Auto Design

It might appear to be ironic, and perhaps it is. At the time when American giant General Motors is on the verge of bankruptcy and of embracing the Chapter 11 procedure in effort to be born again from its ashes, it hyper performance sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 is becoming the most popular platform for bespoke and very unique Supercars.

The reason for this is very simple. The Corvette ZR 1 comes with an excellent performance package (powertrain, suspensions, braking, steering and everything else it take for the job) and a bearing chassis that make it simple to change the bodywork without touching at anything else (unless the design is looking for troubles and decide to go beyond the limits of good, practical sense). Last but not least, Chevrolet does not make it so difficult to use its jewel as a starting project for a new project “not invented here”, as Ferrari and other carmakers tend to do.

This is why it was selected by Spada Vetture Sport for their Codatronca, by South African car maker Perana for their new Perana Z-One design by Zagato and eventually by Stile Bertone for their Mantide.

At this point it might be interesting to take a good look to the design and the making of the SVS Codatronca by Ercole and Paolo Spada. This spectacular supercar – built on the chassis – and with the powertrain – of one of the most powerful Chevrolet Corvette might well serve as a benchmark for the evaluation of the Ultimate  Supercar promised by Jason Castriota and soon to be unveiled at the Shanghai Motor Show, in mock-up form, and as a running prototype at the Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa D’Este, few days later.

The two cars share their mission and have the same ambitions: attract car collectors with a passion for high performance speed and clear cut, very distinctive design.

The SVS Codatronca TS comes with a Chevrolet Corvette ZR 1 V8 engine tuned up to deliver 630 HP at 7000 rpm and 668 Nm of torque at 4800 rpm. This is said to be good enough for acceleration time of just 3.4 second from 0 to 100 kph and a top speed of 340 kph in 6^th gear, at 7000 rpm. Unlike the Stile Bertone supercar, which claim even better performance and aims at setting a new record at the Nuerburgring, the SVS Codatronca has been designed and tuned to enhance “the pleasure of driving instead of speed record, in the perfect style of the gentleman driver.”

The other remarkable difference between the two is that whereas Stile Bertone and Jason Castriota made extensive use of carbon fibre for their bodywork, the Spada (Father & Son) elected the traditional aluminium body panels technique for the construction of their Codatronca.

Two additional bits of information: the SVS Codatronca selling price starts at € 260,000 and the first unit was sold to a Japan car enthusiast.

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