After spending almost two weeks in Germany, the Full Throttle team has begun its whirlwind tour of the remaining European countries, starting with a rather uncomfortable and cold night in our rented Passat chase car.
The day began with a 6.30am flight to Spain preceded by a seven hour drive from Novitec headquarters – with the team running on empty, only the promise of a one-of-a-kind supercar was enough to keep our eyelids open.
With a few Nitros under our belts we were ready to encounter our first and only Spanish supercar for the trip – the GTA Spano – with our hosts rolling out the red carpet for our most incredible shoot yet.
From the outside, the unassuming GTA factory blended in seamlessly with the surrounding industrial estates, although peeking through the partially opened roller door was easily the best looking supercar of the trip.
Its owners had arranged a closed track session on the nearby Valencia MotoGP race circuit, arriving with a full race-ready mobile garage and team of engineers.
As it turns out, CarAdvice had been graced with the privilege of being the first media outlet in the world to capture the GTA Spano on video – needless to say we were flattered.
We wasted no time in taking to the track, exploiting the challenging twists and turns for our cameras with strict instructions that only particular footage was to be released prior to the production version’s official launch date.
The prototype was not without its technical faults, but as a feat of passionate engineering it was inspiring.
Watching this Viper-powered prototype spit flames in pit lane was simply epic, the Spaniards had definitely found their niche by marrying contemporary Spanish styling with brutish American muscle.
The Spano has 627kW (840bhp) and 920Nm, although we were told a supercharged version is on its way.
With a top speed of 350km/h and an expected 0-100km/h time of 2.9 seconds, you are going to be hearing a lot more from GTA in the future.
Our day in Spain ended as quickly as it began, with our Full Throttle crew soldiering on with only minutes of infrequent sleep.
Next up we head to Italy for one of our most highly anticipated Full Throttle features – two of Lamborghini’s newest models in their home town of Bologna.
