manufacturing Automotive structural composites timeline 1974 - The first composite rear wing - Brabham BT44. 1976 - The first use of carbon brakes on a car - Brabham BT45. 1978 - The first use of carbon panels in a racing car - Brabham BT49. 1982 - The first composite roll over system - Brabham BT52. 1992 - The world's first all-carbon road car - McLaren F.1. 1992 - The first carbon clutch in a road car - McLaren F.1. 1999 - The formation of a concept to use Formula One composites technology in high volume at low cost. 2003 - The first productionised carbon manufacturing system in low volume - Mercedes McLaren SLR. 2008 - The setting up of Gordon Murray Design Limited to develop the iStream® manufacturing system. 2010 - The first iStream® vehicle shown - GMD T.25. 2011 - The first iStream® electric vehicle shown - GMD T.27. 2013 - The first customer iStream® vehicle shown at the Tokyo Motor Show - Yamaha MOTIV.e. 2015 - The announcement of the first production customer to use iStream® - TVR. 2015 - The showing of a customer sports car at the Tokyo Motor Show - Yamaha "Sports Ride Concept". 2015 - The announcement of iStream® Carbon. iStream® delivers performance through lightweight. iStream® Carbon does not replace the existing iStream® manufacturing process, it sits alongside the standard system to open 60 up more market segments. The company is currently working on 7 vehicles using the original iStream® technology. The iStream® assembly process is a complete jec composites magazine / No104 April - May 2016 rethink and redesign of the traditional automotive manufacturing process and could potentially be the biggest revolution in high-volume manufacture since the Model T. Development of the process began over 15 years ago and it has already won the prestigious "Idea of the Year" award from Autocar, who were given privileged access in order to make their assessment. The simplified assembly process means that the manufacturing plant can be designed to be 20% of the size of a conventional factory. This could reduce capital investment in the assembly plant by approximately 80%. Yet the flexibility of this assembly process means that the same factory could be used to manufacture different variants. The iStream® design process is a complete rethink on highvolume materials, as well as the manufacturing process, and will lead to a significant reduction in full lifecycle CO2 emissions. n More information: www.gordonmurraydesign.comhttp://www.gordonmurraydesign.com http://www.mccleananderson.com