[Year's_End]

*For those that don't want to read the whole article, it's basically a reworked, upgraded Z06...with a crazy new body shell.

From Corvette Z06 to Flying Italian

Earth's economy in tatters? Every house on your block suddenly inhabited by a family that just found themselves among the ultra-chic class of nouveaux squatters? For the legendary Spada design family of Turin, Italy, the timing couldn't be more perfect for the extraordinary 2009 SVS Codatronca TS.

The SVS Codatronca TS was first shown publicly at this past spring's snob-o-rific Top Marques Monaco, where it received the award as "Most Beautiful Car." Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and even Spada the Younger (Paolo, the eldest son) tells us, "Our customers are not followers. It's a trendsetter car for original and intelligent people who get tired of the sameness of most sports cars. You either love it irrationally, or you don't."

So down Via Novara in a nondescript industrial section of Turin rumbled the decidedly descript 2009 SVS Codatronca TS. We were told that we are the first to drive it for a real, daylong road test. Hard to believe we'll ever be quite the same.

Mornin', Swarthy
Just look at the Anthracite Gray beast with equally dark 19-inch wheels and black-walled Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires. It took all day to pin down just what we felt for it. Admittedly it's easy to be a bit cynical regarding the SVS Codatronca TS; we can imagine that the car looks nuts to most people. But such a creation is never meant for most of us.

Ercole and Paolo Spada greeted us practically as family. Ercole Spada has been responsible in his lifetime for (among many other things) some of the most highly regarded production-based Alfa Romeo racing cars of the 1960s, including the 1961 Giulietta SZ coda tronca, 1963 Giulia TZ and 1965 Giulia TZ2.

Coda tronca translates to "short tail," an interpretation of the truncated bodywork promoted by scientist Wunibald Kamm to reduce aerodynamic drag. It became very popular during the 1960s and it has obsessed the Spada family for all these years. This latest, handmade Turin special cranks up that style to a fever pitch with a tail that recalls the Alfa Romeo BAT cars of the 1950s and the shapes that Spada drew for the Alfa Romeo TZ and TZ2, some of the most successful racing sports cars of the 1960s.

SVS (which stands for Spada Vetture Sport) says it hopes to sell 20 units of this car at a base price of $400,000. Three have been sold so far.

Aggression, Inc.
The entire shell of the Codatronca TS is made of fiberglass composites, so when we open the driver-side door expecting a little heft, we nearly rip the thing from its hinges. Forgiven our meat-fisted touch, we carry on by plopping down into a competition bucket seat that is perhaps overly competitive. We're skinny and not so wide of hip, but even so, this one-piece throne has been sized for a horse jockey and it pinches. The Sparco racing seat is also inclined rather forward to force us into a closer relationship with the small-diameter steering wheel.

The message is clear: We are here to race for glory.

A squint toward the dashboard reveals several familiar features of a car we've driven several times before. The steering column switchgear and start-stop button to the right are kit from the latest Chevrolet Corvette C6, and this helps us comprehend the liberal use of fragrant fiberglass for the Codatronca TS's bodywork. The central instrument display is in a digital format that's hard to read, but it has a 40-channel telemetry system for your track shenanigans and an 80GB memory recording the data.

This all makes sense, as the Codatronca TS harnesses the services of both the Chevrolet Corvette Z06's tubular chassis and its village-pillaging 7.0-liter V8 engine. "This helps us with U.S. homologation," Paolo Spada reminds us.

The difference here is that instead of the standard Z06's 505 horsepower, this version of the LS7 engine is pumping out 621 hp thanks to the Italian tuning all-stars at Italtecnica as well as input from Katech Engines in Michigan. Instead of 470 pound-feet of torque to launch a Z06, we get a bit more caffeine with 493 lb-ft in the Codatronca TS. And as this car weighs 200 pounds less than the Z06, the Codatronca TS is a catapult.

Into the Danger Zone
The thing is just plain thunderous. While the exhaust system is straight from the plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where the Z06 is made, the hand-crafted aluminum exhaust tips enhance the exhaust thunder to some great effect as we race over the remote foothills northwest of Turin.

Inside the two-seat cabin, the natural effect of a full fiberglass body with diminished sound insulation and polycarbonate windows creates a booming bass resonance in the cabin throughout the rev range all the way up to 7,000 rpm. The shift gate for the six-speed manual transmission and the stubby, milled-aluminum shift lever offer very short and precise-as-surgery gearshifts, and we enjoy the result much more than the action of the standard Z06 transmission. Both 5th and 6th gears are shorter than those of the Z06's gearbox, so there will be no sleepy cruising on featureless interstates.

Swooping across hill and dale at higher altitudes where the roads are free of traffic, the SVS Codatronca TS and driver form a winning bond. The suspension is an adjustable, competition-derived setup at this point, and fore and aft antiroll bars are four-way-adjustable. The monster F1-inspired front aero splitter between the front intakes sucks this high-speed, rear-wheel-drive supercar to the pavement.

SVS plans a four-way-adjustable suspension system, but for now this prototype features only two non-functioning stylized rheostat knobs on the console, each bearing the letters R, S, M and H (for Rain, Soft, Medium and Hard). What's more interesting is that one knob calibrates the turning for the front wheels and the other the rear wheels, an ingenious idea.

Did we reach the 214-mph top speed? No, but we did find a solid 170 mph on a remote autostrada. SVS quotes acceleration from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 3.4 seconds versus the civilian Z06's 3.9-second performance, and we believe this number if the seat of our pants is any judge. You can just imagine our relief, then, when we touched the brakes and realized they'd been suitably upgraded with squealing carbon-ceramic rotors and eight-piston front calipers from Brembo.

Stop Staring
Everyone stares at the 2009 SVS Codatronca TS, which counts not a little. We caused traffic jams in normally sleepy towns — towns that see these Turin-built prototypes pass through regularly. Ercole Spada says, "This is a car that can be raced to win at the weekend and then be driven easily to work every day of the week." Well, maybe we need to think about that "easily" part.

Fortuitously, if 621 hp is not enough, you can order the 690-hp supercharged Codatronca TSS. And both trims come with the I'm-an-F1-pilot micro antenna on the roof. Can't put a price on that.

As an added incentive, each SVS Codatronca TS comes with a fetching custom three-piece set of Italian luggage by Aznom, a maker of luxury leather goods. Like SVS itself, the Aznom workshops are located right near the grand prix circuit of Monza, so this should certainly sprinkle some added magic dust on the whole deal.

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[Year's_End]

I can't help but think of the Reventon when I see this. It's like a Reventon/Z06/Stingray hybrid.

[ZStig]

ugly

[jhv]

looks like the reventons inbred cousin got kicked in the face once or twice... or 50 times

[Year's_End]

I think the headlights are what make the front look so screwed up.^

[Boost Gomez]

Is this a joke? This car looks like garbage. It's seriously one of the worst I've seen in a while.

[garyhgaryh]

That's one ugly car.

[Amir87]

I like it. Reminds of me of one crazy stingray.

[gonzo]

At least it reminds me of something seasonal.

[ArmyBimmerDude]

The ugliest car I've ever seen. Seriously.

[josephr25]

Looks like a hearse.

Edit: Batman's hearse.

[Deda]

looks like hybrid of reventon and de lorean¨!

[Deda]

i dont like it.

[Crimson92]

umm...cool?

[BMW F22]

Originally Posted by gonzo

At least it reminds me of something seasonal.

[choopy]

Looks like Austin Powers "Fazia's" car

[Deda]

lol!

[montreal red]

reventon copy cat... the back end is really weird...

[RenaultOne]

i like the front but absolutely hate the rear, i mean the rear looks like it got its ass kicked in 39834905 times.

[BoostedCosta]

batmobile?