There are liveries so iconic they render the cars that wear them immortal. There are stories worth remembering, and others that deserve to be told for the first time. There are colours that do not belong only to speed. They belong to time itself.

 

Blue, light blue, red: the colours of the Martini liveries. Colours that belong to that rare category of unmistakeable combinations, ones that speak of velocity, glory and passion. They have been seen hurtling through the fast stages of the most legendary rallies, shimmering beneath the floodlights of endurance paddocks at night, cutting across the water in pursuit of records, streaking past faces that have become part of sporting and cultural heritage.

 

The Martini name has appeared with equal ease on glossy magazine covers, in films, in photographs that chronicle half a century of iconic Italian and European elegance. No other brand in the world has crossed the boundary between legendary motorsport and the dolce vita with quite the same effortlessness, that singular blend of glamour, adrenaline and refinement.


Kimera was born from these same values, and declares to them an authentic belonging. It is from this conviction that the Kimera EVO38 Collezione Martini comes to life. The EVO38, the second generation of the winged lioness from Turin, made its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in February 2024. Thirty-eight units announced: a number that left very little room for hesitation, and one that the market consumed in no time at all. The enthusiasm of Kimera's clients was the most tangible possible signal of exceptional appreciation for a car that embodied the definitive, integral evolution of its predecessor: an instant classic, acclaimed on international stages for its design, its style and its performance alike. For those who still look at the EVO38 as the car they want to drive – discovering what it feels like to be behind the wheel of a machine built to be experienced before it is admired – Kimera Automobili has created the EVO38 Collezione Martini.


Unlike the Martini 7 edition of the EVO37, this is not a single celebratory livery. The EVO38 Collezione Martini is a more ambitious project and, in a certain sense, a more personal one. It is a collection of chromatic interpretations of the EVO38, each inspired by the visual language of the Martini brand, each with its own soul, its own character, its own light.

 

Like a maison that offers not one dress, but an entire collection, where every piece is recognisable as part of the whole, and yet unmistakeably, identifiably itself. The legendary Pearl White, together with Vermouth Red and Dry Green, are merely the first colours Kimera is revealing from a micro-series produced in vanishingly limited numbers – almost unique for certain shades – that will continue to be unveiled over the coming months. The names and details of each livery will be revealed progressively, with the care that every chapter of this story deserves. A collection of iconic pieces that celebrate the marriage of style and passion between Kimera and Martini.


It is worth remembering – because it would be reductive, and inaccurate, to do otherwise – that reducing Martini to motorsport alone would be an error of perspective as much as of memory. The track record is undeniably legendary: at Le Mans, in rallying, in Formula 1, in endurance racing, in the DTM, the Martini stripes have dressed some of the most extraordinary cars ever built, becoming over time a universally recognisable visual code and synonymous with victories won through intelligence, courage and that particular elegance that sets champions apart from mere winners.

 

But the brand Martini has left on the imagination of the twentieth century extends far beyond the stopwatch. It lives in the photographs of Helmut Newton and in the scenes of certain films that smell of the Riviera, at grand prix weekends and at gala evenings, on terraces overlooking the Mediterranean and in conversations that stretch on until dawn. Martini is, in the deepest sense, an icon of Italian style: of that ability – so difficult to explain to others, so natural to those who possess it – to find beauty in the right places, at the right hours, with the right people.


The space the EVO38 Collezione Martini naturally inhabits is the one where fascination, sporting spirit, elegance and speed do not contradict one another, but complete one another. It pays tribute to this dual nature – athletic and glamorous, full of adrenaline and yet refined – with the same coherence with which Kimera builds its cars: without compromise, without concessions to mannerism or nostalgia as an end in itself, and with the absolute certainty that a car worthy of the name must be, above all, extraordinarily rewarding to drive. As well as to admire.

 

A homecoming The Costa Smeralda is the natural setting chosen for this presentation. For Kimera Automobili, this corner of paradise represents something intimate, almost a second home. It was here, in April 2023, that Luca Betti unveiled the EVO37 Martini 7 to the world: the car that celebrated the seven World Rally Championship victories won by the Martini Racing Team across the 1980s and 1990s. It was here in Sardinia that Kimera and Martini appeared together for the first time as a partnership capable of looking at the past with respect, and at the present with ambition. Sardinia has that rare quality of always seeming like the right place for the things that matter: the light is different, time slows down, and certain announcements find here a resonance that would be difficult to achieve anywhere else.


Three years later, under the same light and in the same wind, the story continues. The Rally Storico Costa Smeralda - Trofeo Martini 2026 welcomes the Kimera EVO38 Collezione Martini as a testament to something that is neither simple nostalgia nor simple celebration: it is proof that one can look back without being imprisoned by the past, and build in the present something with the true stature to last, a contemporary manifesto for a category of cars that resist the logic and the narrative of an industry where the alignment between product and public passion grows ever rarer.

 

The EVO38 Collezione Martini – Technical specifications To a strongly distinctive aesthetic is paired a technical evolution of the highest order. The platform is that of the EVO38, but every component has been the subject of focused development and refinement. The engine – deliberately left exposed and visible at the rear – reaches a record output of 640 horsepower via a Flex Fuel system that permits the use of biofuels, including E85 ethanol, with which it achieves both maximum power and maximum torque. And indeed, the work of perfection goes well beyond this single figure: throttle response is ferociously more immediate, power delivery even fuller. Torque increases by 22%, approaching 700 Nm, while the rev ceiling extends by a further 500 rpm in a melodic crescendo all the way to 8,200 rpm. Numbers at the very edge of belief for a 2.1-litre four- cylinder with twin forced induction, made all the more astonishing by a kerb weight of just 1,100 kilograms, shaved even further on the Collezione Martini units.


These figures are made possible in part by a specific configuration that provides, as an alternative to high-octane petrol, the ability to run the engine on bioethanol, and by the integration of a supplementary intercooler cooling system. Developed expressly for the Collezione Martini cars, this system employs high-pressure cold-water injectors spraying directly onto the intercoolers to reduce intake air temperatures under peak load conditions, maintaining thermal stability and system efficiency even in the most demanding use cases. The design, too, follows a functional logic. New air intakes on the front bonnet improve cooling of the front compartment and in particular of the dampers, now visible from outside, which contribute to defining a front end that is sharper and more decisive than ever.

 

The exhaust system, finished in ceramic, is engineered to manage extreme temperatures without compromising performance or efficiency, even under intensive use. At the same time, it remains a visible element that tells the story of the car's technical nature, one to be appreciated even when standing still.


Exposed carbon fibre, paired with the carbon-Kevlar so characteristic of the legendary cars of the 1980s, runs the entire length of the bodywork, enriching its line with unmistakeable depth. Centre-lock wheels speak directly to the world of competition, while the auxiliary driving lights evoke a precise rally iconography, that of cars genuinely used in all conditions, including the night stages.

 

The Martini livery, available in several chromatic variants, integrates with the car in a coherent and purposeful way, contributing to its identity in continuity with some of the most emblematic cars in motorsport history.