Since first hearing that ex-McLaren F1 supercar designer Gordon Murray had left the famous racing company to create his own design house and that its first product was to be a revolutionary city car, we've been anxiously awaiting more details to come to the surface. Lucky for us, they just have. Murray promises that his low-cost car will cut emissions in half and be cheap to purchase and manufacturer. In fact, twenty-percent fewer parts are said to be necessary for the assembly of the vehicle. So far, no real details on what will power the vehicle are available.

We do know that Caparo, makers of the extremely impressive T1 supercar, are heavily involved in the project. This leads us to believe that some major use of composites is in order as carbon fiber is a specialty of Caparo. Murray has no plans to actually produce the vehicle; instead he will sell the plans to other automakers for them to offer to the public. Interestingly, Murray also claims that shipping expenses will also be reduced as the vehicle can be flat packed Ikea-style.

[Source: Autocar]

Sometimes it's just way too fun to be green. Or at least on the road to green. Or, um, greener. Hmm. Sometimes it's just fun to go from zero to 100 mph in five seconds.

We're talking about the Caparo T1, the "soon-to-be world's fastest accelerating," as BusinessWeek is calling it. The car broke cover just as it enters the final stages of testing and development. BW says it's a two-seater, but that picture doesn't make it look like the passenger is going to have a lot of maneuver room.

So, what was that about on the road to green? The Caparo T1, with a 3.5-litre Caparo V8, has been designed to be ultra lightweight (only 500 kg) as well as high-performance. This is where the green comes in.

Angad Paul chief executive of the Caparo Group, told BusinessWeek that, "Ultimately, our goal is to help carmakers to create a new generation of more fuel-efficient and lightweight family cars with significantly lower CO 2 emissions more in keeping with the needs of the 21 st century."

The Caparo T1 will officially debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that runs from June 22-24. Customer delivery of the Caparo T1 starts in July for a cool £190,000 (about $380,000 US, or almost four Tesla Roadsters). I guess in this century we're going to need boatloads of cash.

[Source: Business Week]