Monday 24th February 2025

Gordon Murray Group announces Project 'M-LightEn'

New consortium aims to create much lighter, much less resource intensive monocoque - in just three years

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Gordon Murray’s obsession with lightweighting has been legendary for decades now. He was literally a founding member of the Light Car Company back in the '90s - what a return for the new special operations division that could be - and the F1’s 1,137kg weight is almost as famous as its top speed record. So it should be of little surprise, really, that the Gordon Murray Group is embarking on another lightweight automotive project. For as long as he’s in the car industry, Gordon Murray will be doing everything to reduce unnecessary mass; now more than ever, that feels like a very worthwhile undertaking. 

Project M-LightEn is what the new endeavour is called, which stands for Monocoque architecture - Lightweight and Low Energy, and is in fact a new consortium that will bring in expertise from GMG as well as Brunel University, Constellium and Carbon ThreeSixty. The aim of M-LightEn is to ‘create a new generation of ultra-lightweight, environmentally friendly vehicle structures’. The intention is to make a platform 25 per cent lighter than the norm; that’s in addition to halving the amount of carbon emitted in production, and targeting a ‘reduction in vehicle lifestyle carbon dioxide by a third or more’. All in just three years.    

AI will be used extensively to assist M-LightEn with its lofty ambition. It will expedite the process by optimising designs and helping to develop the materials required for such drastic project goals. This is where Constellium and Brunel will step in, contributing high-strength extrusions produced from 80 per cent recycled scrap aluminium. What a second life for your takeaway tubs that could be. Carbon ThreeSixty, appropriately enough, deals with the light and strong black stuff, and believes its ‘tailored-fibre-placement’ construction can mean almost zero waste. 

It’s hard not to be enthused by the prospect of a lighter, stronger car platform that uses fewer raw materials, even if Project M-LightEn remains very much in its infancy right now. There’s more good news, too, as the project ought to mean 160 new jobs and bring around £150m of economic activity related to that. 

Prof Geoff Scamans, Professor of Metallurgy at Brunel University of London, said: “This project represents an excellent opportunity to exploit the high-strength extrusion aluminium alloy technology developed in the EPSRC strain-enhanced precipitation in aluminium (STEP Al) programme, funded as an EPSRC Prosperity Partnership between Constellium and Brunel. The M-LightEn project will use the highest-performing aluminium extrusion alloys formulated from recycled end-of-life aluminium using novel thermomechanical processing techniques developed in this five-year programme.”

We didn’t understand all of it, either, although better and more consistent use of recycled aluminium is surely something we can all agree is a good idea. We’re told to expect the first M-LightEn application to arrive by late 2027, which will be ‘low-volume commercial use’, hopefully followed by something more mainstream thereafter. 

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• Gordon Murray Special Vehicles launched
• Gordon Murray automotive reveals 615hp T.33

 

[tramart50]

So they're coming up with a Lotus Elise chassis?

[normalbloke]

Can you imagine trying to get a successful repair after a minor bump?

[robsprocket]

normalbloke said:

Can you imagine trying to get a successful repair after a minor bump?

After a 'minor bump' yes or are you suggesting your 'minor bump' would include chassis damage?

[620S]

Rejoice something going on that hits hard how out of date the likes of Techart monstrosity is being reported on the same day!

[dxg]

This sounds like another Knowledge Transfer Partnership or an InnovateUK Smart Grant, to me.

GMA have hovered up a big slice of that research funding stream over the years...

[Skaben]

Struggle with this one...PH already reported on MLightEn and grant funds it received less than 6 months ago

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/general-pistonhea...

Not sure what the news here is?

[JJJ.]

Have no idea of the real benefits but it does sound interesting and promising.

[Cold]

Looking forward to this tech appearing on a £30k electric hatchback very soon.

[thegreenhell]

robsprocket said:

normalbloke said:

Can you imagine trying to get a successful repair after a minor bump?

After a 'minor bump' yes or are you suggesting your 'minor bump' would include chassis damage?

It will be no different to a Lotus or Aston Martin or any other extruded aluminium chassis in that regard.

[thegreenhell]

Skaben said:

Struggle with this one...PH already reported on MLightEn and grant funds it received less than 6 months ago

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/general-pistonhea...

Not sure what the news here is?

Was it the longer words you struggled with? The previous article only mentions the funding award with none of the technical details given in today's announcement.

[rodericb]

Cold said:

Looking forward to this tech appearing on a £30k electric hatchback very soon.

Something something BMW i3....

[barrycoupe]

Reading some of the responses here reminds me how unimaginative people can be. Anything Gordon Murray does shows ground breaking technology, and this is yet another example. This is much more than an Elise chassis! Watch this space, and come and view his latest creation, usually, at an event at Goodwood.

[jerseybuoy]

czinger are already ahead of the game here

[smilo996]

No mention of iStream which seems to have died.
Would have though some of the ideas here would be applicable with this project.
Sounds very lofty and ambitious which is precisely what is needed to overcome luddite progress anxiety.

[Niffty951]

tramart50 said:

So they're coming up with a Lotus Elise chassis?

Superb opening comment. Still wonderful though isn't it. That someone today is paying respects to that design ethic and trying to create the next iteration in the chain of chassis innovation.

I hope they learn from Lotus, the good and the bad. It out performed all expectations, but customers did not like the compromises to passenger space and access/egress

[unpc]

smilo996 said:

No mention of iStream which seems to have died.
Would have though some of the ideas here would be applicable with this project.
Sounds very lofty and ambitious which is precisely what is needed to overcome luddite progress anxiety.

They managed to jettison iStream when they sold off GMT to Forseven. Lucky as no one else seemed to want it. GMD are masters at playing the technology grant game.

[malaccamax]

Frankly there's sod all merit these days in lightening the chassis if you can't take weight out of the battery first. That's where the big advances will come. This stuff is just tinkering around the edges, but it sounds good and keeps UK taxpayer money churning into automotive, which is something when outside investment seems hard to come by

[AmyRichardson]

unpc said:

smilo996 said:

No mention of iStream which seems to have died.
Would have though some of the ideas here would be applicable with this project.
Sounds very lofty and ambitious which is precisely what is needed to overcome luddite progress anxiety.

They managed to jettison iStream when they sold off GMT to Forseven. Lucky as no one else seemed to want it. GMD are masters at playing the technology grant game.

That seems about it, what's come out of GM ventures, aside from a few very-GM/very expensive supercars, that's broken out of the realm of brain farts and renders, and into the consumer world?