Latest news with #Giamaro
Motor 1
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
Giamaro's Quad-Turbo V-12 Is Insane: 'The King of Engines'
When our colleagues at Motor1 Italia broke the story late last year on a quad-turbocharged V-12 from a brand-new automaker, it's safe to say it caused a stir. Now, Giamaro Automobili has revealed its first two cars, the Katla and Albor, and both feature this mad, 2,100-plus-horsepower engine. We got the chance to visit Giamaro a week before its official reveal event this Thursday to see this V-12 in the metal. Here's everything we learned. Giamaro is working with Turin engineering firm Italtecnica, which it has a stake in, for the engine. The V-12 displaces 7.0 liters, and rather unusually, it uses a 120-degree bank angle, with its four turbochargers nestled in the valley between the cylinder banks. To our knowledge, no one has ever made a 120-degree V-12 before, and in fact, the only production 120-degree engines are McLaren's and Ferrari's current V-6s. But 120 degrees is one of the three possible angles for a V-12—along with 60 and 180 degrees—that allows for an even firing order, and perfect primary and secondary balance. Opening up the V-12 compared to the more common 60-degree angle made room for the hot-vee turbocharger arrangement, which helps shorten plumbing and improves throttle response. It also allows for a lower center of gravity. In theory, a 180-degree V-12, a flat-12 like Ferrari used in the Boxer and Testarossa, could have lowered the center of gravity further, but Giamaro deemed it impractically wide. The hot-vee arrangement requires intakes on the side of the engine, and it also takes up space that could be better used for other components. Giamaro also says the 120-degree bank angle helps with cooling. There's simply more room to dissipate the massive amount of heat that the exhaust system and turbos generate. Though the engineers are quick to point out that thermal management is still a massive challenge in an engine like this. Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 The V-12 displaces 7.0 liters, and rather unusually, it uses a 120-degree bank angle, with its four turbochargers nestled in the valley between the cylinder banks. A clear inspiration for this quad-turbo V-12 design was the Bugatti EB110, a car that Giamaro's head engineer, Loris Bicocchi, worked on, and Giamaro founder Giacomo Commendatore is a big fan of. Like with the EB110, Giamaro's V-12 has its four turbochargers working in parallel, essentially one for every three cylinders. Once again, it's the best solution for response times. Like a bespoke racing engine, the Giamaro V-12 is entirely gear-driven—ie, no chains, no belts—and it uses a dry-sump oiling system with six scavenge pumps to ensure adequate lubrication in all scenarios. Commendatore also tells us the block is made from an aluminum alloy used in Formula 1, while the crankshaft is made from an aeronautical alloy. Some numbers. The V-12 in the Katla makes 2,128 horsepower at 9,000 RPM and 1,481 pound-feet of torque when you use the car's red key, which unlocks all the possible performance. A black key limits output to just 1,648 hp at 8,500 rpm and 1,147 pound-feet, while a white key lets the owner choose a limit between 394 and 789 hp. The Katla's upright suspension with wishbones Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 All that is funneled to the rear wheels only via a seven-speed transaxle available as a manual or paddle shift and a mechanical limited-slip differential. It comes from CIMA, a company in Bologna that makes road and race-car gearboxes. Giamaro is also developing its own 11-speed dual-clutch for future use, though I offered to Giamaro's engineers that the engine has so much torque, they probably only need one or two gears. Giamaro and Italtecnica have put over 500 hours on the V-12 on the dyno, and the engine is also out testing in the real world in camouflaged prototypes. And I got to see it in a Kalta prototype with no bodywork. The sound and the power emanating from the thing is like nothing you've ever heard before. "[The V-12] is the king of engines," Commendatore tells Motor1 through an interpreter. "We could've gone with a 16-cylinder engine like Bugatti, but the V-12 is the engine that guarantees the perfect balance between power and visceral sensation. It's the best configuration possible." Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
Motor 1
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
This Quad-Turbo V-12 Hypercar Aims To Take on Pagani
The R&D center of Giamaro Automobili smells like drying paint. In the small Emilia-Romagna town of Cavezzo, Italy, a half-hour from Modena, workers are busily preparing this former medical-supplies factory for the launch of the Katla, the first hypercar from a brand-new challenger to the Italian establishment. They're a week out, yet kindly opened the doors for Motor1 to see what they're up to. What they're up to is remarkable. A brand-new hypercar, with one of the craziest engines we've ever seen: A quad-turbocharged 7.0-liter V-12 capable of 2,128 horsepower and 1,481 pound-feet of torque. In a car with a seven-speed manual gearbox and only two driven wheels. Giamaro Automobili Katla Photo by: Giamaro Automobili On paper, it seems like it shouldn't be real. But in one room of Giamaro's facility, workers are prepping a yellow production-representative prototype that'll star in the reveal event, and in another, engineers fire up a naked Katla and drive it around the parking lot. Giamaro is the product of the Commendatore family. Father Giacomo runs a successful mattress business and is a prominent car collector. He was also one of the original backers of Pagani, helping make the Zonda a reality. His son Pierfranceso is an enthusiast, too, and he's running the day-to-day operations of the company. "We tried to give our car, our product, a specific identity, and create a deep connection between driver and machine, something that doesn't exist yet," Giacomo says through an interpreter. "We insisted a lot on this aspect because emotion is the key of it all," adds Pierfranceso. Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 Heading up engineering is a supercar legend, Loris Bicocchi, who started his career at Lamborghini in the 1970s, joined the revived Italian-owned Bugatti in the 1990s, and went on to work as a hired gun for Pagani, Koenigsegg, Dallara, and once again, Bugatti. Bicocchi's credits include the Countach, Diablo, EB110, Zonda, CCX, Veyron, and Chiron. At the R&D center during my visit, he's in the trenches with other engineers, prepping the mule car to test the optional seven-speed dual-clutch. Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 'We tried to give our car, our product, a specific identity, and create a deep connection between driver and machine, something that doesn't exist yet.' Giamaro is headquartered right in Italy's famous Motor Valley, home to Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, and Ducati. There's a wealth of talent to draw on, like Bicocchi, and suppliers to turn the Commendatores' dreams into reality. It's planning on building its first vehicles at the Cavezzo R&D center, but it also purchased a plot of land in Castlefranco Emilia—which sits about halfway between Modena and Bologna—for a larger, more permanent factory. The Katla is based around a carbon-fiber monocoque which, somewhat unusually, doesn't use a separate rear subframe for the suspension. Sizewise, it's longer, lower, and wider than a C8 Corvette Z06, and Giamaro claims a weight of just 3,200 pounds. The suspension is beautiful, CNC-milled aluminum double wishbones all around and inboard coil springs with adaptive dampers. Giamaro also employs a heave spring, which further helps control vertical body motion. It's actually an electronically adjustable heave spring, which we've never seen before in a road car. Giamaro Katla Prototype Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 Giamaro Katla Prototype Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 Giamaro has some serious partners lined up. One of the most important is Bridgestone, which the company is working with to develop a bespoke set of Potenza Sport tires measuring 265/35ZR20 front and 345/30ZR21 rear. Still, it's the engine that's the highlight here. Giamaro developed it in tandem with engineering firm Italtecnica, which it owns a stake in. The Turin shop is best known for making engines for a variety of restomod cars, like the Kimero EVO37 and Nardone Automotives' reinterpretation of the Porsche 928. It uses gear-driven camshafts and a hot-vee arrangement, with four turbos arranged within the 120-degree valley of the vee. This hot-vee setup helps with throttle response, as does the fact that each turbo works on just three cylinders of the V-12. Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 The Katla will have three keys, each corresponding to a different power level. The white key is a sort of valet key, limiting power to between 394 and 789 horsepower; the black key is for daily use, limiting power to just 1,647 horsepower; the red key unlocks the full potential. Color and trim personalization is big in supercars/hypercars today, but Giamaro wants to offer an even deeper level of customization. The customer will work with Bicocchi and his team to define exactly how their Katla drives. Photo by: Chris Perkins / Motor1 "Every single detail of the car is completely personalizable and adjustable," Giacomo says. "So if you want a car that feels like a Ferrari, then slightly changes and gets to the feeling of a Porsche and then of a Bugatti, we can make it happen because every single component allows us to adjust suspensions, the dampers, the balance, the steering. And with the [heave spring], it enables us to have pretty much infinite regulations of the setup." We don't know pricing, but Giamaro has deposits for the first year of production, plans to build 30 cars per year, and more products in the pipeline. Naturally, there's an open-top version of the Katla, and more intriguingly, the Albor, a high-riding, rear-drive two-door coupe. And the product plan extends into the 2030s. 46 Source: Giamaro Automobili The Latest From Italy Horacio Pagani Makes the Impossible, Possible Driving the Pagani Utopia Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
Motor 1
22-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor 1
This High-Riding Hypercar Packs a Quad-Turbo V-12
Not content to release just one V-12 hypercar, Giamaro Automobili has surprised us with this, the Albor, a high-riding coupe with that crazy quad-turbocharged engine in the middle. It's unlike anything we've ever seen. Giamaro founder Giacomo Commendatore calls it 'badass.' The company isn't yet releasing specs, but he tells Motor1 that it's taller than an Alfa Romeo Stelvio if you include the two roof scoops feeding the V-12. He considers this something new, a 'vertical' hypercar, that's not quite an SUV, but not quite a traditional performance car either. Photo by: Giamaro Automobili Like the Katla, the Albor is based around a carbon-fiber monocoque and features styling by Turinese design house Camal. It's named for a Martian volcano, Albor Tholus, to reflect its powerful, otherworldly vibe. The V-12 is a co-development with another Turin company, Italtecnica, which Giamaro owns a stake in. We don't know specs for this car yet, but in the Katla, this engine makes over 2,100 horsepower and pairs with a seven-speed transaxle with a choice of manual or paddle shifts. The car is being developed by a team led by Loris Bicocchi, a legend in the supercar world who's worked for Lamborghini, Bugatti, Pagani, and Koenigsegg. It's further away from production than the Katla, which Giamaro plans to start building next year, so the company has only revealed the car as a full-scale model. But, we should see this become a reality by the end of the decade. It'll be a reality like nothing we've ever seen before. 9 Source: Giamaro Automobili More From Giamaro This Quad-Turbo V-12 Hypercar Aims To Take on Pagani Share this Story Facebook X LinkedIn Flipboard Reddit WhatsApp E-Mail Got a tip for us? Email: tips@ Join the conversation ( )
