Sketching Cars Helped Gordon Murray Survive CancerJames Bearne - Getty ImagesEven at 80 years old, Gordon Murray continues to design some of the most beautiful and driver-centric vehicles on the planet. His company, Gordon Murray Special Vehicles, revealed the new S1 on Friday at Monterey Car Week, and somehow, that a limited-run V-12-powered stick-shift supercar still stands out amongst a field of other high-brow unveilings from the likes of Aston Martin, Koenigsegg, McLaren, and others. For Murray, bringing that car and the brand behind it to life was the distraction he needed to get through a tough cancer battle a few years back."Unfortunately, I had esophageal cancer, and normally there's only a couple of percent survival rate," Murray told Road & Track at GMSV's Monterey Car Week event. "But I'm lucky. I caught it. I go for a checkup every year, and I caught it really early... It's a really tough one. It's the worst one you can have, basically."Murray with the new GMSV S1 in Monterey, California on August 13.Ring/Aaron BrownThe designer explained that the treatment process involved robotic surgery and about four months of chemo. "When you go in and you sit in the big chair and they pump all the stuff into you, normally they say, you know, bring a book. I took a sketch pad and a ballpoint and spent every single session [sketching], and then at home with the self-administering chemo as well."AdvertisementAdvertisementWhile Gordon Murray Automotive, the company behind the impressive T.50 and T.33 supercars, is fully functional, the designer said he felt designing the Special Vehicles models "is a different thought process from the GMA core products." So spinning up this new venture, in combination with designing new cars, was a welcome distraction."I just spent the whole time—four months—thinking of how I could set the company up and who would run it," Murray said. "It honestly helped me through that, because I think if you haven't got something, if you're going through that—and it was terrible, the chemo—and you haven't got something to focus on, it's far, far worse. I still do 11 hours [of work] a day, yeah, and just turned 80. If I was just some chap who'd retired and went through that, I'm not sure I could have got through, to be honest."Aaron BrownMurray told R&T that he was so content with the success and recovery time of the robotic surgery, he bought a new robot for his surgeon."My brother had the same thing. In fact, he died of it, and he was in intensive care for weeks and weeks and weeks. I was in intensive care for six days because the robotic surgery is so less intrusive. I was so pleased. I bought them a new robot," Murray said. "It just arrived last night. Funnily enough, coincidentally, the surgeon sent me two pictures and said, 'Thank you very much. Just done the first operation with your robot...' It's the most amazing piece of engineering. It's incredible. I got so into it, and now I've become quite friendly with the surgeon. So, you know, I'm still asking questions about the technology and stuff. Fascinating."You Might Also LikeIf You Can Only Own One Car, Make It One of TheseThese Are the Most Popular Cars by State
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