With the economy in the tank and the auto industry on the ropes, you'd think a startup supercar company, especially one building a car that costs $663,000, would wait until things improved before unveiling their exotic machinery. But no. Not GTA Motors.
We aren't complaining.
The GTA Spano looks a lot like the Saleen S5S Raptor concept, and we'd flamenco the wheels off it. It has an 8.3 liter V-10 engine pulled from the Dodge Viper parts bin and supercharged to produce 780 horsepower. That's enough to push it from 0 to 62 mph in a claimed 2.9 seconds and a wind-tunnel tested top speed of 217 mph. Opt for the bioethanol-burning variant and you're looking at 840 ponies.
So how will the Spano do against the likes of Ferrari, Lamborghini and the rest of the exotic set? Pretty well, we'd guess, given that GTA Motors has more than 15 years of experience in F3 competition and several International GT and Superleague Formula championships.
"We decided to start building the Spano, five years ago," spokesman Victor Fuster told Wired.com. "GTA has a lot of experience in motorsports, and its founder, Domingo Ochoa, has worked in the automobile industry for 30 years. He thought that with all his team members, he could build a car such as the Spano and decided to start the project."
The Spano's bodywork and the liquid-crystal panoramic glass roof were designed by Sento Pallardo. There's loads of carbon fiber, titanium and Kevlar involved, and the chassis is so trick that GTA reportedly received at least five patents on it. The engine produces 678 pound-feet of torque. All that power flows to the wheels through a seven-speed sequential gearbox.
GTA has already received 15 orders for the Spano. Just 99 will be built, and the first car is slated for delivery in China.
Why 99?
"Because Spano is an exclusive product," Fuster said. "And the best way to achieve this is to keep production under 100 units."
There you have it.
Photos: GTA Motors.
