Production-Spec Kimera Evo38 Goes Mild Hybrid, Gets 592bhp

It’s been well over a year since we got our first glimpse at the Kimera Evo38, a ‘what-if’ restomod that imagined what it might look like if Lancia had continued developing the 037 – the last two-wheel drive car to win the WRC – into a four-wheel drive beast to take on the might of the Audi Quattro, rather than moving on to the equally iconic Delta S4.

The small Italian company, though, has been busy working away on the car, and it’s just revealed the production-spec version at Monterey Car Week in California. It’s far more than merely the company’s previous effort, the rear-drive Evo37, with an extra set of driveshafts, too.

That car used a 2.1-litre four-cylinder with both a turbo and a supercharger, paired with a six-speed manual. While the Evo38 keeps the same twincharged setup and gearbox, it bumps capacity to 2.2 litres and throws in a 48v mild hybrid system for wider-ranging power delivery. All this sees power taken from the 500-ish bhp its predecessor made to a quoted 592bhp.

That’s paired with an all-wheel drive system featuring a variable torque splitter, and there’s a rally-style hydraulic handbrake, both of which should make for big and excellent dusty skids. The engine map, traction control, ABS and suspension are fully user-adjustable, too. Said suspension is a pushrod system, and there’s a strut brace between the two rear strut towers, into which a cooling system for the turbo is integrated.

That’s not the only party trick involving the big, boosty snail, though. Though the regular exhaust system exits where you’d expect it to, down through the rear bumper, the flow of gases can be diverted through a big valved central system that exits right through the rear grille.

Other mechanical bits are exposed in an equally tantalising fashion elsewhere. In the cockpit, there’s not only an exposed linkage beneath the billet-milled aluminium gearknob, but a central glass tunnel that allows you to see the propshaft furiously spinning away. The whole thing seems designed to keep engineers up all night in cold sweats.

Although presumably still sharing the same Lancia Montecarlo bones as the Evo37 (and indeed, the original 037), the Evo38 is somehow lighter than its predecessor, despite gaining all-wheel drive and that small electric motor. With such a comprehensive round of improvements, it’s entirely unsurprising that nearly all 38 planned units are spoken for. Sounds like there might be a tiny handful still available, so we’d recommend getting your foot in the door sooner rather than later.