Kimera Automobili presents first customer EVO38

The EVO37 was already a stunner, and now it has four-wheel drive...

By Matt Bird / Monday, 11 August 2025 / Loading comments

Though famous as the last two-wheel drive rally car to win the WRC, the Lancia 037 has come some way since the early 1980s. Kimera Automobili has ensured the old car is very much back in the contemporary consciousness with its stunning EVO37 recreations, and recently hinted at a four-wheel drive EVO38, a vision of what the 037 might have become. Now the first of 38 customer cars is ready for Monterey Car Week. And even given the calibre of car in attendance in California, it promises to be attracting all sorts of attention.

Check out the interior, for example. Celebrating the new configuration, the driveshaft is exposed, visible between the two seats in a glass case. Nobody will ever get tired of showing that off. Otherwise it’s a ‘triumph of fine leather, Alcantara, hand stitching, milled aluminum, and carbon fibre’ - like anything else was ever expected. Kimera also reckons that firing up an EVO38 is ‘reminiscent of a combat helicopter’, plus there’s a whole host of configurability possible from the cabin as well: engine maps, traction control, suspension, ABS, plus torque splitters for both axles. There’s some serious hardware to go alongside the classic style, so it promises to be an absolute riot to drive - with a hydraulic handbrake, just to make sure.

As with the EVO37, power still comes from the supercharged and turbocharged version of the Lampredi twin cam, with 2.2-litres of swept capacity. It’s more powerful than ever, though, thanks to a 48v mild hybrid system and new exhaust - meaning this is now a 600hp car. And Kimera says that an EVO38 is lighter than an EVO37, despite the all-wheel drive. So it’s going to be ferociously fast.

Indeed, this is quite a bit more than ‘just’ a four-wheel drive ‘37 - however exciting that prospect would have been. Kimera says the chassis is ‘completely redesigned’, now boasting pushrod suspension, and a cross brace for the strut towers; describing that as a complete redesign seems a bit much, but those with experience of the rear-drive have hardly had any complaints. So expect this to be just as awesome; indeed Kimera suggests driving an EVO38 is ‘like riding a living creature, with its own character, sounds, and expressions.’ Which sounds quite fun.

Kimera says that ‘nearly’ all 38 of these are now spoken for; you wouldn’t bet against this example persuading a few billionaires to snap up the remaining few. In their own unique way, Kimera seems fairly confident of the fact, suggesting that the car arrives in California ‘playing a love anthem to mechanics and the purity of the automobile in Italian tones, with the pride of creativity and artisanal manufacturing skills — skillfully and elegantly combined to win over an audience in search of unique emotions and sensations.’ It’s hard not to love the Italians sometimes. And with EVO38s surely likely to be spoken for soon, Kimera will need a new Lancia-shaped project - bring on the Thema 8.32 rework…