The Capricorn 01 Zagato rejects downforce and hybrid for analogue delights

You probably haven’t heard of the Capricorn Group. But this quiet, modest German engineering company has contributed to some cars you have heard lots about. The Bugatti Veyron, Chiron, Mistral and Bolide. The McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder. The Porsche 911 GT3 RS’s active wing? The innards of Audi’s much-missed R8? All covered in Capricorn’s fingerprints.

And now, it’s decided it’s fed up with doing everyone else’s hypercar homework. So it’s built its own. And because Capricorn’s boss is a close personal friend of the Zagato family, you can guess which famed Italian styling house is behind the carbon bodywork.

We’re seeing hints of Ford GT, some Koenigsegg in the windscreen and slender pillars, while there are hints of 1960s endurance racers in the rear haunches. The lumpy-bumpy double-bubble roof is a classic Zagato hallmark, though this is the first time the 106-year old company has ever turned its pen to a hypercar.

Under the carbon it’s, um, all carbon. The central tub and front and rear subframes are all motorsport spec carbon weave. Capricorn calls it a ‘spine’ and says its experience with the material means it can achieve light weight and clever packaging. So there’s a 110-litre boot up front (a shade smaller than a Porsche 911’s luggage pit) but the car’s dry weight is around 1,200kg. Less if you spec the carbon wheels. Ceramic brakes are standard.

Nestled among gold heat shielding under a gloriously glassy viewing gallery out back, you’ll find a Ford V8. Well, it was once. Capricorn has gone to town on it, boring it out to 5.2 litres, stuffing it with a forged crank, rods and pistons, writing its own ECU, and then bolting on a supercharger.

It promises over 900 horsepower, 1,000Nm of torque (737lb ft) and a mighty 224mph top speed. 0-62mph should happen in under three seconds, but that depends on two things. Your sympathy for the rear tyres, and how quickly you’re able to shift gears…

Because yes, it’s a manual. Not just any manual, either. A five-speed, open-gated manual with a dog-leg first. That deliberately old-school choice is matched with analogue dials, toggle switches and no infotainment system at all. Nothing that ages or dates badly is allowed in the Capricorn. So, no hybrid system, no touchscreen. There are modes (Comfort, Sport and Track), but you select those using traditional knobs on the steering wheel.

So think of this car like a half-German, half-Italian GMA T.50. It’s a love letter to purist driving and low weight. It sticks two fingers up at lap times and top speed. There isn’t even any active aero.

Capricorn and Zagato set out their manifesto with some punchy quotes about the 01. Zagato says its design “does not need to rely upon a visually ostentatious aero package with large wings to generate downforce". Apparently its objective was “to achieve a constant and predictable downforce distribution for stability, not an ultra-high-downforce number with a narrow operating window that would make the hypercar nervous".

And when it comes to the hypercar arms race, Capricorn – which builds half of them, don’t forget – reckons it’s all got a bit silly.

“We had no wish to become involved in the current market trend for extremely high horsepower outputs,” is the battle cry. “They are inevitably coupled with high weight due to the electronic components required to enable the driver to handle such extreme power levels.”

Oh, you thought they were finished trash-talking the competition? Nope. Strap in.

“It is not about chasing ever-escalating extreme horsepower numbers or bragging rights.”

So, that’s half the Capricorn customer base off the Christmas card list then. But perhaps the company’s future isn’t in nerdy component manufacture any more. It’s thinking… bigger.

The company says “while the Capricorn 01 Zagato coupe is limited to 19 units, the company is capable of handling future projects in batches of 100 to 200 cars per year".

This is what is known in the trade as a ‘come and get me’ plea. An open invitation for anyone with the idea (and budget) for a hypercar to consider Capricorn as a partner to get it from imagination to reality – like HWA, or Manifattura Automobili Torino. In the meantime, it’ll charge around £2.5 million per 01 Zagato it constructs. Plus taxes.

So, if you’ve got a supercar sketch you’d like to make a reality, you know who to call. Just as long as it’s not crazy for power, downforce, top speed, or lap times. Capricorn prefers things a little more analogue and old-school.