Shell and Gordon Murray Team Up For 'Project M' City Car

Apr 09, 2015 01:09 PM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Legendary McLaren designer Gordon Murray is teaming up ex-F1 engineer Osamu Goto to create a new city car concept for Shell that will be powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE).

Murray is responsible for the McLaren F1 road car, considered by many to be one of the best road cars of all time. He based the design for the Shell car on his T25 prototype from 2010, according to AutoExpress.com.

As seen in Shell's prototype drawings below, the vehicle will have the T25's three seat layout, with light composite panels, the same production process as the iStream, an internal combustion engine and steel frame.

"This program is really exciting for both teams, and the sort of people we're working with at Shell are looking at the future the same way we are with the car," said Murray in a Project M video. "So the collaboration is really interesting."

So what is Shell contributing to the car? A low-friction lubricant, which could cut fuel consumption by 6.5 percent, according to AutoExpress.

The Shell car, currently code-named "Project M," should be unveiled in November 2015 sometime. Road testing will follow, though there are no current plans for the vehicle to reach mass production.

Shell has said that they would like the car to be sold in emerging markets, like India, where there is an increased demand for low-cost, efficient vehicles.

Project M will reach America probably for the Shell Ec-marathon in Detroit, scheduled to take place on April 9-12, though it won't be a finished product yet.

"I think the Shell car is really important," said Murray in the video. "We can really look into the future a bit where we should be going, not just in materials but design, philosophy and technologies."

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