Gordon Murray, renowned designer of the McLaren F1, was born in Durban, South Africa in 1946; moved to England in 1969 and acquired his first design job at Brabham. There he designed many Grand Prix cars, some of which were World Championship winners. These designs include the extraordinary BT46B, also known as "the Brabham fan car", as well as the World Championship winning BT49 and BT52.
Between 1973 and 1985 Murray’s Brabhams scored 22 Grand Prix wins, finished 2nd in Constructors’ Championship in 1975 and 1981 and gave Nelson Piquet Drivers’ Championships in 1981 and 1983.
In 1986 Murray joined McLaren. In 1988 Murray’s McLaren Honda won 15 of the 16 Grands Prix, and gave Ayrton Senna his first Drivers' Championship. In the Constructors’ Championship McLaren's points score of 199 was an all-time high.
Over 1988-92 the McLaren team won four consecutive Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships: Alain Prost won Drivers' Championship in 1989, Senna won further Drivers’ Championships in 1990 and 1991.
From 1991-2004 Murray headed up the off-shoot McLaren Cars team to design road-going supercars: the McLaren F1 and the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.
In the image of Colin Chapman's lightweight philosophy, Murray independently designed the Light Car Company Rocket, an ultra-lightweight, open cockpit roadster powered by a 1-litre motorcycle engine that had an appearance similar to that of a 60's era Grand Prix car.
