My first issue of Automobile Year was Number 14, in 1966. At the time I was 20 years old and living in Durban, South Africa. 1966 was a very significant year for me as I was part way through designing and building my own racing car and engine which I was to use in anger for the 1967 racing season.

Looking through my copy of Issue 14 it reminds me that it was also a significant year for the car and racing industries.  I loved that period in car design, and some of my all-time favourite shapes are from 1966. The cigar-shaped Formula One cars were all so interesting and different from one another – the V-12 Ferrari 312 remains one of my favourites to this day. Jack Brabham won the F1 title driving his own car and the Ferrari Dino 206 S appeared, which gets my ‘best looking car of all time’ award! On the road car front, Lamborghini started a new genre of road cars with their magnificent Miura P400, while Porsche produced their Carrera 6, which was almost as pretty, and Ford won at Le Mans with the GT40.

When I look back on this era I feel I am indeed fortunate to have been a young man at that time – and I have no doubt that both road and racing cars from this period have had a big influence on a lot of the cars I’ve designed!  

Born in South Africa, Gordon Murray moved to England in 1969, having studied mechanical engineering at Natal Technical College. His design talent for racing cars earned him a place at Brabham Cars in 1970 and he stayed there for sixteen years, designing a variety of Formula and sports cars including the BT 42 and BT 44 Formula 1 cars. In 1986 he joined McLaren International as Technical Director, helping Ron Dennis to build the team into a leading force in Grand Prix racing. Moving away from Formula 1, he was one of the founding team at McLaren Cars Ltd., the company formed to create the McLaren F1, the greatest of the supercars of the late 1980’s and still the fastest production car in history. At the other end of the scale, he also designed the Rocket tandem two-seater, a startling combination of light weight and motorcycle power that, like the F1, showed the Murray design hallmarks of top quality and fanatical attention to detail. Gordon brought another supercar project, the McLaren-Mercedes SLR, to the market in early 2003.