November 20, 2007 News from Caparo that its T1 high-performance two-seater sports car has smashed the leading lap time on the BBC's Top Gear motoring program by seven seconds. But there is a catch – the car wont appear at the top of the lap board because the car's inability to negotiate a speed hump doesn't meet the criteria specified by the programme makers. Drawing on its formidable power-to-weight ratio of more than 1000 bhp/tonne, the T1's lap time of 1:10.6 unofficially beat the previous record held by a modified Koenigsegg CCX.
“We certainly hope that the Caparo T1 is given another chance by Top Gear to take its rightful place at the top of the leader board; even if they put a speed bump on the track we are confident of our success,” says Angad Paul, chief executive officer, Caparo Group. “To have beaten the previous leader by seven seconds is a truly astonishing achievement.”
The vehicle’s designer, Ben Scott-Geddes stated that, “the model we supplied to Top Gear was one of our final engineering vehicles without adjustable ride height and electronic active driver control systems which are standard on our production models. When driver’s select the ‘road’ setting, the car is more tractable in slower speed conditions and the ride height is fully adjustable to bring the car up to 90mm clearance, making it more than capable of driving over speed bumps.”
The two-seater sports car utilises lightweight carbon composite materials and technology seen in F1 cars with a braking system featuring six pot race calipers on the front and the four pot calipers on the rear that are capable of stopping the car from 100mph in under three seconds.
For more info on the T1 see the Caparo website.