The Caparo T1 - the soon-to-be, fastest accelerating car in the world

The soon-to-be world’s fastest accelerating car has broken cover during the final stages of test and development. The Caparo T1 is a high performance two-seater sports car with highly resolved aerodynamics, which has been designed with the looks and performance of a Formula One race car. The T1’s 500 kg weight and 550 bhp give it a power-to-weight ratio of 1100 bhp/tonne – better than any current supersport motorcycle and approaching that of a genuine F1 car. With series production about to commence, the car will be built for discerning customers seeking the ultimate track day experience in a road driveable vehicle. In releasing full details of the car’s specification, the company has revealed that while customer cars are being readied for start of production, preparations are also well in hand for the T1’s first public appearance as a running car at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on June 22-24 – which effectively becomes the vehicle’s launch date.

The Caparo T1 also serves as a technology flagship for demonstrating the company’s high level vehicle design and engineering capabilities.

“We said a year ago, at the outset of this programme, that the only way to truly convince carmakers that we have the experience and skills to design a safe, reliable, cost-efficient and high-performance car is to actually design and build one,” says Ben Scott-Geddes, the car’s co-designer and operations director at Caparo Vehicle Technologies. “We’ve now done so … we’re proud of what we’ve achieved … and we now have something real and tangible to discuss.”

With distributors appointed in the UK, USA, South Africa and Dubai and more dealers under evaluation the company has a fast-filling order book. The handover of the car to the first customer is scheduled for July.

The biggest attraction for customers and the most striking aspect of the car’s specification is its headline figure of 1,045bhp-per-tonne power-to-weight ratio. The Caparo T1 is the first series production car ever to break through the 1,000bhp-per-tonne barrier. This has been achieved by installing a home-grown 3.5-litre Caparo V8 engine, which produces 575bhp (425kW) at 10,500rpm and 420Nm (310lbft) at 9,000rpm, into an extremely lightweight body and chassis constructed of advanced composite materials and weighing just 550kg.

The Caparo T1 is around one-third the mass of the average family saloon. Its carbon/aluminium honeycomb monocoque features a separate composite crash structure at the front, while the rear sub-frame specifies aerospace grade steel. The non carbon-fibre steel suspension illustrates the company’s ability to specify structural materials that can deliver the maximum performance at the lowest possible cost.

This means the Caparo T1 is lighter and faster even than a race-winning Le Mans sportscar. In terms of power-to-weight ratio its closest rival would be the latest super-bikes, which are now capable of delivering 175bhp into 185kg thereby just falling short of the magic 1,000bhp-per-tonne figure. Apart from these two wheelers and Formula One cars, no other road or track car comes anywhere close to the Caparo T1’s power-to-weight ratio and highly efficient aerodynamic properties.

This supreme power-to-weight ratio results in a 0-60mph time of less than 2.5 seconds and the ability to reach 100mph within five seconds. Braking performance is no less impressive with 100mph to standstill being delivered in 3.5 seconds.

“We’re absolutely delighted with the progress we’ve made throughout the test and development programme,” says engineering director and T1 co-designer Graham Halstead. “The aerodynamic efficiency was already well established through wind tunnel testing of a scale model even before we built the first prototype. With tens of thousands of miles of durability trials and specific testing now under our belts we have progressively fine tuned the specification of the vehicle to meet and exceed even our high performance objectives.”

...continued