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Gordon Murray
Ian Gordon Murray (born 18 June 1946), is a successful and influential South African-British former (Formula One) race-car designer, renowned firstly as lead designer for both the Brabham and McLaren Formula 1 racing teams, during 1969–1986 and 1987–1991 respectively, then as designer of high-end, high-performance sports cars and a variety of other innovative automotive projects. After leaving McLaren, Murray founded the Gordon Murray Design consultancy and, in 2017, the low-volume specialist car manufacturing company Gordon Murray Automotive, both now incorporated into the Gordon Murray Group. Early life The child of Scottish immigrant parents, Murray was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa. His father was a motorcycle racer and later prepared racing cars. Murray studied mechanical engineering at Natal Technical College, now Durban University of Technology. He built and raced his own car, the IGM Ford, in the South African National Class during 1967 and 196 ...
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Durban
Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South Africa, on the Natal Bay of the Indian Ocean, Durban is the Port of Durban, busiest port city in sub-Saharan Africa and was formerly named Port Natal. North of the harbour and city centre lies the mouth of the Umgeni River; the flat city centre rises to the hills of the Berea, Durban, Berea on the west; and to the south, running along the coast, is the Bluff, KwaZulu-Natal, Bluff. Durban is the seat of the larger eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, which spans an area of and had a population of 4.2million in 2022 South African census, 2022, making the metropolitan population one of Africa's largest on the Indian Ocean. Within the city limits, Durban's population was 595,061 in 2011 South African census, 2011. The city has a humid subtr ...
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Ron Tauranac
Ronald Sidney Tauranac (13 January 1925 – 17 July 2020) was a British-Australian engineer and racing car designer, who with Formula One driver Jack Brabham founded the Brabham constructor and racing team in 1962. Following Brabham's retirement as a driver at the end of the 1970 season, Tauranac owned and managed the Brabham team until 1972, when he sold it to Bernie Ecclestone. He remained in England to assist with a redesign of a Politoys Formula One chassis for Frank Williams in 1973 and helped Trojan develop a Formula One version of their Formula 5000 car. After a brief retirement in Australia, Tauranac returned to England to establish the Ralt marque (a name he and his brother Austin had used for some 'specials' in Australia in the 1950s, winning the NSW Hillclimb Championship in 1954 with the Ralt 500). The first "modern" Ralt was the Ralt RT1 chassis, to be raced in Formula Three, Formula Two and Formula Atlantic. The chassis proved successful, winning the Eu ...
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Brabham BT50
The Brabham BT50 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray and powered by a turbo BMW engine. It was raced by the Brabham team, owned by Bernie Ecclestone, during the 1982 Formula One season. Driven by Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese, it made its debut at the South African Grand Prix before being withdrawn for further development of its engine while the team reverted to the previous year's car, the Brabham BT49. On the reintroduction of the BT50, Piquet finished fifth in the Belgian Grand Prix. A few races later he drove it to a win in the Canadian Grand Prix. Later in the year it achieved three more finishes in the points for the team. During the second half of the season, Brabham implemented the strategy of mid-race refueling. This allowed Piquet and Patrese to start the races relatively light and use their reduced weight to gain track position over their competitors before stopping to refuel. The poor reliability of the BT50 meant that they had only a few oppo ...
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Brabham BT48
The Brabham BT48 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray and raced by the Brabham team in the 1979 Formula One season. The intended plan was to run the BT47 but the FIA outlawed it because it had a Chaparral 2J-type box rear end with twin variable geometry fans on the rear to maximize ground effect, so Murray designed the BT48 instead. Racing history The BT48 made its debut at the 1979 Argentine Grand Prix with Niki Lauda driving. Teammate Nelson Piquet qualified the older Brabham BT46 in 20th place. Lauda qualified the BT46 in 23rd place but drove the BT48 in the race when he retired with fuel system failure. Piquet was involved in a huge first lap pile-up and was injured; he did not take the restart. At Brazil, Brabham had another BT48 ready for home favorite Piquet. The Austrian qualified 12th and the Brazilian 22nd. Lauda retired with a broken gearbox and the Brazilian retired at his home race after colliding with Clay Regazzoni. At the South African Gran ...
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Brabham BT45
The Brabham BT45 was a Formula One car designed by South African engineer Gordon Murray for the 1976 Formula One season, 1976, and 1978 Formula One seasons. Design The car was the first Brabham to use Alfa Romeo type 115-12 flat 12-cylinder engine with and of torque. It was equipped with a Hewland six-speed transmission. It used the front air intakes of the previous Brabham, but by regulation no longer has the air brooms behind the cockpit and has side panels with larger air intakes to feed the engine and more radiant surfaces. The frame was an aluminium monocoque, while the braking system was constituted by ventilated disc brakes produced by Girling. The front suspension consisted of double wishbones with pull-rods, coil springs and stabilizer bars, while the rear used coil springs and stabilizer bars. For the season, pending the development of Brabham BT46, BT46, a C version of the BT45 was created. This model was equipped with a revised radiator. Race history The BT ...
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Brabham BT44
The Brabham BT44 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray, Brabham's chief designer and was using in the 1974 Formula One season, 1974, 1975 Formula One season, 1975 and in 1976 Formula One season, 1976 season by RAM Racing. Design An update of the partially successful BT42 of 1973, the BT44 was a simple design with a standard Ford Cosworth DFV, DFV/Hewland gearbox combination, but was very clean aerodynamically. Murray had an eye for clean lines, and the BT44 was particularly graceful. He was also a forward thinker, and tinkered with side skirts and airdams on the car, a precursor to ground effects aerodynamics. Sponsorship came from Martini Racing, Martini. Racing history 1974 The 1974 season was successful for Brabham. Carlos Reutemann took three wins with the car, partnered by José Carlos Pace, Carlos Pace who was able to string a series of promising results together. Brabham finished at a fighting fifth place in the Constructor's Championship after a ...
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Brabham BT42
Motor Racing Developments Ltd., commonly known as Brabham ( ), was a British racing car manufacturer and Formula One racing team. It was founded in 1960 by the Australian driver Jack Brabham and the British-Australian designer Ron Tauranac. The team had a successful thirty-year history, winning four FIA Formula One World Drivers' Championships and two World Constructors' Championships. Under Brabham and Tauranac, Brabham won double world championships in 1966 and 1967, with the 1966 drivers' title going to Jack Brabham and the 1967 title going to Denny Hulme. Jack Brabham is the only Formula One driver to win a Drivers' Championship in a car bearing his own name. Brabham was the first Formula One team to use a wind tunnel to design cars. It became the world's largest manufacturer of open-wheel racing cars sold to customer teams, having built more than 500 cars by 1970. Teams using Brabham cars won championships in Formula Two and Formula Three. The cars also competed in eve ...
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Brabham BT55
The Brabham BT55 was a Formula One racing car designed by Gordon Murray and David North for the Brabham team owned by Bernie Ecclestone. It used a BMW four-cylinder turbocharged engine tilted over on its side to allow a clear supply of air to the rear wing. The car competed during the 1986 Formula One season. It was not successful and its introduction coincided with the end of Brabham's time as a competitive team. Concept By 1985, Brabham had reached the limit of aerodynamic development of their BT52-BT53-BT54 series of cars. The 1985 car won only one race when Nelson Piquet won in France, and Murray decided that a radical approach was needed. With ground effect having been banned a few years earlier, the rear wing of a Formula One car once again created much of its downforce, but its effectiveness is reduced by the bodywork in front of it disturbing the flow of air. Brabham's tall, relatively heavy straight-four BMW M12 engine was particularly difficult to package to allow ...
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Fédération Internationale De L'Automobile
The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA; ) is an international organisation with two primary functions surrounding use of the automobile. Its mobility division advocacy, advocates the interests of motoring organisations, the automotive industry and motor car users in the fields of road safety and Traffic, traffic circulation. The sport division is a governing body for many international motorsport championships and disciplines, including Formula One. The FIA was formally established on 20 June 1904. It is headquartered at 8 Place de la Concorde, Paris, with offices in Geneva, Valleiry and London. The FIA consists of 245 member organisations in 149 countries worldwide. Its current president is Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The FIA is generally known by its French name or initials, even in non-French-speaking countries, but is occasionally rendered as International Automobile Federation. Its most prominent role is in the licensing and sanctioning of Formula One, World Rally C ...
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Nelson Piquet
Nelson Piquet Souto Maior (, born 17 August 1952) is a Brazilian former racing driver and businessman, who competed in Formula One from to . Piquet won three Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he won in , , and , and won 23 Formula One Grands Prix, Grands Prix across 14 seasons. Piquet had a brief career in tennis before losing interest in the sport and subsequently took up karting and hid his identity to prevent his father discovering his hobby. He became the Brazilian national karting champion in 1971–72 and won the Formula Vee Brazil championship in 1976. With advice from Emerson Fittipaldi, Piquet went to Europe to further success by taking the record number of wins in Formula Three in 1978, beating Jackie Stewart's all-time record. In the same year, he made his Formula One debut with the Ensign team and drove for McLaren and Brabham. In 1979, Piquet moved to the Brabham team and finished the runner-up in 1980 before winning the championship in 1981. ...
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Brabham BT52
The Brabham BT52 was a Formula One car designed for the Brabham team by longtime Brabham designer Gordon Murray for the season. The car ran on Michelin tyres and was powered by the BMW M12/13 four-cylinder turbocharged engine, which in 1983 produced a maximum power of approximately in qualifying trim, detuned to around for the proper races. Its drivers were World Champion Nelson Piquet and Riccardo Patrese. History After the ground effect cars were banned at the end of the previous season, the FIA mandated that all F1 cars be designed with flat undersides for safety reasons. With just six weeks until the opening race in Brazil, this left Brabham with three fully built BT51s ready to go that were now useless, so Murray started from scratch and he designed the BT52. The previously crucial sidepods were now generating lift rather than suction and so the BT52 had short, angular sidepods to keep lift at a minimum. Murray also took a gamble and moved approximately 70% of the ca ...
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Brabham BT49
The Brabham BT49 is a Formula One racing car designed by South African Gordon Murray for the British Brabham team. The BT49 competed in the to Formula One World Championships and was used by Brazilian driver Nelson Piquet to win his first World Championship in . The car was initially designed in 1979 as a short notice replacement for the team's Alfa Romeo-engined BT48, after Brabham team owner Bernie Ecclestone decided to end his relationship with the Italian engine manufacturer. The BT49 was created in only six weeks using elements of the BT48 chassis together with the widely used Cosworth DFV engine. The monocoque chassis is made from aluminium alloy and carbon fibre composites. The car was fitted with controversial hydropneumatic suspension and water-cooled brakes at different points in its life. The BT49 was updated over four seasons taking a total of seven wins, six poles and 135 points. Seventeen were eventually built, most of which survive today. Some are used succes ...
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