Is Mazzanti’s Evantra Millecavalli even more extreme than Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani?

If you were asked to name the most extreme and powerful Italian hypercar, you might suggest a Ferrari, a Lamborghini or a Pagani. But you would be wrong.

The Mazzanti Evantra Millecavalli – exclusive and hand-built in Tuscany in a traditional workshop – is the correct answer.

It was a Saturday morning, the only day in which Luca Mazzanti, the 42-year-old founder, designer, developer and tester of Mazzanti Automobili, has a few hours of freedom from work to welcome visitors. As long as you have an appointment.

The company is located on the other side of the Apennini where the famous and legendary factories of Italian supercars are based. On the slopes of the Tuscan hills, just outside Pisa, this small coachbuilder was established 15 years ago.  There are no robots, mechanical arms or assembly lines. Mazzanti Automobili is a real coachbuilder, like those of the past, and only to them Luca Mazzanti owes his passion.

Luca’s father had a bodyshop, where his passion was born, and finally bloomed when he began working for Faralli, a restorer of vintage cars. There Luca began to encounter the biggest and rarest Italian coachbuilders’ creations of the past, starting from a photograph (often faded), to rebuild car wrecks or recondition those worn by time, sympathetic to the memories of masters who had designed them, such as Zagato, Vignale or Pininfarina.

Mazzanti Automobili started with the restoration and changes to current supercars, while the development of an extreme sports took shape in 2013 with the world premiere at the Top Marques with the Mazzanti Evantra Prototype 00.

It has a 7.0-litre Corvette-derived engine and produces 700hp. The idea is to produce very few, and enable almost limitless customisation.

Its sculpted lines, says Luca, are inspired by the profile of the Tuscan hills. Hence the huge wheel arches, a low front and a high tail. A car in which good aerodynamics are essential, without relying on big spoilers.

An example of the true coachbuilders thought, are the doors that have an opening called ‘elitra’, said brutally “upwind”, Rolls style, but in this case the opening is carried towards the outside and upwards. To ensure that this type of door didn’t fall to earth, as happened to others, they worked on  a long study of the hinges.

“Changing can be uncomfortable because of the feeling of uncertainly. On the contrary, evolving is something natural, right and proper,” said Luca.

That’s why evolution never stopped and along with Evantra 00, in the workshop there is the 01, destined to a Chinese collector. The appropriately revised engine delivers 751 hp.

Next to the two creations in the workshop, another evolution was taking shape The Italian most powerful street-legal hypercar ever built. Another evolution of the Evantra.

Using technologies from aerospace and Formula 1, the wing tip, allows you to convert to passive to active force with the flow of heat generated extracted from the engine and directed beyond the rear wing.

The Mazzanti Evantra Millecavalli was unveiled in a world premiere in June 2016, and changes for the latest model were not only aesthetic. The engine that drives the most extreme Italian car is a 7.2 Biturbo V8, capable of delivering 1200Nm of torque, reach up to 250mph top speed with 0-60mph in 2.7 seconds.

It has a new sequential six-speed gearbox and Brembo Motorsport brake system that can slow the new Mazzanti Evantra from 186mph to zero in seven seconds.

Want one? Just 25 cars will be built, so best get friendly with Luca soon.

Power output? It’s in the name: Mazzanti Evantra ‘Millecavalli’ –  a thousand horsepower in Italian. This is the true supercar hand made in Italy, where, as Luca says: “For every screw, there is a person who tightened it”. Not a robot.