Italian restomod builder Kimera has released the first images of a dramatic new racer called the K39, which it claims to be the first ‘hyper retromod’ in existence.

Inspired by the Group 5 Lancia Beta Montecarlo, the K39 is said to embody that car’s ‘silhouette’ construction, with bodywork that is styled to look like a road car draped over a bespoke chassis.

To that end, the K39 is based around a carbonfibre monocoque, rather than the Lancia Beta Montecarlo shell that underpinned Kimera’s previous cars, the Evo37 and Evo38.

Kimera has yet to fully detail the car’s technical specification, but the firm’s repeated references to the Group 5 racer hint at the K39’s basic make-up. It is expected to use the same twin-charged (turbocharged and supercharged) 2.2-litre four-pot as the Evo37 and Evo38, but with the boost cranked to push its output well beyond the 600bhp touted for the latter car. 

The K39 will be entered into next year’s Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. Hinting at its ambitions, Kimera noted that the 12.4-mile sprint’s record “currently belongs to an electric car”, implying it wants to take a shot at the 7min 57.148sec time set by the Volkswagen ID R.

The Italian firm added that EVs’ performance “is not penalised by the thin air that becomes increasingly oxygen-poor as you climb to the summit”, suggesting the K39 will put out substantially more power than its predecessors. For reference, the last internal combustion-engined car to hold the course record at Pikes Peak was the Peugeot 208 T16, whose twin-turbocharged V6 packed 875bhp.

A road-going evolution of the K39 will follow shortly after the Pikes Peak racer. “A limited number” will be built, said Kimera.