SpadaVettureSport is set to unveil a "roadster" version
of its Codatronca sports car at Top Marques Monaco
next month, which will continue the company's pursuit of
lighter weight coupled to impressive power and the
exhilaration of track driving.
The new sports car
will be called the "Codatronca Monza", although SpadaVettureSport is
giving no information away so far except to say it will
be "much faster and lighter [and is] is dedicated to the
purism of driving on the track." Its fixed-roof sister,
the Codatronca TS weighs in at 1360 kg and boasts 630
HP; with its use of an aluminium tubular chassis
improving both figures for the roadster version is a
strong likelihood.
Very little
has been heard from SpadaVettureSport since
it debuted the fixed-roof
Codatronca TS at Top Marques Monaco almost
exactly three years ago, a year after previewing the
project. The company did however present the Codatronca
at the Qatar Motor Show in January as part of a
collective display organised by ANFIA which
involved a number of specialist Italian niche automotive
design and engineering companies including Pininfarina,
Salt, Autostudi, Fioravanti, Touring Superleggera and
Bertone.
Based on the
Corvette's underpinnings the Codatronca distinctive
lines came from the pencils of Ercole and Paolo Spada,
the guidelines of the project being: aerodynamics,
lightness, and pleasure of driving. The Codatronca TS
used the Corvette's aluminium V8 engine fitted with a
dry sump and it has maximum power of 630 HP at 6,500 rpm
and peak torque of 668 Nm at 4,800 rpm. The power is
transmitted to the ground through the rear wheels thanks
to a 6-speed close ratio transmission with a specific
range which in the 6th gear reaches the limit of 7,000
rpm to push the Codatronca to 340 km/h with an
acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h of 3.4 seconds.
The
designers focused on the imbuing the pleasure of
driving, rather than pitching for speed records, in the
style of the gentleman driver. To support that aspect of
performance, the Codatronca is fitted with a traction
control system that comes on in three levels, while to
record the car’s data, the sports car has on-board
equipment that can record 80 hours of telemetry on the
track with 40 active channels (steering angle, G-meter
longitudinal and lateral, individual speed for each tyre,
a lap timer and GPS tracking system for track
trajectories).
The chassis
of the Codatronca comprises of a very light and stiff
aluminium tubular framework with a roll cage combined to
offer maximum protection when the sports car is driven
on the track. The bodywork is made of a light and
resistant fibre that covers the chassis and the
mechanical parts. In the single impression of the
forthcoming Codatronca Monza the fixed roofed car's
distinctive glass-paneled engine cover as well as the
cockpit roof and door window frames have all been
dispensed with; instead there is a very small front
windshield to deflect airflow and a lower positioned
engine cover with two raised sections that span
rearwards from the roll hoops. It is unclear whether the
opening doors have been retained.
The
Codatronca's suspension is fully adjustable while the
front and rear anti-roll bars can be set up
independently with four settings: rain, soft, medium and
hard, with on-board regulation. The Codatronca has a length of 4659 mm, a width of 1942 mm and a height of
1235 mm, while the lightweight OZ wheels are shod with
Pirelli Pzero Corsa tyres, in size 285/35/19 at the
front and 345/35/19 at the back. The braking system is
by Brembo with racing 8-pot aluminium calipers at the
front with 380 mm discs and 4-pot caliper/355 mm discs
at the rear, governed by ABS.