Spanish supercar brand which will offer its V10 and V12-powered cars in this country for a starting price of around £300,000
Spanish supercar brand AD Tramontana has officially launched in the UK at the Salon Privé event at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.
Although it's road legal, the Tramontana is pitched as a track-focussed special. It will be powered by a choice of two engines in Europe, with the entry-level Tramontana R featuring either a Mercedes-sourced twin-turbocharged 5.5-litre V12 with up to 710bhp or an Audi-sourced naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 with 592bhp, depending on specification.
The V12 powerplant also features two power modes, allowing drivers to select between 542bhp and 710bhp outputs. A top speed of 186mph is promised, along with a 0-62mph sprint time of less than 3.6sec.
The mid-range Tramontana XTR also features the V12 engine and is geared more towards pure track performance. In this form, the Tramontana has a top speed of more than 202mph and can reach 62mph in less than 3.3sec, the company claims. The XTR is the model Tramontana will be pushing in the UK.
The top-level XTR-GT gets another power boost, taking the V12 engine's output to 838bhp.
Power is sent to the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential transmission, although the company says it plans to offer an eight-speed sequential option in the near future. Based around an Italian-made lightweight carbonfibre tub, all three Tramontana models have a dry weight of 1350kg. Each car is built to customer specifications, even down to paint specifications and interior layouts.
The company has so far sold seven cars in the last three years, and plans to sell three models in the UK during its first year on sale. Tramontana's factory in Barcelona has the capacity to build twelve cars annually.
Tramontana officials admit the car’s styling will divide opinions, but they say it’s designed to be driven to the track and back again. Its two-seat cabin features a tandem seating layout, with the passenger seated directly behind the driver. The leather and carbonfibre-trimmed cabin features a digital dashboard display.
Rivals for the Tramontana are few, but officials admit the £125,000 BAC Mono is likely to be its closest competition. The Mono is powered by a 2.5-litre four-cylinder Mountune engine producing 305bhp and weighs just 580kg.
All cars - including those destined to come to the UK - are built at the firm’s factory north of Barcelona by a team made up mainly of former Formula 1 engineers. The average order takes between six and eight months to complete.
Prices for the Tramontana start at €350,000 plus local taxes, meaning customers in the UK can expect to pay around £300,000 for the Tramontana R. The XTR versions, meanwhile, cost from around £430,000. Although sales in the UK are described as a priority for the company, Tramontana already sells cars in Europe, the US and the Middle East.
Speaking at the car's launch, Tramontana’s head of UK development, Shami Kalra, said: “It’s a Marmite car; you’ll either love it or you don’t. When you see it, you’ll be blown away. The cars will go to people who are complete petrolheads.
"Many of the supercars which are around the £1 million mark aren’t achievable for most people, whereas our cars at this price are. There’s nothing that’s so extreme for this price.”
The company's business consultant and test driver is former F1 driver Dani Clos. Speaking at Salon Privé, he said: "This is for someone who is bored of having regular cars. You get into one of those cars and they're fast and fun, but it's always the same. We wanted to bring the technology and sensation of a Formula 1 car to the road, but without using the drivability."
The company also has plans for an even more hardcore Tramontana model in the future. A new racing variant of the XTR is planned that will use the existing Mercedes V12 engine for power, but will have its output tuned to around 986bhp - matching the output of McLaren’s P1 GTR. Tramontana says development of the new car is dependent on how sales of its current range progress in the coming years.
The company has also confirmed it is experimenting with hybrid and fully electric powertrains. "It's something that we are working on, we have to. The market demands it," said Clos.
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