Leave it to a Formula One race car engineer to create a car that's so cleverly designed it delivers 74 miles per gallon in a package that costs a mere $9,000. Barely big enough for one person, the T.25 is manufactured with a highly efficient process called iStream, lowering costs and simplifying repairs.

How small is it? Formula One designer Gordon Murray's tiny car weighs a mere 1,200 pounds. It has a customizable interior with enough room for two (small) people to squeeze in behind the driver, who sits front and center. Murray is also designing the T.27, an electric version with a 100-mile range, but it will be a bit more expensive at $18,000.

The cars are built using an efficient process that first attaches most of the car's parts to the chassis, and then adds a pre-painted body as a last step, similar to the way Formula One vehicles are built.

Look at the gallery below, and you'll see that the car is so tiny that three of them can fit into a single parallel parking space. If all cars were this size, we'd live in a utopian energy-saving world. But I'd hate to be riding inside one of these things and get hit by an SUV. Ouch.

The T.25 will be available within two years.

Via Daily Tech