Here’s everything you need to know about the 2,137bhp Giamaro Automobili Katla

Hopefully you’ve read the news about the 2,137bhhp Giamaro Automobili Katla by now. Heck, if that headline power figure didn’t make you click on the initial story, we don’t know what would have done.

Of course, you’d be right to treat its claims with a healthy dose of skepticism given how regularly new companies pop up declaring that they’re the next big thing in the world of hypercars. There are usually some renders of a car, outlandish performance figures and limited detail on who will actually build the thing or when deliveries to customers could feasibly begin. Yes, we’re looking at you Dendrobium D-1, Devel Sixteen, Vencer Sarthe, TranStar Dagger GT etc.

As a result, when an invitation landed in our inboxes to attend the launch of the latest “thrilling new chapter in the annals of automotive excellence”, we very nearly dismissed it without a second thought. Then we slapped ourselves on the wrists for not being giddy at 2,000bhp and jumped on the next plane to Italy.

So yes, TopGear.com was there as Giamaro Automobili unveiled the Katla to the world. “In Modena, at the heart of the Motor Valley,” said the invitation, which turned out to mean ‘on a small industrial estate in Cavezzo, still in the province of Modena but roughly 40 minutes from the city’s centre’. Still, the glitzy launch event was held in a genuine factory where the smell of fresh paint still lingered, and TG rubbed shoulders with local dignitaries (it wouldn’t be an Italian event without the local police chief showing up), prospective customers and interested dealers.

Given how little we knew about Giamaro from the initial press release, it was an enlightening evening. So, we’re going to treat this like one of those Frequently Asked Questions sections that the internet seems to love. Here goes…

So, is this just some faceless fake company that’s making wild claims on the internet?

Well, the claims are indeed wild, but the company’s launch event did seem pretty legit. It turns out that Giamaro was actually born back in 2021 and is the work of father and son team Giacomo and Pierfrancesco Commendatore.

Giacomo describes himself as an entrepreneur and seemingly made his money from a mattress company and through telesales in the 80s and 90s, but he was also one of the first investors in a little-known company called Pagani. Aha!

“This was a fantastic project,” he says. “Horacio was an amazing man, but in the end, we had different ideas. He prefers aesthetics while I adore functionality.”

Interesting. Commendatore Sr also tells TG that the reason we haven’t heard of Giacomo until now, despite the company being four years old, is because “we don’t like to talk, we like to build cars”. And yes, he does have the perfect surname to be running a car company in Modena. Well, near Modena.

We’re told Giacomo now has 22 full time employees, with many seemingly coming from Pagani, Lamborghini and Ferrari. Oh, and it’s the Commendatore family that’s financing the project. “I know it sounds ambitious,” says Giacomo. Although given the VIP parking outside the factory for the family looks like an up-to-date Ferrari showroom, we reckon there’s probably enough cash to get things going.

Is it actually going to be a production car?

That’s the aim. “Pagani now has the heritage. Right now, we are like Pagani was at the beginning,” says a former employee of Horacio’s who now works for Giamaro.

Very much unlike Pagani though, Giamaro wants to get straight into building more than one car. At the launch of the Katla it also unveiled a full-sized model of the off-roading Albor, and we can confirm that it looks absolutely bonkers.

Whether it reaches production is still undecided though. “The second car is still just an idea,” said a source. “It is the same carbon tub and the same engine so we could do it if people want it. It would be like nothing else on the market.”

How many will be built?

We now know that Giamaro plans to build 100 examples of the Katla, and it reckons it’ll be able to put 30 cars together each year when production gets going. It expects to deliver the first customer car in 2027, and they’ll initially be built in Cavezzo before a move to a new factory in Castelfranco Emilia in the near-ish future. A 17th Century villa is apparently also being restored near to that new factory – that’ll be known as ‘Palazzo Giamaro’ and will apparently be a space for customers to configure and customise their cars.

Oh, and the 170kg carbon tub is currently stuck together by a company in Tuscany, but Giamaro wants to have its own composite department when it moves into its new home. These are lofty ambitions.

How much will it cost?

There’s no easy way of saying this. It’s €2.47m. And that’s before you add tax and any optional extras. There will be extras too. A source told TG that most cars will probably see an extra €250k spent, but given how much customisation Giamaro wants to offer, there could be up to €1m of extras.

“My dream was to have a car that was an extension of the customer. Like a piece of your hands or face,” says Giacomo. Right.

Has it sold any?

Apparently 20 cars were already spoken for before the reveal event, so there are still plenty of spots left open if you’ve got a spare few million lying around.

Surely that engine can’t be real?

The yellow demo car on display was only static, but Giamaro brought along its genuine working and driving camouflaged prototype to the reveal event and plonked it in the car park outside. It has a slightly different exhaust setup to the production-intent concept and it’s apparently only running at the 1,647bhp tune at the moment, but it is genuinely a 7.0-litre V12 with four Garrett turbochargers and a 120-degree hot V layout.

The engine itself has been developed and will be produced by the Turin-based firm Italtecnica, but Giamaro now owns a stake in said company so it will be bespoke.

Who penned the exterior?

Giamaro does now have its own in-house design department, but the Katla and the Albor are the work of Caval Studio and its founder Alessandro Camorali. Having previously worked with Ferrari, Pininfarina and Bertone, Camorali tells TG that for the Katla the inspiration came from the supercars of the 1990s. He lists the Bugatti EB110 and Lamborghini Diablo as influences with their rear-heavy design showing off the mid-engined layout.

What else do I need to know?

While working to bring the Pagani Zonda to life, Giacomo met legendary test driver and engineer Loris Bicocchi, and the pair have now teamed up again with Bicocchi joining Giamaro as chief test driver.

He’s a man with an impressive CV, having started his career at Lamborghini working on the Urraco and the Countach. He then went on to help develop another quad-turbo V12 – the Bugatti EB110 – before the stint at Pagani. He then returned to Bugatti to work on the Veyron, while also moonlighting as the test driver for another young upstart company called Koenigsegg. Safe to say the man knows his way around a hypercar.

And it will only be hypercars for Giamaro. The Albor may be high-riding, but Giacomo insists that it’s not an SUV. “We are only making hypercars, but there will be many,” he told attendees at the launch. Let’s just hope they brought their wallets along…