Tucked down a farm track in the middle of nowhere, outside a small village somewhere near Bath, a minor miracle some three years in the making has been performed. There, in almost total secrecy, a new British sports car has been conceived, designed, engineered and built. It’s called the Farbio GTS, and if you can get past its adult-film-industry name, it is a car of impressive potential.

It should be said that I have seen a number of brave new ventures like this over the years and hardly any make it into proper production. Creating a single functioning prototype before your money runs out is a fiendishly tricky task, but it is as easy as skidding on black ice compared with putting that car into profitable production.

There was a time when the public would put up with dodgy assembly, suspect quality and that frisson of excitement inherent in not knowing for certain whether such a car would get you to your destination, but, as companies as large as the now defunct TVR have found out to their cost, that was a long time ago.

The truth is, you can’t get away with being quaint, different and charming any more unless the car you’re selling is also fundamentally sound and fit for purpose.

There are good reasons to believe the Farbio is going to be different. For a start, although what you’re looking at is the only functioning Farbio in the world, it looks and feels largely like a production car, not some dog-eared prototype held together by hope and Araldite.

Systems such as air-conditioning, sat nav, central locking and electric windows are installed and work perfectly. It is such apparently minor but in fact critical considerations that so often provide the fatal flaw in cars such as this.

Second, it looks wonderful. Its shape is clean, entirely lacking in gimmickry, perfectly proportioned and works from every angle. It looks to me like the kind of supercar Lotus may one day build as a replacement for the Esprit, and that is high praise indeed.

Next, the body is not made from fibreglass, as you’d expect, nor is it steel or even aluminium: it’s entirely carbon fibre, which is more than can be said for any Porsche or Ferrari in production.

The reason is that while carbon fibre is unrivalled as a car construction material for its blend of strength and lightness, it is also expensive, which is why it tends to be used only either in small quantities (as in the roof of the new BMW M3) or to build ultra-expensive cars, such as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, costing more than 300 grand. Yet prices for the Farbio will begin at less than £60,000.

But the real reason I think the Farbio may be here to stay is that just 50 need to be made and sold each year for the company to be profitable, and, despite a singular lack of publicity, it has firm orders for 60 and commitments from around the world for about 200 before sales start in North America in 2009, where a further 400 are said to be wanted.

Furthermore, Farbio is protected to a substantial extent against major parts suppliers losing interest because its dozen staff build the carbon bodies, assemble the spaceframe chassis and even paint the car on site themselves.

Naturally, the big mechanical components are bought in from elsewhere. Most notable is the engine, which is a Ford-designed 3 litre V6 more usually found under the bonnet of the most powerful of the previous generation of Mondeo but, in this application, is tuned to give 262bhp. That may not sound much until you consider the Farbio weighs just 2,310lb (1.05 tonnes), making it substantially lighter than a Ford Fiesta.

The fly in the ointment is that the car is still nothing like as fast as it looks. Chris Marsh, Farbio’s boss, says it will hit 60mph in 4.8sec, which makes it merely rapid rather than coronary-inducing, and it’s not enough to put clear air between it and the Porsche 911, which costs about the same.

Then again, for a further £11,700, you can buy a supercharged Farbio with 384bhp, which should be capable of sub-4sec sprints to 60mph and a top speed in excess of 175mph.

Frankly, the car needs the extra power. Marsh says he designed the chassis and braking systems to cope with a 500bhp engine because he knows that, while he intends it to be used as a road car, some customers will want to go racing with it. And when you drive it and feel how quick the steering is, how little the body rolls in the corners and the massive grip provided by its huge tyres, it’s clear the car has the potential to perform every bit as well on the track as it does on the road.

But perhaps the single most impressive aspect of the Farbio is not how exciting it is to drive, but how easy and civilised it is. There’s more legroom inside than even my 6ft 4in frame can use. You can see over your shoulder when pulling out at junctions – which is a deceptively difficult trait to engineer into a mid-engined car – the ride is supple and well damped and even at high speeds there’s never too much wind or road noise inside the cabin. It even has a decent boot.

What problems there are – no place to put your left foot when not using the clutch, overly sensitive brakes and a long, sticky action to the throttle pedal – are symptomatic of the fact that this car is still a prototype, and should be rectified for production versions.

It even has a cabin worthy of the asking price. There are no buttons to press: all functions are controlled via a clear and intuitive touchscreen display, and while elements such as the wiper and indicator stalks will doubtless have been sourced from the parts bin of some vast conglomerate, they’ve all been brilliantly disguised to look like bespoke fittings. Only the toggle for adjusting the electric mirrors looks familiar and Ford-derived.

There is no question that Marsh is launching the Farbio into a tough market: both TVR and Marcos have gone bust recently trying to sell cars similar in concept and price to this, despite having names that aroused loyalty in British sports cars fans. By contrast, hardly anyone has heard of Farbio and, to be honest, it’s not the most evocative of titles.

And I know no better than you whether it will work in the long term. Marsh seems to have the orders to support his bullish confidence and if he can carry over the admirable consistency and quality of the prototype into production cars, there is no reason customers should not feel pleased with their purchase. The fact is, with a bit more power and those few niggles ironed out, the car would be every bit as good as it looks, and from where I’m sitting that means it could be very good indeed.

True, at this kind of money, many customers want a badge on the front of their car that their friends and neighbours can recognise and covet. But equally there are those who want something original and different. That this car deserves to succeed is, to my mind, beyond doubt. Whether it will is a different matter.

Vital statistics

Model Farbio GTS

Engine type 2967cc, six cylinders

Power/Torque 262bhp @ 6500rpm / not known

Transmission Six-speed manual

Fuel/CO2 not known

Performance 0-60mph: 4.8sec / Top speed: 160mph (estimates)

Price £59,925

Verdict An exciting new supercar that deserves to succeed

Rating

Date of release To be confirmed, but soon

The opposition

Model Porsche Cayman S £44,250

For Possibly the best handling car on sale

Against Looks slightly odd, cramped cabin

Model BMW Z4M Coupé £32,100

For Wonderful engine, mad looks, exciting to drive

Against Small interior, difficult to see out of