Mazzanti Evantra History

Luca Mazzanti began developing the Evantra in 2008 and worked with Hungarian designer Zsolt Tarnok to finalise the styling. The car was presented as a project in 2011 and made its public debut at the Top Marques Monaco Show in 2013. Its name is drawn from the Etruscan language, historically associated with the concept of immortality.

The foundation of every Evantra is a hand-built carbon-fibre and aluminium spaceframe chassis carrying a mid-mounted, large-displacement Chevrolet-sourced V8 — initially the naturally aspirated 7.0-litre LS7, later variants using supercharged 6.2-litre LT2 units or enlarged, twin-turbocharged derivatives. The original car produced approximately 701 hp and was quoted at 0–100 km/h in 3.2 seconds with a top speed exceeding 350 km/h (217 mph). Only five Evantras are produced per year, each built to order.

The range has expanded significantly since launch. The Evantra 771 (2016) upgraded output to 771 hp and added a 7-speed sequential gearbox. The Evantra 781 swapped in a supercharged 6.2-litre LT2 V8 for 781 hp and revised double-wishbone suspension. The open-top Evantra Pura (announced 2021) uses the LT2 in a lighter 1,290 kg body with a 7-speed manual gearbox — the only manual-transmission Evantra — and reaches 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds.

At the extreme end sits the Evantra Millecavalli ('thousand horses' in Italian), first shown as a prototype in 2016. Its twin-turbocharged LS7-based engine grew through development — initially 7.2 litres and approximately 1,000 hp, ultimately enlarged to 7.4 litres in the Millecavalli R variant producing 1,121 hp and 1,210 N·m of torque. Mazzanti claims a top speed of 402 km/h (250 mph) for the Millecavalli and plans a production run of 25 units total.