the UK. From the competing during the heyday of Formula One, to designing the world’s fastest supercar, I’ve loved every minute. I’d like to dedicate this honour to all those I’ve worked with over the years and I look forward to an exciting future for the Gordon Murray Group.”

In 2005 Murray formed a new British company for the design, engineering, prototyping and development of vehicles – Gordon Murray Design Limited. The Surrey-based company has a global reputation as one of the finest automotive design teams in the world and is responsible for an innovative and disruptive manufacturing technology: iStream.

iStream is GMD’s revolutionary manufacturing system, which is now fully industrialised. The latest iteration of the system, iStream Superlight, combines a high-strength aluminium frame with advanced carbon fibre composite panels – bringing Formula One-derived construction and technologies to mainstream car production. GMD is currently working on several global projects, all of which are based on GMD’s iStream manufacturing process.

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