The Giamaro Katla Is A Quad-Turbo V12 Hypercar Built In Ferrari’s Back Yard

You always have to respect the chutzpah of an upstart supercar maker trying to take on the established names. Many are quickly forgotten about, but very occasionally, one will carve out a niche for itself, supplying ridiculous slabs of exotica to people who find that a Ferrari or Lamborghini is a bit too common a sight.

The latest name to give this a go is Giamaro, a company that’s not messing about for a couple of reasons. Reason one: it’s set up shop in the Italian town of Modena, famous for being home to a small outfit known for making red cars with horses on them. This is a bit like trying to set up a new Premier League football team right next door to Anfield.

Reason two: its first car, the Katla – named after a famously unpredictable volcano in Iceland – is powered by a fairly special engine. Developed from the ground up, it’s a 7.0-litre V12 boosted by – count ’em – four turbochargers. Giamaro says it’s good for 2127bhp. No, that’s not a typo. It’s said to make this figure at 8500rpm, while peak torque is an equally Earth-rending 1481lb ft.

All that power’s sent solely through the rear wheels via a seven-speed gearbox, either with paddleshifters or an old-fashioned H-pattern manual shift if you really want to stay busy. However, the company says it’s simultaneously working on an 11-speed electronically actuated dual-clutch gearbox.

If you only want to scare yourself moderate amounts and not completely, Giamaro’s planning on supplying the Katla with three keys. A white key gives you a programmable power range between 395 and 789bhp, a range the company says is for “calm and confident driving.” Could have fooled us. Insert the black key, meanwhile, and you get 1647bhp, before a red key unleashes the full 2127bhp and, presumably, a trip to the nearest supplier of fresh undergarments.

You may be wondering how you’re possibly supposed to keep all this power in check and frankly, so are we. Giamaro’s packed the Katla full of fairly serious chassis hardware, though. It’s built around an ultra-stiff carbon monocoque, weighing 170kg.

Elsewhere, there are adaptive, electronically-controlled dampers, and each axle gets a third central spring, allowing for greater adjustability. The rear wing is active too, able to continuously adopt different angles, and when it’s in its slipperiest form, the drag coefficient is just 0.33. The Bridgestone Potenza tyres have been specially engineered just for the Katla.

Inside, Giamaro has opted for textile weaves rather than leather, and there’s also lots of aluminium and the usual smattering of carbon. From in here, the driver can switch between the five drive modes – Standard, Wet, Performance, Top Speed and Individual.

We’re plainly a little way off knowing things like how much the Katla will cost, how many will be made and when they’ll be delivered, but to show just how serious Giamaro is, it’s unveiled a second model too.

The Albor is a sort of Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato on steroids (as if that car wasn’t roided up enough), powered by the same insane V12 but featuring jacked-up suspension and body cladding. That one’s also named after a Volcano… but a volcano ON MARS. Reckon we’ll ever see either of these make production, or will Giamaro be another name to add to the folder marked ‘gave it a go’? Time will tell.