You know the old adage about rally cars making the best road cars? Here’s further proof. Yes, the Kimera evo37 is a restomod, expensive and only built in very limited numbers, but it is dynamite to drive on road, one of the most exciting, charismatic and eventful experiences we’ve had. And it only has a four cylinder engine.

What’s the backstory here then?

Let’s start with the car’s, rather than the company’s. The Lancia 037 is rallying royalty, Lancia persevering with rear-drive into the Group B era, when everyone else had switched to 4WD. Heads in the sand or no, for one season in 1983 the gamble worked and the 037, in the hands of Walter Rohrl and Markku Alen, captured the manufacturer’s title. It was the last time a rear-drive car won the WRC Championship.

Now the company. Kimera Automobili was set up in 2008 by Luca Betti, an Italian with rallying in his blood and a successful competition history. Initially it was a motorsport team, running rally cars, but by 2013 had diversified into the rebuilding and restoration of classic cars, and from there, in 2018, the quest to build a restomod 037 from the ground up. The following year Betti worked on securing funding and development began in 2020. We first drove the car in 2021.

Hang on, is he restoring the original homologation road cars?

Absolutely not. Lancia had to build around 200 road-going Stradale versions of the 037 but it only had about 200bhp. Betti’s plan starts with the same car that the 037 Group B car was originally built from, the Beta Montecarlo. Some 8,000 of those were built, and it’s not like Kimera needs a lot of the old car in order to build his glorious 037 tribute.

The Montecarlo’s steel monocoque is retained, but heavily reinforced with new tubular structures at the front and rear, massively improving torsional rigidity. Suspension is by forged double wishbones, and there are dual Öhlins dampers at the rear with a more compact coilover set-up at the front. Brembo supplies the brakes, the body panels are made of carbon fibre composite (the original used Kevlar).

And what about this four cylinder engine you were talking about?

Here’s the fun part, and one of the reasons why this car is so beguiling. The original 037 used a 2.1-litre supercharged engine. That alone wouldn’t have given this restomod enough thrust and top end power. So instead Betti took inspiration from the 037’s rallying replacement, the monstrous Group B Delta S4, which had a supercharged and turbocharged 1.8.

The 037’s 2.1-litre capacity is retained, and alongside the Volumex supercharger (now electrically rather than mechanically driven) sits a chunky blower. The two work in harmony, the supercharger declutched at high revs to minimise losses and allow the turbo to take centre stage. The result is 550bhp and a power delivery that’s unlike anything else.

Is it as pretty in the flesh as it looks here?

Pretty? Too much attitude for that to be the right adjective. What it has is effortless visual impact. Not beauty, not style or elegance, but the raw purity that only real motorsport pedigree can bring. Of course not a single panel or dimension is shared with the original, but this is one of the most sympathetic, faithful and skilful recreations we’ve ever seen. It is beautifully judged to add drama and modernism to a car that’s now over 40 years old.

You don’t have to have it with the livery by the way. This car – called San Remo – is one of a limited line of six cars each built to celebrate one of the 037’s six WRC victories. These cars have only got built because the original run of 37 cars (natch) all sold out rather quickly. Such is Kimera’s success and burgeoning reputation that there are two further projects in the pipeline both continuing the 037 theme. The 038 will arrive next and imagines what would’ve happened if Lancia had continued development of the car, adding power and four-wheel-drive. The K39 that follows will be a total Pikes Peak monster in the Group C mould.

All good restomods need a story.

Couldn’t have put it better ourselves. The other thing they need is authenticity, and the Kimera has that too – not just from Betti’s background, but the people he enlisted to help with the design and engineering. Claudio Lombardi ran Lancia’s powertrain department in the Group B era, and has now overseen this engine – his CV includes designing the last ever V12 for Ferrari’s F1 team. Sergio Limone led development of the original 037 and has signed off this car’s chassis, while for chassis development itself Kimera turned to two-time Lancia WRC champion Miki Biasion. That is a formidable lineup of talent, and it shows in the way this car drives.

Does it drive like an original?

We haven’t been that lucky unfortunately, but it drives like we imagine a Group B 037 would drive. With added civility. The engine is effective and interesting rather than particularly musical, full of unusual sounds, but really quite droney until you ask something of it. At which point all hell breaks loose.

Because 550bhp is pushing at only 1,000kg, progress is best described as, well, let’s settle for ‘vigorous’ shall we? But more than that it’s a wonderful communicator. It goes down a road so fluidly it’s almost effortless. Inside, the controls are weighty, but the signals you’re getting through them instil tremendous confidence. We’ll write more on this in the Driving tab, but we found it utterly enthralling to drive, faithful to what we expected, so exciting yet manageable and not at all intimidating given the cost involved.

Which is how much?

Originally Kimera charged €450,000 (£370,000), but once all 37 cars sold out and it came up with these liveried cars that each celebrate a victory, the price had swollen to €840,000 (£693,000). They obviously realised the cars were popular, so they could charge more. Supply and demand, innit?

Is there anything else out there offering a comparable experience?

Let’s play a game of word association. We say ‘restomod’, what do you say?

Singer.

Exactly. That’s the company everyone’s trying to emulate. And their new Turbo Study is priced almost exactly in line with this. But for us, that’s not a rival. We’re looking at other cars that offer a similar mainline rally adrenaline hit to this and there’s not many around. Yet. Next year we expect to see the MST Metro 6R4 and given how crazily wonderful their Escort is, that should be mega. Plus Boreham Motorworks is revealing its RS200. Time for a Group B get together we reckon.

How’s the fit and finish?

This is the acid test for any restomod. These are tiny companies, and they simply don’t have the funding and resources to spend huge amounts of money on development. And yet… the 037 feels like it’s been done by a big conglomerate. A German one.
The precision of the controls, the lack of rattles, the tactility of the materials. Lancia themselves has never done anything as robust as this. Plus the driving position is spot on and the cabin itself is wonderful to spend time in – we’ll go into detail on that at the Interior tab.

Content published on 13th April 2005

Audi TT news - New Audi TT wows the crowds - 2006

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