Kimera EVO37 is an homage to a Group B Lancia

Kimera Automobili is a restomod company based in Ronchi, Italy, and it has an extraordinary passion for resuscitating and modernising old racing Lancia cars, especially the Lancia 037 — the last rear-wheel drive car to win the world rally championship.

After the launch of the initial EVO37 restomod in 2021, the Italian outfit has revealed a new limitedbatch of the 037 race car draped in the legendary blue, light-blue and red stripes of Martini Racing’s livery.

Just 37 examples of this rare car will be produced, with prices expected to exceed £415,000 (R9.4m). Kimera Automobili used the experience and expertise of former Lancia engineers Claudio Lombardi, Sergio Limone and Vittorio Roberti for this project.

The engine will power the rear wheels only with either a six-speed manual, or six-speed sequential transmission. Kimera Automobili chose motorsport equipment royalty in putting together the EVO37 project. These include among others, Sparco for the seats, Pirelli rubber, Öhlins suspension and Brembo for the brakes.

Kimera uses 3D scanning, reverse engineering, CAD, CAE and modern electronics, the EVO37 has unchanged technical settings and boasts independent quadrilateral wheels, coil springs and double rear shock absorbers.

The exterior features a carbon-fibre aerodynamic package with front splitter, side skirts and “nolder” extractors on the front grilles of the front mudguard. On the sides of the car and the rear bonnet there are “naca” air intakes.

A quick release system that enables the lower part of the rear end to be opened and removed reveals mechanical ware exactly like the 037 group B Evo 2 car. The wheels have been redesigned with an unmistakable reference to those ones of the “Delta Evoluzione” era. 

The interior is made of visible carbon fibre and is equipped with seats with blue perforated alcantara with red stitching. The dashboard has the same colours as the fluorescent orange rev counters of the racing cars and each button is labelled exactly as it was at the time.

Two new knobs appear in the central tunnel for adjusting the ABS and traction control. Performance has been further improved above the initial EVO37s thanks to a decrease in overall weight. Generous use of carbon-fibre and carbon-Kevlar has yielded a car that weighs only 1,100kg. The gearbox ratios have been made shorter while the engine gains an extra 37kW resulting in an output of 410kW.