The SVS Codatronca TS is a car unlike any other. Actually it’s a supercar unlike any other. A hellish vision of challenging beauty and equally challenging power, it’s the work of two of Italy’s most-loved car designers.

Ercole and Paolo Spada, father and son, greet me as only the Italians know how - practically as family - when I arrive at their workshop in a nondescript part of Turin. Ercole Spada has been responsible for some of the most highly regarded Alfa Romeo racing cars: the 1961 Giulietta SZ Coda Tronca, 1963 Giulia TZ and 1965 Giulia TZ2.

Their latest creation is a car that owes more than a passing nod to a stealth fighter and is powered by a mighty Chevrolet Corvette engine. The pair inform me I am the first journalist to test-drive their baby, which does few favours for the nerves. You see, it’s not that it’s capable of 214mph, costs £235,000 and is destined for just 20 buyers. Oh no. It’s the fact that the SVS Codatronca TS looks, well, terrifying.

The full name of this Jabberwock is Spadaconcept Spada Vetture Sport Codatronca Turismo Sportivo, but few of us have the lung capacity to say that. Coda tronca translates as “short tail” and is a style of aerodynamic extravagance that has obsessed the Spada family for decades. This latest handmade Turin special was first shown at the playground for playboys, the Top Marques Monaco show, in April. Since then the Spadas’ workshop has been abuzz with the sound of its assembly.

The shell of the creation is made from fibreglass composites. On opening the driver’s door and dropping down into the competition bucket seat, the cabin is best described as cosy. The one-piece Sparco throne has been sized for a jockey and is inclined forward, forcing you into a closer than usual relationship with the small steering wheel. The message is clear: you are here to race for glory.

A squint at the dashboard reveals familiar features. The steering column switchgear and start-stop button to the right are from the latest Chevrolet Corvette. The Codatronca also comes with a full data-logging system for analysing your hot laps. Under the bonnet is the Corvette Z06’s 7 litre V8 engine.

The difference here is that instead of the standard Z06’s 505bhp, this retuned version pumps out 621bhp and can run on E85 bioethanol green fuel. As the car weighs 1,360kg - just under 90kg less than the Z06 - the Codatronca TS accelerates like a fighter jet fired from the deck of a warship by steam catapult.

It’s also as loud as thunder. While the exhaust system is straight from the Kentucky plant that makes the Z06, handcrafted aluminium exhaust tips enhance the soundtrack to a Pavarotti bellow, which announces the car’s presence for miles around in the foothills northwest of Turin. Inside the two-seat cabin, the natural shell effect of a full fibreglass body with diminished sound insulation creates a booming bass resonance throughout the rev range up to the 7000rpm rev limit. The six-speed manual shift gate and stubby milled aluminium shifter offer short, precise-as-surgery gearchanges.

Swooping through the Italian countryside, the Codatronca and I form a winning bond. A planned adaptive suspension system could help make this the best road-going Corvette chassis I’ve ever played with. For now, on this prototype, there are two nonfunctioning stylised knobs on the console, each bearing the letters R, S, M and H - for rain, soft, medium and hard. One knob calibrates the front axle’s antiroll bar and the other the rear’s - an ingenious idea by a wee company.

Did I reach the claimed 214mph top speed? No, but I did hit a solid 170mph on a remote stretch of autostrada. SVS quotes acceleration from 0-62mph in just 3.4sec (versus the Z06’s 3.9sec) and - judging by nothing more scientific than the seat of my pants - I believe it. You can imagine my relief, then, when I called on the services of the Brembo brakes and found that they’d been suitably upgraded from the Vette’s.

As a nice finishing touch, each car comes with a fetching custom-made, three-piece set of Italian luggage by Aznom, the luxury leather goods house.

Fortunately the Codatronca TS can be built to right-hand drive specification. And should 621bhp not be sufficient to satisfy your cravings, there’s a 690bhp Codatronca TSS in the pipeline. So what are you waiting for? If nothing else it will cause a stir in the golf club car park. Everyone stares at the car, and in Italy, cradle of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other extravagant automotive creations, that’s high praise indeed. It causes traffic jams in normally sleepy towns and at filling stations; pump attendants and mechanics come out to whistle in admiration.

Spada Sr tells me: “This is a car that can be raced to win at the weekend and then be driven easily to work every day of the week.” Spada Jr adds: “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.” I love it.

Hot Wheels specs
ENGINE 7000cc, eight cylinders
POWER 621bhp @ 6500rpm
TORQUE 493 lb ft @ 4800rpm
TRANSMISSION Six-speed manual
FUEL/CO2 19mpg / 350g/km
ACCELERATION 0-62mph: 3.4sec
TOP SPEED 214mph
PRICE £235,000
ROAD TAX BAND G (£400 a year)
VERDICT Fancy blowing people’s minds? Then buy this
RELEASE DATE Already being built to order

- The Codatronca is not just mean but green too, sort of. The maker, Spada Vetture Sport, offers an option to run the engine on E85 bioethanol fuel It looks wild, and it drives wild. Beneath the fibreglass skin is a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 engine, supercharged to produce 621bhp and propel the Codatronca to 214mph

A data-logging system is included, allowing drivers to analyse their steering and throttle inputs, individual wheel speeds, lateral g-readings and more

The tail may look impractical but it hides a 400 litre boot that comes with a custom-made set of luggage. Who needs an estate car?