CAPARO T1 ACROSS THE UK - ANGLESEY TO SNETTERTON

Legally, yes, the Caparo T1 is a road car. In all honesty, however, the Caparo T1 is scarecely fit for the types of situations you find yourself in day after day. Sitting in traffic on the #401 outside Toronto? A survivable activity in your Ford Escape; not so fun in a Caparo T1. Parking in between a Chevrolet Suburban and a Mercedes-Benz E550 on the sixth level of a downtown parking garage? Doable when driving a Toyota Yaris; not quite so easy in a Caparo T1.

That being said, evo magazine's Roger Green decided to put the Caparo T1 to the test in real-life scenarios. First, of course, evo allowed the Caparo T1 to limber up with a few laps of the Anglesey Circuit in northwest Wales. The final destination is 305 miles across England to Snetterton in Norfolk, past Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham.... down "motorways"... in the rain.... farther than the Caparo T1's development team had even driven the car in one go-'round. Check it out in the video below. It's actually rather fascinating stuff.

Initial plans only called for 100 examples of the Caparo T1 to be built. The Caparo's V8, as you'll recall, generates 575 horsepower at a screaming 10,500rpm. 575 bhp may not sound like much in an age of 1000 bhp Bugattis and run of the mill Mercedes AMGs with more than 600 horses, but the Caparo T1 weighs barely more than 1,500 pounds, 300 pounds less than GCBC's long-term smart fortwo. Granted, price of the Caparo T1 is somewhere around $350,000.

Come on back to GoodCarBadCar.net a little later to see the best choices for driving across the UK. The cars involved must be able to lap the circuits at Anglesey and Snetterton, though.




Related From GoodCarBadCar.net
100 Favourite Cars - Part III
Caparo T1 Police Car
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Ferrari Interiors Deserve Recognition

100 FAVOURITE CARS - PART III

Over the course of releasing pictures and explanations of the first twenty of The Good Car Guy's 100 Favourite Cars, only nine brands have been represented. In other words, based on the alphabetical order in which these cars have been disclosed, you already know that there'll be no Acura NSX in TGCG's 100 Favourite Cars; no Audi R8; no Bentley Continental GT Speed; no Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Four cars dearly loved by The Good Car Guy, they may be, but not to the degree that cars in this 100 Favourite Cars list are.

Ten more cars can be seen in the slideshow, with explanations of why TGCG named those vehicles to GoodCarBadCar.net's 100 Favourite Cars group.

BMW M3 (E46): Good looks help make the E46's case; six cylinders strengthen it; and sublime 50/50 balance seals the deal.
BMW M5 (E39): The E39's successor, though incredible, is a brute. Pretenders to the E39's throne, though frequently impressive, are not the all-around devices the M5 proves to be on each and every drive.
BMW 7-Series (E38): Before BMW turned the 7-Series into a recipe for disaster, the E38 was a clean, classy, very prototypical BMW package: a sport sedan in limo clothes.
BMW Z8: Just prior to the height of the automotive retro craze, BMW's Z8 was the preeminent retro-modern automobile which happened to be.... a junior supercar.
Bugatti Atlantic: Imagine if the Bugatti Veyron in all its W16-quad turbo glory looked good. Ah, that'd require inspiration from the Atlantic, but Bugatti was unfortunately inspired by dual-colour boats.
Bugatti T35: Something like the Caparo T1 of its day, the T35 of the '20s was thoroughly simplistic in its design and thoroughly extreme in its capability.
Cadillac CTS-V (Gen2): Dreadfully ugly in its first version, the CTS-v is now handsome and even more powerful. What more want ye?
Cadillac Eldorado ('59): Generally speaking, when automakers go out of their way to design obnoxiously American cars, they get it wrong. The '59 Eldorado is crazily American yet perfectly formed.
Caparo T1: Something like the Bugatti T35 of its day, the T1 of today is incredibly simplistic in its design and thoroughly extreme in its capability.
Chevrolet Camaro SS ('02): Camaros weren't cool in the early part of this decade. Fast but not sophisticated; sporty but not sporting. On the other hand, it was really fast in SS form and supplied country roads everywhere with awesome burnouts.

100 FAVOURITE CARS

1-10

11-20

31-40

41-50

51-60

61-70

71-80

81-90

91-100

"DON'T EVEN TRY IT, MISTER"

You've seen the Caparo T1 on GoodCarBadCar before. The Good Car Guy entitled it the combination of an insect and supercar. That which is lacking is that which makes it beautiful.

The British highway police seem to agree. They certainly understand its capability: amazing acceleration, fearsome top speed, and roadholding unlike any non-racer in history. And I dare say, the police livery may suit it better than any other paint scheme seen thus far. A total recant of the Top 5 Cars Police Should Be Driving is written here. Our roads should be full of Caparo T1's, not least because their identification in rearview mirrors and windshields would be easy as pie.

INSECT MORPHS WITH BEAUTIFUL CAR - Becomes Caparo T1

Two engineers who worked on the McLaren F1 under Gordon Murray's watch recently formed a company named Freestream. That company was swallowed by Caparo, and their vehicular idea is now a full-blown supercar known as the Caparo T1.


Its premise? To make use of light-weight tech to further the car's performance and lower its emissions and fuel economy. Weighing not much more than 500kg but still punching out over 500 horsepower, the T1 will be one of, if not the world's quickest automobile. Graham Halstead and Ben Scott-Geddes have a united desire to see the conversation around fuel cells, hybrids, ethanol, and electricity become a sidebar to the use of composites, a notch or three better than aluminum.



This wicked car looks good. Kind of like an insect morphing into a transportation device kind of way. These British boys are onto something, and the attention the company is garnering for itself bodes well for the future of all lightweight automobiles. Which is the whole point.


The GCBC Auto Olympics will return in no time at all.