Hypercar’s V8 engine shoehorned into reborn 1980s icon
The Lancia Beta Montecarlo lives again, or at least serves as inspiration for one of the wildest new cars money can buy.
Kimera Automobili has done it again, this time taking the covers off an even wilder car than its Lancia 037-inspired EVO37.
Say hello to the Kimera K39, which has taken even greater inspiration from the Lancia Beta Montecarlo, specifically the Group 5 racing version which took on European heavyweights in the early 1980s.
That iconic Lancia grille is flanked by quad headlights, but that’s just about where any similarities to the Beta Montecarlo road car ends, as the K39 gets a huge lower air intake, a massive vented bonnet, wide wheel arches at the front and rear, plus an overhanging rear spoiler.
Based around a carbon-fibre monocoque, it’s the first car Kimera has developed in-house in its entirety, however its engine has been sourced from an outside firm - and what a partner it has picked.
While the previous EVO37 and EVO38 utilised the same formula as the Lancia 037 with a supercharged and turbocharged 2.1-litre four-cylinder engine, the K39 is powered by a twin-turbo 5.0-litre V8, supplied by Swedish hypercar specialists Koenigsegg.
Effectively a detuned version of the Jesko’s engine, Kimera quotes eye-watering outputs of 746kW and 1200Nm, or about 300kW more than its other models, even though weight is almost the same, targeted to be about 1100kg.
Kimera hasn’t just given it a powerful engine and then slapped a modern automatic transmission on it, with the K39 being a seven-speed manual, allowing drivers to row their own while trying to put the monstrous power to the ground via the rear wheels.
To help keep it under some level of control, Pirelli Trofeo RS tyres wrap the aluminium wheels, measuring 20 inches up front and 21 inches at the rear.
No production number for the Kimera K39 road car has been announced, however just 10 examples of a more hardcore track version will be made - and it’ll be honed to take on the Pikes Peak Hillclimb.
Simply called the K39 Pikes Peak, the closed-circuit version sports an even larger front splitter, roof-mounted air intake for the engine, and a humongous wing at the back, all made to get up the Colorado hill as fast as possible.
