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High-revving V-12, 6-speed manual, and the wind in your hair. It’s an intoxicating combination, and one you can get in the new T.33 Spider that was revealed on Tuesday.
The T.33 Spider is the latest creation from Gordon Murray Automotive, the new car company from legendary road and racing car designer Gordon Murray, and weighs just under 40 pounds more than its T.33 coupe counterpart shown last year. The stated dry weight is 2,442.7 pounds.
According to GMA, minimal weight gain was achieved by developing a carbon fiber T.33 body early on for the convertible. Another major design was to forgo the cumbersome and heavy automatic roof in favor of two-piece carbon fiber panels that stow away in the front trunk.
Behind the roof is an air intake that feeds cold air to the car’s V-12 engine, and underneath is an electronically controlled glass window that lowers to allow more engine sound into the cabin.
GMA T.33 Spider
GMA T.33 Spider
GMA T.33 Spider
The V-12 is a 3.9 liter unit developed by GMA in partnership with Cosworth. The engine is shared with the company’s first supercar, the T.50, and in the T.33 it makes 608 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque. Even though that’s lower than what’s offered in the T.50, the engine still screams to a redline of 11,100 rpm and delivers the claimed 208 mph top speed for the T.33 Spider. Buyers also have the choice of a 6-speed manual transmission or a paddle-shifted unit, although orders for a paddle-shifted box in the coupe are reported to be just a handful.
The T.33’s cabin seats two, unlike the McLaren F1-style three-seat layout of the T.50. The advantage of the two-seat layout is that GMA was able to certify the car for the US market. This does not apply to the T.50 which needs to be brought under Show and Display rules.
Like the coupe, the convertible will be limited to 100 units, and build slots are still available although they tend to fill up quickly. Production of the coupe is slated to start in 2024, with convertibles to follow starting around mid-2025. Production of the T.50 began in March, following a sign-off drive by Murray himself.
Initially, GMA envisioned the T.33 to be its last supercar to be powered purely by the V-12 (even though it was actually a mild hybrid), as future models, while retaining the V-12 engine, would feature a hybrid powertrain. However, Murray in an interview with Autocar published on Tuesday hinted that the company may be developing one more pure V-12 model. The car is expected to arrive sometime in 2027, or about a year after the arrival of the planned track-focused T.33 along Niki Lauda’s T.50 line.
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