Kimera K39, the modern Lancia-inspired monster built for Pikes Peak
03/05/2026
This is Kimera stepping back into the world of racing.
With the EVO37 and EVO38, the Italian company already proved that it could take one of rallying’s most emotional eras and translate it into something modern, expensive and deeply desirable. But the new Kimera K39 feels like a different kind of statement.
On 15 May 2026, at Hotel Villa Flori on Lake Como, Kimera will unveil both the K39 Pikes Peak race car and its road-legal customer version. And if the first images are anything to go by, this might be the brand’s most serious project yet.
A modern tribute to the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Group 5
The inspiration is clear. The Kimera K39 reimagines the legendary Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo Group 5, the extreme Martini Racing silhouette racer that dominated the World Sportscar Championship in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
That original car was never subtle. It had wild proportions, aggressive aerodynamics and a tiny turbocharged engine pushing serious power through a featherweight chassis. It was built under Group 5 rules, where the silhouette of a production car remained, but almost everything underneath was pure motorsport.
The K39 keeps the visual drama of the original, but translates it into a modern carbon-bodied machine shaped around one very specific target: Pikes Peak.
Shaped by the wind, built for the mountain
Kimera calls the K39 “shaped by the wind”, and that is not just marketing poetry. The car features a carbon-fibre monocoque chassis, with every bodywork element also made from carbon. Countless hours in the virtual wind tunnel have been used to define its aggressive aero surfaces, not only to honour the original Group 5 silhouette, but to create the downforce and stability required for one of the most demanding hill climbs in the world.
Pikes Peak is not a normal race. It is a climb into thin air, where power delivery, cooling, aero efficiency and driver confidence all matter in a completely different way. A car that looks dramatic is one thing. A car that works at altitude, through high-speed sections and tight mountain corners, is something else entirely.
From EVO37 and EVO38 to something more extreme
Kimera’s previous creations were already serious machines. The EVO37 and EVO38 took inspiration from the legendary Lancia 037, mixing retro emotion with modern engineering. The EVO38, for example, uses a mid-mounted 2.1-litre turbocharged engine producing more than 600 hp, sent to the wheels through a manual gearbox.
The K39 moves that philosophy into a more focused racing world. Where the EVO37 and EVO38 were born from rally emotion, the K39 is born from silhouette racing, endurance history and hill climb ambition. It feels wider, more aggressive and more purposeful, as if Kimera has stopped asking how far it can reinterpret the past and started asking how far it can push itself.
The road-legal customer version could be the real surprise
The race car is already exciting, but the biggest twist might be the fact that Kimera will also reveal a road-legal customer version. Because if Kimera can bring even part of the K39’s visual aggression, carbon construction and motorsport atmosphere to a car that can be driven on public roads, it could become one of the most interesting collector cars of the decade.
AutoNext Take
We are very interested in this. Kimera is doing something that many modern performance brands talk about, but few actually manage to execute: it is using heritage as a starting point, not as a limitation.
The K39 is clearly inspired by the Lancia Beta Montecarlo Group 5, but it does not feel like a lazy tribute. It feels like a continuation of a story that was never properly finished.
If Kimera really takes this car to Pikes Peak and also delivers a road-legal version with the same intensity, this could be much more than another collector toy. It could become one of the most meaningful modern interpretations of Italian motorsport heritage.
