This is what it was all about with Kimera and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climbthe new K39. There is a lot to learn about what is inside this beauty, but we know the internals are going to be some serious strength. Kimera went for a full carbon monocoque with this chassis rather than borrowing the body from a Lancia Beta Montecarlo as an employee for the EVO37 and EVO38. Those other cars used a 2.2-liter four-cylinder with a turbo and supercharger. The all-wheel-drive EVO38 version had about 600 horsepower, 100 more than the rear-wheel-drive EVO37. Kimera hasn’t driven up the mountain once this year, but says he’ll take the K39 to Colorado next year to break the all-time record.
Let’s be clear what that means: Kimera is not trying to beat the best time for a combustion engine car, a time of 8:13.878 set by Sebastien Loeb in the Peugeot 208 T16 in 2013. Kimera wants the K39 to surpass it the all-time record set by Romain Dumas in the battery-electric Volkswagen ID.R racer which climbed the hill in 7:57.148 in 2018.
Because the Kimera hides some sort of ICE powertrain, the Italian boutique maker has given itself an exceptionally tough hill to climb. The ID.R remains the only car to ever break the eight-minute barrier. Few gasoline-powered cars have managed the hill in under nine minutes, with Loeb’s Peugeot and the purpose-built Norma M20 SF PKP in 2018 being the two exceptions.
Kimera understands the challenge, writing that an electric race car “isn’t punished by the thin air that becomes increasingly oxygen-poor as you approach the summit of Pikes Peak.”
We’d wager the K39 gets a lot more than the EVO38’s 600bhp, plus an all-wheel-drive system to help make the most of that final figure. That’s because Loeb’s twin-turbo V6 Pug made around 875bhp, while the Norma M20 SF PKP made around 800bhp from another twin-turbo V6. We’d note that where the EVO37 sported a set of quad exhaust pipes, the K39 rearranges the three tailpipes sticking out of the rear of the EVO38.
If Kimera achieves all of its goals on Zebulon Pike, the K39 would shatter the ICE-powered record and represent an emerging Italian David taking down a German Goliath. The achievement would certainly help burnish an already glowing reputation and sell the limited number of K39 road cars that Kimera now says it plans to build.