Want Your Own Formula 1 Car? Here's TDF-1, Built to Be User-Friendly

From Car and Driver

• Tour-de-Force Power Engineering, or TDF, is offering a car with a 2011 Marussia or 2012 Sauber Formula 1 chassis and a 600-hp turbo 1.7-liter engine.

• TDF claims its TDF-1 offers "95 percent of the performance of an F1 car."

• Cheaper to run: 1860 miles between services—versus about 20 miles for a real Formula 1 race car. But the price is nearly $2 million.

With a growing number of circuit-only versions of hypercars on the market, it is becoming increasingly hard for even those with the deepest pockets to have the quickest car at a high-end track day. Here is a potential answer to that problem: the chance to buy your own Formula 1 car.

Well, almost. The TDF-1 uses the carbon-fiber structure of a real F1 car, either a 2011 Marussia or a 2012 Sauber, but has been given a heart transplant in the form of a turbocharged 1.7-liter four-cylinder engine capable of delivering a claimed 600 horsepower at 9000 rpm. This powerplant was chosen for its much greater durability than the 2.4-liter V-6 engines the cars were fitted with originally.

Produced by U.K.-based TDF, the TDF-1 is claimed to offer 95 percent of the performance of an equivalent Formula 1 car, but with a much lower cost of ownership. The engine has a starter motor, so it can be started from inside the car. In contrast, real F1 cars use external starters and need to have oil and coolant prewarmed before they fire up.

TDF says the four-cylinder engine will go 1864 miles between services; even under more stringent durability regulations, modern F1 engines typically live for less than 20 hours before total rebuilds.