Caparo T1

The Caparo T1 is a British mid engine, rear wheel drive, two seat automobile that was built by Caparo Vehicle Technologies, founded by design director Ben Scott Geddes, engineering director Graham Halstead, engineers formerly involved in the development of the McLaren F1 and Sean Butcher, marketing director and financier. The T1 was inspired by Formula One design, and intended as a relatively affordable road legal racing car. The T1 was scheduled for production in mid 2007 for a price of £235,000 with approximately 25 cars per year built.

The T1 has a dry weight of , an overall length of , an overall width of , an overall height of , and a wheelbase of It has a fuel tank capacity of .

The exterior of the T1 closely resembles that of a racing prototype or Formula One racing car. It features a carbon fibre aerodynamic low drag body design, composed of individual sections, with an adjustable twin element front wing, single element rear wing, adjustable flaps, and a ground effect diffuser, allowing it to create of downforce at The wings are replaceable with road and track variations.

The interior of the T1 is a two seat configuration, lacking any amenities and luxuries to reduce excess weight. The passenger's seat is set back from the driver's seat slightly, allowing the seats to be placed closer together, thereby reducing the overall width of the T1. Offered are a head protection system, six point harnesses for the driver and passenger, compatible with a HANS device, and is designed with a central safety cell made of a high strength steel roll hoop with a fire system. The dashboard is multi function with race data logging and speed sensors for traction control and launch control.

The chassis of the T1 is composed of a carbon fibre and aluminium honeycomb monocoque with a front composite crash structure and a rear tubular space frame construction. The suspension is of a double wishbone design with tunable anti roll bars, front and rear, and five way adjustable race dampers. The braking system is composed of metal brake discs, with six piston and four piston callipers front and rear, respectively. The brake bias pedal box is fully adjustable and brake pads are available in various compounds. The wheels are all aluminium and front and rear, respectively, with Pirelli P Zero Corsa tyres. Magnesium and wheels front and rear, respectively, with Pirelli slick and wet track tyres are available as optional equipment.

The T1 sports a , 32 valve, , all aluminium, naturally aspirated, Menard V 8, with cylinder banks mounted at 90°, and lubricated via a dry sump oil system. The engine has gone through several designs, previously including a smaller 2.4 litre supercharged unit. The production design generates a maximum power of at 10,500 revolutions per minute and a maximum torque of at 9,000 revolutions per minute, giving the car a power to weight ratio of 1,223 horsepower per tonne (912.8 kW/t). In addition, the engine has been reported to successfully reach on methanol fuel. The engine is controlled via a fully tunable Pectel SQ6 engine control unit and the throttle is controlled via a throttle by wire system. Furthermore, the drivetrain incorporates a limited slip differential and equal length hollow tripod driveshafts.

The T1 has an estimated maximum speed of on a low downforce setup. From a standing start, it has an estimated time under 2.5 seconds and onto in 4.9 seconds, depending on tyre setup. The show car unveiled was a prototype, painted orange as historic McLaren cars were due to the nature of the T1's designers being ex McLaren engineers. Another test vehicle was reported to have been under construction at the time. During the MPH '07 auto show, on 30 October through 2 November and later 13 November through 16 November 2007, Caparo, in conjunction with the London Metropolitan Police, unveiled a prototype police vehicle variant of the T1 named the Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV). However, Top Gear and Edmunds reported that the car would not be put into production.

Jason Plato was injured in a prototype T1 in October 2007 at the Bruntingthorpe proving ground when it caught fire at an estimated The T1 was being tested during filming for Five's Fifth Gear. Plato described what happened as:

In the associated episode of Fifth Gear, first broadcast 15 October 2007, presenter Vicki Butler Henderson suggested the fire was caused by a "faulty oil sealing component," which, having been identified, has been fully rectified by Caparo. While being tested for competing for British television programme Top Gear, first broadcast on 11 November 2007, a floor panel came loose from the test vehicle as it was being driven at speed by Jeremy Clarkson, after he had already made a play of being scared about driving the car because of Plato's experience. Afterwards, there was a problem with the car's petrol injection system. In the same review, Clarkson mentioned two more incidents, one at the press launch, when "some aspect of the front suspension came adrift" while a Dutch journalist was driving, causing him to veer off road, and one at the Goodwood Festival of Speed when the throttle stuck open. Immediately after having declared the time and placed it on the Power Board, presenter Jeremy Clarkson removed the record because it did not meet the show's rule that the car must be able to go over a speed bump. When driving the Caparo, Clarkson had stated that limited aerodynamic downforce is created at slow speeds, A small number of T1's have appeared for sale following the company's collapse, one in Japan in 2019, and a further two that have been on sale in the United Kingdom since 2021.