The 22-metre steel sculpture installed at the Goodwood Festival of Speed celebrates the 60-year career of automotive design legend, Gordon Murray, with a nod to the Gordon Murray logo, and the inclusion of the classic BT52 and modern T.50 supercars.
Diales Technical completed the structural design and engineering for the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed Central Feature, a spectacular 22-metre-high steel sculpture which celebrates 60 years of automotive design excellence by Professor Gordon Murray CBE.
The monumental artwork, created by renowned sculptor Gerry Judah FRSS, incorporates two of Murray's most celebrated designs: the championship-winning 1983 Brabham-BMW BT52 Formula 1 car and the modern GMA T.50 supercar.
This marks the eighth Goodwood Festival of Speed sculpture that Diales Technical has engineered in collaboration with Judah, adding to the company's portfolio of monumental sculptures across the UK, Germany, New Zealand, China, Texas, Canada, Mexico, and Sharjah UAE.
Engineering Excellence Meets Artistic Vision
The sculpture takes the form of Gordon Murray Automotive's 'Speed Head' emblem – a flowing mermaid head with hair streaming backwards. Both cars are mounted parallel to each other as if racing skyward, with the T.50 positioned slightly ahead, creating a dynamic sense of movement and progression from Murray's Formula 1 heritage to his current supercar production.
Bruno Postle, Design Engineer at Diales Technical, and Hooman Baghi, Structural Engineer, faced significant technical challenges in creating the 50-tonne steel structure. The sculpture forms a massive loop that would measure 84 metres if laid flat, cantilevering 20 metres sideways from its base. Steel thickness varies between 8mm and 20mm throughout the structure, with innovative 'butterfly' stiffening arrangements in the supporting legs.
"The limiting factor with lightweight structures is always dynamic behaviour," explains the engineering team. "Considerable effort went into ensuring that buffeting, vortex shedding and resonant effects would not pose problems for a structure of this scale and complexity."
Structural Innovation and Foundation Engineering
The sculpture's two supporting legs connect to an underground grillage system anchored to a substantial 250-tonne concrete pad foundation. This engineering solution allows the dramatic cantilever effect while ensuring structural integrity against wind loading and the dynamic forces created by the sculpture's exposed position on the lawn of Goodwood House.
Fabricated off-site by Littlehampton Engineering, the sculpture employs hollow box girder monocoque construction with internal stiffeners – an approach that echoes the lightweight engineering principles that have defined Gordon Murray's career from Formula 1 to road car design.
Celebrating a Legendary Career
The sculpture serves as a tribute to Murray's remarkable three-phase career. Beginning in South Africa where he designed and built his own IGM Ford T.1, Murray moved to Britain in 1969 and was appointed Chief Designer at Brabham aged just 25 by Bernie Ecclestone. His innovative approach yielded championship-winning cars, first for Brabham and then McLaren, including the legendary BT46B 'fan car' and the dominant McLaren MP4/4 that won 15 of 16 races in 1988.
Murray's genius eventually yielded World Championship glory in 1981, when his BT49 carried Nelson Piquet to the Drivers' Championship, a feat he repeated two years later with the BT52. The BT52 featured in the sculpture was powered by a BMW M12/13 four-cylinder turbocharged engine producing approximately 850 bhp in qualifying trim, making it the first turbo engine to win the world championship.
After two decades in Formula 1, Murray pursued his vision of creating the perfect road car, resulting in the McLaren F1, still regarded by many as the greatest road car of all time. The third phase of his career began with the establishment of Gordon Murray Automotive in 2017, producing uncompromising low-volume supercars including the T.50.
Technical Heritage Connecting Past and Present
The T.50, positioned ahead of the BT52 in the sculpture, represents the culmination of Murray's design philosophy.
The T.50 employs what Murray calls a "lightweighting strategy" that achieves a weight of just 997kg. Like the F1, it features a three-seat layout with central driving position and incorporates fan technology that traces its lineage back to the revolutionary BT46B.
The T.50 sports car is the "logical successor" to the McLaren F1 and incorporates the "fan car" concept of the Brabham BT46B, creating a direct technical connection between Murray's Formula 1 innovations and his current automotive creations.
Artistic Collaboration and Festival Legacy
Gerry Judah FRSS has designed Central Features for the Goodwood Festival of Speed since 1997, with each piece taking anywhere between four to nine months from conception to build. The sculptures are now Europe's biggest regularly commissioned installations, requiring up to 50 tonnes of steel and representing automotive brands including BMW, Bernie Ecclestone, Porsche, Aston Martin and MG cars.
"They represent dynamics, speed, engineering and celebration – everything the Festival stands for," Judah has said of his Central Features, which have become iconic symbols of the world's largest automotive garden party.
Event Details and Unveiling
The sculpture was unveiled at an evening opening ceremony on Wednesday 9 July 2025, marking the beginning of the Festival of Speed weekend. The four-day festival ran from Thursday 10 July to Sunday 13 July 2025, with the sculpture serving as the focal point for daily celebrations in front of Goodwood House.
Professor Gordon Murray CBE said:
"For 60 years I have enjoyed the design and engineering challenge of pushing the boundaries of what's possible – be that in racing or road cars. The supercars that Gordon Murray Automotive builds today are inspired by every car I've designed, raced, and owned. Lightweight design, innovative use of materials, the latest technologies, and even bending the laws of physics come into all we do. I am thrilled we will celebrate my 60th anniversary of design and the driver-centric cars we produce today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed."
The Duke of Richmond CBE DL added: "Gordon has been a part of the Festival of Speed since the very beginning and I'm delighted that he has chosen to celebrate his 60-year career here with us at Goodwood. His name is synonymous with engineering art and superlative automotive design, which has seen him triumph at the very pinnacle of motorsport with five world championships and create the most coveted supercars."
Environmental considerations
The sculpture will be dismantled following the conclusion of the 2025 Festival of Speed, with the cars returning to their respective collections and the steel structure recycled. The sculpture is also designed and built to be demountable, so if it is desired, the structure can be disassembled and relocated to another location. If there is no need for relocation, the cars will be returned and the steel recycled. These measures ensure the temporary structures are either repurposed or recycled, and that the environmental impact is considered.
Innovation in Structural Engineering
The Goodwood project represents a continuation of Diales Technical's expertise in engineering solutions for monumental art installations that must withstand complex environmental forces while achieving ambitious aesthetic goals. The company's experience across Architecture, Civil and Structural Engineering, and Energy and Environmental Engineering brings a multidisciplinary approach to projects where structural integrity must serve artistic vision.
Previous collaborations between Diales Technical and Gerry Judah have included sculptures reaching heights of over 50 metres, each presenting unique engineering challenges. The portfolio spans diverse climatic conditions and seismic considerations, from the temperate British climate to the extreme environments of the Middle East and varying geological conditions worldwide.
The Gordon Murray tribute sculpture builds on this experience while introducing new challenges in the form of the complex curved geometry and the precise positioning requirements for the automotive displays. The engineering solution balances the cantilever forces while maintaining the clean aesthetic lines essential to Judah's artistic vision.
Festival: The 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, presented by Mastercard, 10 - 13 July 2025.
Sculpture engineers: Diales Technical
Artist: Gerry Judah
Fabrication: Littlehampton Welding
Photography: David Barbour