Gordon Murray has some unusual classics in his collection, but his favorites are small, light, and technically ambitious
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by Sebastien Bell
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In addition to being a constructor of exceptional cars, Gordon Murray is also a collector of exquisite classics. While the F1 legend (in more senses than one) has shown off his collection before, now he’s offering a closer look at five of his favorites.
“It’s my sort of cars. You won’t find the sort of the regular supercar collection here with all the latest Ferraris and Lamborghinis,” Murray told Car & Classics in a recent YouTube video. “This is a lot to do with my growing up, actually, in the ’60s. I was very much a ’60s guy, watching sports car racing and road cars coming out in the ’60s and, of course, that was a fantastic period around in.”
It likely won’t surprise you to discover that the vehicles are all quite small, and technically innovative. The cars, in no particular order, are the Lotus Elite, the Detomaso Vallelunga, the Lancia Appia by Zagato, the Abarth 100 GT Bialbero, and his very impressive Alfaholics Alfa Romeo 1600 Junior Zagato.
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For the Lotus Elite, Murray says that he was always a big fan of Colin Chapman, and that a new Lotus road car was always terribly exciting to him. When the Elite was introduced in the late ’50s, it was an innovator, as the first car to feature a composite monocoque. That gives the car a personal connection to Murray, who was behind the McLaren F1, the first road car to feature carbon fiber composites in its construction.
Next, Murray says that Detomaso’s first road car, the Vallelunga, is a favorite of his because it was the first mid-engine car to feature a backbone chassis, giving it a technical appeal. One of just 53 ever built, it also has a design appeal, having had input from legendary coach builders Carozzeria Fissaro, Ghia, and a young Giorgietto Giugiaro.
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Continuing on the theme of Italian design, the next car in the collection is a Lancia Appia with Zagato coachwork. Murray says that it is one of just 30 or 50 that were made with aluminum body panels, which means that he was only able to find it thanks to a Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 buyer from Italy, who learned of his love of small Italian classics, and offered to help him find them.
Next, Murray talks about his 1963 Abarth 1000 GT Bialbero. Based on the Fiat 600 chassis, it features a Giaocchino Colombo-designed twin cam engine that made just under 100 hp (75 kW/101 PS). More impressively still, the car may hold a land speed record for vehicles with 1,000 cc engines, having managed to hit 122 mph (196 km/h) at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
While all of those cars remain largely original and not “over-restored,” as Murray says, the final car proves that he isn’t opposed to a bit of restomodding. Even then, though, he doesn’t do it like other people.
The final car of the video is an Alfa Romeo 1600 Junior Zagato. A controversial car in its day, Murray says he was always a fan, but couldn’t fit inside of it. He says, too, that he was a fan of the Alfaholics “GTA-R,” so he called the company up and asked if they would give that car’s treatment to the 1600 Junior Zagato.
They said yes and, because the cars are based on the same platform, there was a surprising amount of overlap. The body, though, took over a year to get right, because they had to lower the floor pan and move a crossbeam in order to give Murray enough room to drive it. Eventually, they succeeded, and it was actually the car that he drove to the office on the day that this video was filmed.
