Broad Arrow Auctions sets a new world record with insanely rare hypercar

Typically, car auctions like this are held in giant convention centers or at some concourse event on manicured lawns. However, on the evening of April 21st in Paso Robles, California, someone sitting at a dinner table during a stop on the California Mille raised their hand and bought a Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 for $8,035,000. If you are going to set a world auction record for one of the rarest supercars ever built, you might as well do it over supper. 

Broad Arrow Auctions, driven by Hagerty, presented the first North American public auction of a GMA T.50 as a single-car live event at the Allegretto Vineyard Resort, timed to coincide with the celebrated California Mille rally. The car — chassis number 009, finished in bespoke Reef Red with fewer than 30 delivery miles — sold to a bidder in the room, which, as it turns out, was a room full of some of the richest collector car enthusiasts on the planet. This year's California Mille paid special tribute to the T.50, with five examples participating in the rally itself. The seller brought one to sell. It sold before dessert.

The T.50 is worth understanding before the price tag has any chance of making sense. Designed by Gordon Murray and described by Gordon Murray Automotive as the spiritual successor to the Murray-devised McLaren F1, the T.50 shares familiar features with the F1: a central driving position with two passenger seats flanking the driver, a six-speed manual gearbox, a V12, and dihedral wing doors, which is basically a fancy way to say they open really weirdly. 

The production run was strictly limited to 100 examples. The specific car auctioned in Paso Robles is powered by a 3.9-liter Cosworth GMA V12 producing 661 horsepower with a maximum engine speed of 12,100 rpm, all channeled through a six-speed manual gearbox and assisted by active fan-assisted aerodynamics — a distinctive 40cm aerodynamic fan integrated into the rear of the car, powered by a 48-volt electrical motor that manages downforce and drag across six driver-selectable modes. The total vehicle weight comes in under 1,000 kilograms — lighter than many far less-powerful cars. All these specs basically stack up to mean that this is one of the fastest production cars ever made. 

Murray spent decades thinking about everything he wished he had done differently on the McLaren F1 and built the T.50 to address those regrets. What we get is a car that most people will never see in person, and essentially none will ever drive. Chassis 009 just changed hands for eight million dollars at a dinner in California, and the new owner is a rally participant who presumably drove something equally opulent to get there.

Not all money is bad money

The sale wasn't purely transactional. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the California Highway Patrol 11-99 Foundation, which provides emergency assistance to CHP employees and their families, and McPherson College's Automotive Restoration Program in honor of the program's 50th anniversary. McPherson's program is one of the finest of its kind in the country, which makes it a genuinely good place for an eight-million-dollar supercar auction to direct some of its proceeds.

"This nearly unobtainable icon from the legendary Gordon Murray is one of the cars to have," said Alexander Weaver, Senior Car Specialist and Vice President at Broad Arrow. The results back it up. Full auction information at broadarrowauctions.com.