Classic Cars, September 2019
'A genuinely revelatory experience to read.'
Autosport, August 2019
'For those who can afford it, and have strong enough coffee tables to support its weight, Murray's fascinating work is one of those 'must-have' additions. It was a two-year process to brig this book to fruition and for its refinement and insight it's been time very well spent.'
Motor Sport, August 2019
'Handsomely produced (and equally well reproduced), it's a book for those who appreciate engineering, ingenuity and rule-stretching from a design maverick.'
Octane, August 1, 2019
'Meanwhile, Porter's take sums up a life well-lived (thus far): "There is so much depth to Gordon, from his outrageous earlier period (a rebel with a cause!) to building his pre-eminent design consultancy, and everything between." There are charming insights into Murray's early years, organising and competing in cycle races around his native Durban, South Africa (complete with hand-drawn race programmes and street circuits with names corners), racing Spindizzies, and even preparing complete preliminaries for sports cars on the drawing board his parents had bought him.
'Even if you thought you were car mad, you've probably got nothing on Murray: his could easily be the life you might rather have led. The book is utterly absorbing - well over 900 pages, all with a fantastic selection of period photographs and drawings (all those drawings...) You'll need a strong bookshelf to hold it, and frankly I'm still suffering from tennis elbow after a weekend spent hefting it on and off my desk. But overweight? No way.'
Race Tech, July 1, 2019
'Compiling the book was also a chance for Murray to think about the other important aspects of car design, even those elements that weren't necessarily to do with the technical decisions in creating a championship-winning car. For example, Murray, who cut his teeth building his own cars to race in South Africa, highlights how crucial it was that he had intimate knowledge of every part of a racecar, He says that if in a motorsports team, the chief designer or technical director wasn't able to draw every part of a car, and had to hand off the engine installation or the design of the gearbox or the aerodynamics or the cooling system to another designer, the result wouldn't be as integrated a design as one that was created by a singular vision.'
Auto Tradition, July 2019
'It is beautifully produced on high-quality paper, absolutely fascinating to read and totally absorbing.
'in short, buy this book. You won't regret it.'
Race Engine Technology, June - July 2019
'The book presents many more insights into the fascinating MP4/4 story, together with relevant drawings, sketches and correspondence. Highly recommended, with detail on all of Murray's brilliant designs'
Historic Racing News, June 27, 2019
'Sometimes the weight of expectation is just too great. Film, play, book; all can be overwhelmed by the pre event hype. Not so with this magnum opus. "One Formula" is the story of Gordon Murray's life to date, written by Porter Press supremo Philip Porter, and this book certainly covers its subject in very considerable depth. The whole book is helped along by the fact that Gordon Murray is such a nice man, and comes over as such. It was Oscar Wilde who said (of a fellow writer) "he is a modest man but he has so much to be modest about". This is absolutely not the case here, Murray is not overly or falsely modest but his achievements are huge and need no explanation on these pages. But Gordon Murray is not one to blow his own trumpet either and the mixture of telling it like it is and letting the reader decide just what is important is gloriously gratifying.
'Is this a coffee table book? No, because it is so much better than that. Is it a reference book? No, because it has the man's amazing personality on every page. Is it the best motor sport book for a very long time? Most definitely yes!'
Classic and Sports Car, June 2019
'It's something of a surprise that One Formula is Gordon Murray's first book, and the first book on Murray, even. But this was certainly worth waiting for, and it makes up for the delay in sheer size: 948 fascinating pages across two volumes.
'The sketches of a teenage Murray piecing together his designs at home underline just how special the youthful 72-year-old's mind is. The tome becomes almost a scrapbook, though far glossier, that takes you an age to turn a page. The reader is stepping into the unfiltered mind of one of the world's greatest car designers, and being welcomed warmly by the conversational tone; it's as though you're overhearing Murray reveal all to Porter. But, as Gordon stresses in the introduction "This is not my life story - it is the story of my automotive designs, but inevitably the human side of my career intermingles with the design story"
'Expensive, yes. and a long time coming. But, once those pills have been swallowed, worth both.'