Caparo T1 at MPH ’06 Show at London Earls Court

The first Caparo T1 prototype will be putting in a rare public appearance this weekend at MPH ’06 at the London Earls Court venue which opens on Thursday 2 November and closes Sunday 5 November 2006.

With the T1 show car making its US debut in Las Vegas, Caparo has chosen to present its first running prototype as part of the spectacle surrounding this popular live motoring theatre show presented by Jeremy Clarkson and James May.

“We wanted to ensure the public could see the car even if that meant breaking into the test schedule to present the running prototype in all its glory,” said Richard Butler chief executive Caparo Vehicle Products.

“It’s a rare opportunity for the general public to see the car,” added Sean Butcher commercial director Caparo Vehicle Technologies. “The T1 will be a highly exclusive car since we’re only planning to build about two dozen a year.”

The Caparo T1 is an entirely new high performance track and road car project announced earlier this year with the first customer cars being prepared for handover early next year. The car features a 2.4 litre supercharged V8 engine tuned to develop 480bhp at 10,500rpm driving through a 6-speed manual gearbox. Since the whole vehicle only weighs 465kg it is the first ever street legal road and track car to deliver a power-to-weight ratio of more than 1,000bhp-per-tonne … or to put it another way it weighs less than a Caterham yet delivers twice the power-to-weight ratio of a Bugatti Veyron.

To achieve its high levels of performance the T1 has been designed with aerospace and F1 technology know-how to meet the needs of privateer race drivers wanting to experience the maximum possible track performance, but without incurring the cost or reliability issues of running a grand prix racecar. And for £165,000 excluding VAT the T1 delivers extraordinary levels of performance. It accelerates from 0-60mph in 2.5 seconds, reaches 100mph 2.5 seconds later and brakes back to a standstill 3.5 seconds after that. It also generates 3g when braking and cornering.

The idea for the car comes from Caparo Vehicle Technology design director Ben Scott-Geddes and engineering director Graham Halstead. The two honed their design talents with Gordon Murray, who in turn was inspired as a teenager by the genius of vehicle lightweighting guru Colin Chapman.

More than a track racer, the T1 is also a technology demonstrator for Caparo. The company has embraced the project to highlight its ambition of becoming a leading supplier of advanced composite materials to carmakers needing to make their cars lighter in order reduce CO2 emissions.

“Vehicle mass is the single biggest enemy of so many aspects of vehicle performance including fuel economy and carbon emissions,” said Caparo group chief executive Angad Paul. “The same principles of lightweight vehicle design applied to the T1 can be similarly applied to the average family car.”