First Drive: Caparo T1 – 0-60 in 2.5 seconds

 

[Source: MotorTrend] 

By Paul Horrell 

No pain, no gain. The Caparo T1 hurts. It’s a bruising process just clambering over the sides and squeezing into the carbon tub, grazing yourself on all the hard edges that crowd in, pulling muscles as you reach for the harness. And the noise, even at idle! If you don’t have earplugs or ideally a full helmet, it shoots an agony into your auditory canals.

Something this extreme demands sacrifice. It has the highest power-to-weight ratio of any road-legal car, by dint of light weight as much as power. Its maker is using it as an advertisement for its composites expertise, in the hope of gaining bigger OEM contracts. This prototype, carrying overweight test parts, is under 1400 pounds. But it has power too: some 550-plus horses, courtesy an Indy-derived 3.5-liter V-8. Zero-to-60 in 2.5 seconds, zero-to-100 in five. The aero package supplies enough downforce for 2.5g high-speed cornering.

The numbers – the approximately $350,000 price not excepted – are frightening. And it looks like an accident in a cutlery factory. I’m gently quaking. Besides which, I have no one else’s comforting experience to draw on. In an accidental world exclusive, I just hitched a ride with an engineer as he drove up the road for a quick systems check. “How much road mileage has it had?” I asked. “None. That was the first time. Ready for your turn?”

View the full Drive here on MotorTrend.com