The meaning behind Goodwood Festival of Speed’s Gordon Murray central feature

The 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed kicked off on Thursday, and standing prominently in front of Goodwood House is an impressive Gordon Murray central feature.

The renowned car designer is behind some of the world’s most acclaimed supercars and race cars. He worked for Brabham from 1969 to 1986, where he was appointed chief designer when Bernie Ecclestone took over the team. From 1973 to 1985, Murray’s Brabham cars secured 22 grand prix victories. Following his time at the British team, he moved to the McLaren Group where he worked from 1987 until 2004 as technical director as well as heading McLaren Cars from 1991 to 2004.

In 2007, Murray established the Gordon Murray Design consultancy business and Gordon Murray Automotive was later founded in 2017.

Murray is now celebrating his 60-year career at the four-day event, with the sculpture being the centrepiece of the long weekend. The central feature was built by British designer and artist Gerry Judah but Murray also contributed to the design.

Based on the Gordon Murray Automotive logo, the central feature is decorated with the brand’s car, the T.50, which made its public debut at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting in 2021, and the Brabham BT52 Formula 1, in which Nelson Piquet secured his second of three F1 drivers’ titles in 1983.

In addition to the eye-catching central feature, 17 Murray-designed cars will be displayed during the weekend, including the infamous 1978 Brabham BT46B, the 1988 McLaren MP4/4, and the 1997 McLaren F1 GTR Long Tail.

“I can barely believe it’s been 60 years I’ve been designing and engineering race and road cars,” Professor Murray commented ahead of Festival of Speed.

“I can’t wait to reminisce with the thousands of fans at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Gordon Murray Special Vehicles double debut that follows just a month later will offer customers old and new even more ways to be part of our celebration of cars and driving.”

Gordon Murray

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

Gordon Murray Group CEO Phillip Lee also stated, “We are excited to take our existing customers on our GMSV journey in addition to bringing new owners into the Gordon Murray family.

“We are excited to offer customers the opportunity to create the bespoke supercar of their dreams with the GMSV design and engineering teams. We’re also enthusiastic to show the world’s automotive fans our most unique expressions of the Gordon Murray Automotive ethos through GMSV.”