It is tempting to conclude that Josep Rubau, the Spaniard behind the Tramontana supercar, has been at the sangria. He believes his new “hypercar” was “modelled on the streamlined curves of the Costa Brava winds”. Right.

Furthermore, he says his customers aren’t buying a car, but are instead buying a piece of art to be enjoyed in the privacy of their climate-controlled garage, preferably with mood lighting, a cigar and some fine cognac.

Setting aside the wisdom of drinking alone in your garage with a supercar for company, Rubau deserves to be heard (even if we then dismiss him as an eccentric) because he is Spain’s answer to Gordon Murray, of McLaren-F1 fame.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art, in London, Rubau set up shop in the grounds of a farm outside Girona in 2004. The first prototype to emerge from the barn might have scared the animals, but it had the jet set reaching for their chequebooks at the 2005 Geneva motor show.

His finished production car is a work of genuine beauty. It looks like a Formula One racing car without the size-zero waistline. Its curves and hips add emotion to a machine that uses F1 technology and has been developed in secrecy by an unnamed F1 driver (our money is on Pedro de la Rosa).

Like Gordon Murray, Rubau obsesses over the smallest detail. The badge is made of white gold. The engine bay’s heat-shielding is gold foil for ultimate heat dissipation, and for durability silver is used throughout the wiring. All of which goes some way to justifying the €600,000 (£487,672) starting price. But only some way.

To understand why a car from a company you’ve never heard of should cost so much money, you have to take it for a spin. Then you will get a taste of what it’s like to be an F1 driver. You sit deep inside the Tramontana’s carbon fibre monocoque, with nobody by your side because Rubau wanted in-line seating for the optimum weight distribution. (Again, a trick from Murray’s book of sports-car design, first featured on his 1992 Rocket.) A button on the dashboard lets you run the 5.5 litre V12 twin-turbo Mercedes engine in one of two power modes. If you’re feeling brave, you’ll opt for the 550bhp setting, which should send the 1,250kg Tramontana firing down the road - or, more likely, the racetrack - with a surplus of speed.

If, however, you long for the genuine, scream-if-you-want-to-go-faster F1 experience, you’ll flick the switch the other way and choose to run the engine at 720bhp. Then you’ll have little trouble reaching the far side of 200mph.

I start tentatively - hardly surprising, given the cost and rarity of the car (only 12 Tramontanas are built per year, each to order at the new factory near Barcelona). The sensible mode delivers a turn of speed akin to most supercars, yet a hydraulic lift system for speed bumps means you can safely drive it to the shops.

Push that power button, though, and pull back on the sequential gearlever and the Spanish Armada arrives. The V12’s soundtrack hardens to a mechanical roar and the high-pitched hissing of the turbos fills you with fear. The maker (conservatively) claims it will reach 62mph from standstill in less than four seconds, and don’t forget that the open cockpit and forward-set driving position exaggerate the sensation of speed.

Perfectly weighted steering and a clear sight of all four wheels give you the confidence to throw the car into bends, and you quickly discover that downforce keeps it stuck to the road. That’s no surprise, as Rubau drafted in one of the Eurofighter’s designers to deal with the aerodynamics.

It wasn’t possible to take the car to its limits in the time available for my test drive, but Rubau is realistic enough to recognise that any great leap beyond 200mph is almost pointless. There are few racetracks where such speeds are possible, let alone roads. Instead, the car is geared to deliver blistering acceleration up to around that speed. Impractical though the car looks, it’s good to know its structure has passed the same crash tests as F1 cars. And should you wish for something a little more friendly for everyday use, there’s a jet fighter-inspired canopy available.

Personal service counts for a lot when you are buying Spain’s first supercar, and Tramontana dispatches its engineers to the customer should anything go awry. There’s even a race team for support at track days (you have to pay for it). Ownership is like membership of an exclusive Pall Mall club.

“We didn’t want to create a generic supercar,” says Rubau. “We have created something different, something unique.”

You just can’t disagree with that.

- Adjustable ride height has two settings: a clearance of 85mm for the track, and one of 130mm for the road

- In-line seats not only heighten the sense of sitting in a racer for the road but also optimise weight distribution

- With 550bhp the Tramontana is quick enough, but a button on the dashboard switches the twin turbo V12 to 720bhp

- Carbon ceramic discs reduce the braking system’s weight by 70% and ensure powerful, fade-free braking to match the car’s 217mph top speed

- The Tramontana is built on the same principles as a Formula One racing car, with a carbon fibre monocoque ensuring light weight and immense strength

Hot Wheels specs
ENGINE 5513cc, 12 cylinders
POWER 720bhp @ 5750rpm
TORQUE 679lb ft @ 4000rpm
TRANSMISSION Six-speed sequential manual
FUEL/CO2 n/a
ACCELERATION 0-62mph: 3.7sec
TOP SPEED 217mph
PRICE €600,000 (£487,672, excluding Vat)
TAX BAND G (£400 a year)
VERDICT The closest thing to a roadgoing F1 racer