The celebration of Italian motorsport icons reaches its third act
K39 IS THE NAME OF THE HYPER RETROMOD WITH WHICH KIMERA AUTOMOBILI WILL CHALLANGE PIKES PEAK IN 2025
The brand unveils the racing car with which it will take part in the legendary “Race to the clouds”, one of the oldest races in motorsport history
Colorado Spring, June 22 2024 – What is a Kimera? According to Greek mythology, it is a fierce creature composed of parts of other real animals that make it perfect and unbeatable; figuratively speaking, it is a fantasy, a vision so far out of the box that it risks looking like a utopia, a daydream.
And so is the Kimera that so many motoring enthusiasts have recently come to know: a special, unique car, recalling technical and styling solutions in pursuit of perfection, but at the same time it is the projection of a dream come true.
It is the vision of a man, born in the homeland of saints, poets and navigators, who as a child was “baptized” by the champagne of a victory on the roof of a Lancia Stratos, who has seen the cars of his land conquer the world and who has dreamed of bringing them back to life.
For more than a decade, Kimera was a Motorsport team owned by Luca Betti, its creator, with which, as a driver, he competed and won in the most important international rally competitions.
The evolution of the brand into Kimera Automobili coincided with the start of the EVO37 project, unveiled to the public in the spring of 2021 and created with the aim of celebrating a true Italian motorsport icon, the last two-wheel drive car to win the world title in 1983, in the era of the legendary Group B cars. The 37 examples planned were assigned very quickly to collectors all over the world and half of them are now already on the roads to the delight of enthusiasts.
After a further homage to the 7 World Championships won by the Martini Racing team with the special edition ‘Martini 7’, last February Kimera Automobili went on stage with the second act in its history, bringing the EVO38 to its debut at the Geneva Motor Show, carrying out a project that had failed to see the light of day at the time but remained in the hearts of enthusiasts for almost 40 years. Even higher performance was made possible by the adoption of four-wheel drive, as well as a revised and updated aesthetic, in order to represent an ideal synthesis of the dynasty of legendary Italian racing cars that dominated the World Rally Championships in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. In this case, 38 examples have been announced, more than half of which have already been assigned to future owners.
Now the brand is coming out with the third act of its tributes to a lost generation of iconic cars and, in doing so, is returning to the context from which it originated and from which its founder, but also all the people who represent the soul of this brand and all the cars that inspired it come from: the world of motorsport and, in particular, road racing.
The model that Kimera Automobili is about to present is the K39 – the name of which respects the numerical sequence to the cars that preceded it – and it is a racing car designed to be lined up at the starting line of one of America’s most epic races: the Pikes Peak.
A re-interpretation of the legendary ‘Silhouette’ of the Martini Racing team that dominated in the World Sportscar Championship between the late 1970s and early 1980s, the K39 is a racing car with a monocoque chassis made of carbon fibre, like every other component of its bodywork, which seems to be designed by the wind. In fact, many hours were spent in the virtual wind tunnel to shape the forms of a vehicle that, while strongly reminiscent of its inspiration car, must also meet the highest standards of aerodynamic efficiency for the challenge to which it is called.
This hill climb (“to the clouds”, as it is referred to in the USA) is one of the most important races in the world. Many manufacturers have tried their best at beating the record for the ascent from the 2800-metre altitude of the start to the 4300-metre peak: Peugeot, Audi, Suzuki, Lamborghini, Volkswagen and recently also Alpine, Lotus, Ford and Hyundai have lined up their cars to constantly improve the time required for the ascent. The supremacy now belongs to an electric car, whose performance is not penalized by the rarefaction of the air, which becomes progressively poorer in oxygen as you climb towards the summit.
However, this evident technological penalization does not affect Kimera’s philosophy of “endurance”, which remains proudly faithful to an analogue, mechanical and human approach to cars.
It is the trajectory of a brand with a coherent and strongly identitarian vision that matches with truly and authentically sustainable technological progress.
It is a story of people, passion and nobility, and this is precisely what warms the hearts of enthusiasts. Specifically for them, Kimera Automobili has come up with a customer version of the K39. A small number of passionate collectors will thus be able to buy and drive such an iconic car, with a character unmatched in style, performance and driving pleasure.
The sky awaits. In the United States of America, the land of dreamers, in 2025, Kimera Automobili’s K39 will embark on its race to the clouds, where the air is thin. Heir to a lost generation, the iconic new “Silhouette” will have an engine that will definitely make noise and be heard throughout its ascent. And in the end, when it reaches the summit, it will stop the clock and at that moment, once again, you will know that Kimera is much more than a dream…
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Press references:
Ufficio Stampa Kimera Automobili