Gordon Murray's Caparo T1 . . . will Ferrari respond?

First of all, is this car ACTUALLY going to be built?


Various specs from the August '07 Road & Track.

Twice the power-to-weight ratio of a Bugatti Veyron.
995 lb. curb weight.
3.5 liter V8 making 575 hp @ 10,200 rpm's.
3 g cornering ability.
Downforce capable of "running on the ceiling at 150 mph."
2-seater street-legal road car.

With the future looking more and more like a trend towards increasing efficiency of total output by lightening the cars, as opposed to increasing the power of the engines, what does Ferrari have planned?

 

From what I'm told, 40 orders were taken by Caparo, and they aren't planning on making more then those 40. The MSRP keeps going up.... but as long as it stays "reasonable" there is one coming to Michigan

 

The Millechile concept falls into the smaller and lighter category, although it's double the weight of the T1.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155738

I hope this race to lighter weight takes hold with all sports car makers.

 

The Caparo isn't a car it's a trackday vehicle that will never be street legal in the US.

That said it's "less is more philosophy" will be used by Ferrari in their next SuperCar as they have hinted in the thread cited.

It will be interesting to see if the dual wing format that the Caparo and modern Le Mans LMP 1 cars are using can work with a street legal/usable car.

 

It's street legal in Europe.

 

And that's all that matters. US epa/dot laws can go to hell.

 

well, there can be "exceptions" made... and there are bending of the rules with such low production numbers... Although, I'm sure you know more about this then I do.

 

The point remains. This is a Track day car not a production sports car. It will be interesting to see just how many are interested at 200K. Would you rather have one of these or an F430?

IMHO Ferrari will go lighter and smaller but I very much doubt they'll be building something like this.

These are serious people and Caparo is a serious Company but I don't see this as a competitor to Ferrari or a direction Ferrari will be taking to this extreme.

 

oh, I agree 100%. It's not a competitor in any way/shape/form. For one, the Caparo is looking at making only 40 examples initially... I'm told that they filled each of those slots, plus some extras already. It may, or may not be road legal... but in no way will it fill that segment the F430, Gallardo, Ford GT, 911 GT2 etc.

But... It's seems like it is more of a car then something like the Radical's and the like... but definitely not something to do any sort of traveling in.

 

Very interesting.

 

....won't revving an engine to 10K+ RPM significantly reduce its life?

 

At Goodwood they told me it was a detuned Lexus IRL engine that could easily rev way beyond that. It was pretty cool but the cockpit did get a bit muddy when they went up the hill in the rain.

 

Interesting article about it in R&T, but Jim is right, this is a trackday car with a Toyota IRL Engine.

 

Hmm . . . interesting info so far.

The article is misleading in that it implies that the car is meant to be a street driven car; they made a few references to the Mclaren F1.

The article even says the cockpit configuration is "2/3" an F1, with the passenger to the side of the center-driver and just behind him/her.

I was not aware of an official price . . . $200K seems a bit low to me . . . even for an untested company.

I agree. On the contrary, on paper, this Caparo "concept" would annihilate ALL of the competition IMO.

 

On the Caparo website it claims "starting price of £190,000 (excluding taxes)" so bit above $200k

Performance wise yes... but it is more like a Lotus Elise on steroids: more performance - less creature comforts. Some creature comforts are nice in a daily usable car

 

I wonder for who

Wrong place for this topic I think

 

I don't think you've met John before.

 

No, I didn't think there would to many others around in the market for the car. How was the drive home on Saturday?

 

The whole concept of the car is incredible but at that price I'd rather sacrifice some downforce and go with an Atom.

 

one of the guys from AZ said this... i think it ought to cover it nicely

Taken from a local forum regarding Saturday...

sorry for the hijack

 

Road and Track are hosting a series of four video interviews with Ben Scott-Geddes and Graham Halstead, the T1's parents so to speak. Very interesting from a technical standpoint.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/video/index.html?bcpid=717440069&bclid=716073162&bctid=1078545519

 

The tread title is a little misleading, its not Gordon Murrays Caparo T1; some people who were on the design team for the Mclaren F1 - AKA Gordons car - designed the Caparo.

 

Yes, that is correct. Murray has now signed on to give the company more credibility.

Here's a link to 33 in use photos (as opposed to the studio shots) showing just how horribly ugly this car really is.

http://www.worldcarfans.com/photos.cfm/photoid/3070629.001/page/1/size/large/country/ecf/specialty_ecf/caparo-t1