Gordon Murray's Newest Supercar Is Capped at 64 -- the Exact Number of McLaren F1s Ever Built

A V12 Manual With the McLaren F1's Own Seating Plan

Gordon Murray Special Vehicles, the bespoke-commission arm of Gordon Murray Automotive, used The Quail during Monterey Car Week on August 14 to reveal the S1, a road-going supercar that reads less like a new model and more like Murray finishing a sentence he started with the McLaren F1 in 1992. The three-seat cabin keeps the F1's signature layout -- driver centered, low cowl, two passengers set slightly behind and to either side -- a configuration no other manufacturer has seriously revived in three decades because it complicates everything from crash structure to ergonomics. GMSV built the S1 around it anyway, adding more leather, bespoke acoustic fabrics and a lightweight touring audio system to a cabin that still puts the driver dead center.

Power comes from a naturally aspirated 4.2-litre Cosworth V12 producing 681 hp at a 12,100-rpm redline and 369 lb-ft of torque, sent through a genuine six-speed manual gearbox -- no dual-clutch, no paddle option. The car rides on a carbon-fibre monocoque derived from the S1 LM, GMSV's first commission, a track-focused one-off that sold for a record $20.6 million at a Las Vegas auction earlier this year. The road-going S1 swaps the LM's fixed wing and splitters for smoother bodywork and active rear aerodynamics, rides 10mm higher, and comes in under 997 kg dry. GMSV is building exactly 64 examples -- the same number of road-going McLaren F1s Murray's old team produced between 1992 and 1998 -- and all 64 were spoken for before the car was formally shown.

Why a Deliberately Small, Deliberately Analog Supercar Matters in Dubai

Dubai's collector market has spent the past two years chasing hybrid hypercars and one-off ateliers from Ferrari, Rolls-Royce and Bugatti, but GMSV's approach is a different kind of rarity: a naturally aspirated, manual-only car built in a production run smaller than most marques' annual one-off count, from a company with no dealer network and no waiting list open to new names. That combination -- Gordon Murray's own name, an homage to the car many GCC collectors already treat as the benchmark analog supercar, and a run capped before the reveal even happened -- is exactly the profile that tends to outperform far more expensive hypercars on the secondary market once cars start changing hands.

For the region's most serious buyers, the S1 also sharpens a distinction that's been building all year: the cars generating real long-term value aren't necessarily the ones with the highest horsepower or the newest hybrid architecture, but the ones built to a design philosophy -- light weight, mechanical purity, a driver-first layout -- that a manufacturer refuses to compromise even when it would be easier to sell more of them. With Gordon Murray's own S1 LM already setting a $20 million-plus benchmark at auction just months before the road car's reveal, the 64 owners who did secure an S1 build slot are sitting on a car that arrived already priced like future history.