Bartek S.
Aerodynamic Ace
First Drive: 2009 SVS Codatronca TS
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.
edmunds
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.
edmunds
