TURIN, ITALY – After three months of tests and trials Spadaconcept – the Italian design studio founded by Paolo Spada (former designer at Smart and Honda) together with his father Ercole, (former chief designer at Zagato and BMW), Domiziano Boschi (former Mc Kinsey) and Wojtek Sokolowski – has launched the production of its supercar, the Spada TS Codatronca. With this car Spadaconcept cherishes and revives the important heritage of Ercole Spada and the philosophy which characterized each of his creations. The company’s vision is centered on “functional design”, which, according to Ercole Spada, means to express the functionality of an object through its shape. Following this vision Spadaconcept came up with a genuinely breaking product, something bold an daring. Far from creating a show car where anything is allowed, Spadaconcept has worked creatively but within strict feasibility constraints, in order to reach the quality standards of a niche, handcrafted production. The performance of this car is maximized by introducing aerodynamic lines such to mould a light and essential body. The result is an extremely stable and manageable car, able to achieve good racing performances by exploiting at the best the power of its engine, with an original and nimble shape and essential but elegant interiors.
The first version, named TS (Turismo Sportivo), is a car with a naturally aspirated engine with more than 600 HP with race performances. Despite the focus at Spadaconcept wasn’t on “pure” power but rather on aerodynamics, lightness and handling, this car can still reach more than 340 km/h due to a short ratio gearbox and complies with the FIA GT1 regulations. Care for environmental issues has resulted in SpadaVettureSport’s decision to add to the menu an ad-hoc “converter kit” which allows fueling the car with E85 green fuel, with a slight increase in torque and power.
With this new sport car Spadaconcept aims at reviving the philosophy that inspired Ercole Spada’s past models, in an attempt to combine aesthetics with functionality and racing performances. This new model is the latest evolutionary step of the truncated tail – “coda tronca” in Italian. The typical and aerodynamic shape which Spada had introduced with the Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ, TZ1 and TZ2 in the 60’s – gives this new car unique and nimble lines which bring in lightness and aerodynamics improving performances.
TS Codatronca, will be produced and commercialized by SpadaVettureSport – a company created and controlled by Spadaconcept – in collaboration with a team of selected technical, industrial and commercial partners. SpadaVettureSport has aggregated highest level knowledge and expertise around this project by establishing strategic alliances mainly with small firms located in the district of Turin with great past histories and amazing skills. These partners have great tradition and specialization and allow SpadaVettureSport to combine the “best of breed” in technology with the tradition and “saper fare” – i.e. the Italian for know how – of Italian small firms. The industrial partner FS Group (a firm based near Turin, who has already realized prototypes for Mercedes, Smart, Range Rover) will realize the body, using material supplied by Elantas Camattini, and PPG. The partner Italtecnica (a small firm located in Cambiano, near Turin, already involved in the tuning of Paris-Dakar and Le mans cars for Peugeot) will work on braking system, suspensions and engine upgrade, Sparco – the manufacturer of tuning products based in Turin– will supply seats and other interior items, Pirelli and OZ Racing will provide respectively tyres and wheels, while Alcantara S.p.A., the italian company that produces the omonymous and unique material, has selected a tailored Alcantara® for the interiors. AIM-sportline will give the board-instrumentation, that thanks to the great expierence in the racing world, will even permit the storage of more than 80 hours of telemetry datas. Meccaniche Veloci will supply the dedicated on-board watch named “QuattroValvole”.
For the launch of this supercar SpadaVettureSport has signed a co-branding and co-marketing agreement with AZNOM, a small company based in Monza operating in the production of accessories and luxury items, who will realize and commercialize a line of amenities with the Codatronca brand. The agreement signed by SpadaVettureSport and AZNOM has a long term perspective and involves joint efforts to approach the market.
The Codatronca TS version will be presented in world première the next 24th april in Montecarlo. According to SpadaVettureSport the TS version is a first step which will be shortly followed by others upcoming. The more powerful TSS version – Turismo Super Sportivo – which is already under test at SpadaVettureSport, will be launched at the end of 2008. In order to realize this unique car Spadaconcept and padaVettureSport have put in place a manufacturing system such as to meet the quality standards typical of niche, handcrafted production.
In the present of Spadaconcept there is a strong focus on the core business – consulting and design of niche cars, motorbikes and accessories like helmets, seats, etc. – but looking to the future, the company has started to explore new fields, especially bio-ethanol powered cars and it is currently working in the development of an Environmental Friendly Vehicle (EFV).
