Jonny's personal tour of the T33 Spider

Gordon Murray loves convertibles, yet all of his own designs have been coupés so far. That all changes with the arrival of the Gordon Murray Automotive T33 Spider, and Jonny Smith is given a personal tour of this new supercar by its creator.

As the designer of the iconic McLaren F1, then his own T50 and T33 performance cars, Gordon Murray has very precise ideas of how a car should look and feel. Jonny discovers the T33 Spider started out looking very similar to its coupé sister model, but now has a slinky faired-in roll hoop that gives the Spider its unique rear styling.

The development of the Spider is not quite finished, and Gordon Murray explains to Jonny the roof opening will be about 110mm longer to make it easier when getting in and out of the T33. Another of Gordon Murray’s fundamental design approaches is to keep weight down, so the roof is a carbon fibre panel that lifts out and stores under the bonnet above the small boot space. However, to keep the T33 practical, there’s more luggage space in pods that are revealed when the cleverly hinged rear wings pop out.

Of course, as a supercar, the T33 is primarily about performance. It uses the same 617hp 4.0-litre V12 as the coupé and shares an identical 208mph top speed. All of this is kept in control by Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres specifically chosen by Gordon Murray, yet he deliberately selected readily available tyre sizes so owners are encouraged to use their T33 Spiders as much as possible.

Jonny doesn’t get to experience that performance in this video, but he does get a ride in one of the convertibles Gordon Murray loves so much – a beautiful classic Alfa Romeo.