This is the gearbox connected to the T.50’s 12,100 rpm Cosworth V-12
Gordon Murray’s automotive startup is about to put a 3.9-liter naturally-aspirated Cosworth V-12 into a mid-engine, carbon-fiber car, tuned to produce 650 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque. This engine is also supposed to rev to 12,100 rpm and channel its fury through a six-speed manual gearbox. And that’s where Xtrac enters the chat.
Xtrac is a British engineering company specializing in racing gearboxes. They supply the Mercedes Formula 1 team with eight-speed semi-automatics as well as provide SCG with the transversely mounted sequential unit in the new SCG 004C. WRC, rallycross, open-seaters, endurance or off-road racing—Xtrac has a product for the application.
Gordon Murray’s previous supercar, the McLaren F1, used the Getrag gearbox of a BMW 5 Series, modified into a lightweight six-speed with an aluminum housing and beefed-up internals by California’s Pete Wiesmann.
This time around, Xtrac came up with a brand-new, H-pattern six-speed that can not only handle those presumably high-rev shifts but also help keep the T.50’s weight at an extremely low 2160 pounds.
Xtrac’s GMA “CPA” prototype looks compact and beautifully machined already, but we’d love to see it on a bench next to Koenigsegg’s nine-speed and seven-clutch Light Speed Transmission. The T.50’s represents the pinnacle in lightweight manual technology, while the other, made for the Jeskos, brings automatics to a whole new level.
