Fastest Production Car? The Caparo T1

I can say that I've never been asked this question, but I definitely know the answer now.  How do you turn a F1 car into a street car?  Allow me to introduce you to the Caparo T1:

You're probably wondering why Checkered Flag is talking about a car that will never exist in its line-up.  Weeeeell this might be a far-fetched run-on thought process, but Caparo supplies body structures for some of the Tata cars, and Tata Motors is about to be the new parent of Jaguar, so the Caparo is going to be a cousin to Jag!  With that technicality out of the way (and terrible use of grammar), let's get back to this little monster....you can decide whether this could be an exciting relationship for Jaguar.

The Caparo is a British-engineered car created by two engineers who were responsible for much of the McLaren F1's design and development.  Due to a combination of carbon fiber and a specialized honeycombing of aluminum being the materials of the car, the T1 weighs in at 1,036 lbs. (a smart car weighs about 1,600 lbs....and a smart car doesn't even have 100 horse power).   The T1 has a 3.5L V8 producing over 500 horse power.  Keep in mind, this is a race-tuned motor able to run on race gas - this is a very different animal than your every day car.  According to Jeremy Clarkson, of Top Gear (in the video below), he says it has twice the power to weight ratio of a Bugatti Veyron (the Veyron has over 1,000 hp and costs over $1,000,000).  At the same time the Caparo has a price tag of just over $300,000, so it is much more "affordable" - ha ha.  I do know which one I'd rather have on a rainy day though.  It is better to see it in action - here is Top Gear's testing of it:

As someone who loves performance cars, I look forward to Tata's and Caparo's relationship possibly finding its way into future Jaguars....although this could be a far-fetched wish.  However, knowing Tata has a passion for Jag, that future is bright!

-research on this project was done using LeftLane News and Top Gear.