Tramontana is a name of Latin origin for a northern wind – ‘across the mountains’. It is also rather fittingly the name of the Spanish sports car company that has produced the weirdly handsome XTR, which was displayed at this year’s SEMA in Las Vegas.
Tramontana builds short runs of boutique supercars designed primarily for the track. This one features more gold than we have been used to in recent years. Design trends peak and dive as the years pass, and while gold may have been seen as gaudy just a few years back, now it is not and the XTR takes that on board.
It may seem strange to start an article about a supercar by talking about the interior, but the gold leather seating is certainly as striking as the car’s exterior. Designed by Vilner, a Bulgarian car interiors company, the gold leather highlights on the black Alcantara echo the ostentatious – yet somehow subtle – exterior colouring of the XTR. That exterior colour is equally as strange – the car is actually wrapped in gold chrome and the matte black is then painted over this rather than the other way round. It means that the gold appears almost stamped into the car.
The XTR boasts 677lb ft torque and 876bhp hailing from a colour-coordinated 5.5 litre Mercedes built twin-turbo V12 engine. The engine is mid-mounted and has a 7-speed sequential gearbox powering the rear wheels. The car is a 2-seater with the seat layout rather like that of a jet fighter and with the cockpit canopy echoing that, it’s easy to see where some of the design inspiration has come from here. Though I’m not sure how much of a view the passenger gets in this setup.
The supercar is certainly lightweight tipping the scales at 2,900 pounds, thanks largely to copious amounts of carbon-fibre and due to this light weight, you can expect to get from 0-62mph in under 3.3 seconds. A choice of 3 traction control settings adds to the hair-raising nature of this gold and black beast.
The Tramontana XTR is hand built in Barcelona to each customer’s requirements, with the long-term plan to average about 5 XTR supercars a year. Unlike many supercars, if you so desire you can add air conditioning and a stereo to your XTR spec.
Tramontana have created something that is certainly getting people talking; some about that interior, others about whether it’s ugly or not. Myself, I think it looks pretty fine – both inside and out.
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