How Designing Supercars Helped Gordon Murray Through Cancer

Gordon Murray can’t stop working. As he approaches 80 years old, Murray is still developing new supercars, and not even a cancer diagnosis took him away from the drafting table. One of Gordon Murray Automotive’s newest supercars—the S1 LM—was developed while its namesake was undergoing chemotherapy.

Murray revealed his cancer diagnosis earlier this summer. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in early 2024, something he and his doctors caught during a routine endoscopy. Murray went through chemotherapy, saying in an interview, “[t]he oncologist spent the best part of an hour going through the possible side-effects with me and my wife before I started the chemo, and boy, I got everything.”

Last July, Murray had a successful keyhole surgery.

Throughout all this, he was working closely with the customer who commissioned the S1 LM, a tribute to Murray’s Le Mans-winning McLaren F1 GTR. “I can honestly say that got him through the cancer treatment,” said Phil Lee, GMA CEO, at a Monterey Car Week event. “He was very, very focused; he went through long, enduring moments of chemotherapy, working alongside the customer, and going away and keeping focused himself, and this car is the birth of that.”

Lee expanded on this in remarks with journalists. “It’s amazing how focused he kept on the Special Vehicles stuff throughout the treatment. [I’m] so proud of him in terms of what he did there, and of course, that made it very special for the customer as well.”

The S1 LM is based on GMA’s T.50 and comes from Gordon Murray Special Vehicles, a division of the company dedicated to limited editions and special customer commissions like this. It’s debuting in Monterey alongside the Le Mans GTR, a 24-car run that’s more of a modern take on the F1 GTR.

Lee tells us GMA has a lot more cars in the pipeline. So Murray won’t be slowing down any time soon.

Additional reporting by Brian Silvestro.