A new Italian automaker has revealed its first car, and it’s a throwback to a different era. The Rina is a small, lightweight barchetta built by Automobili Mignatta. We don’t know all the details just yet, but Mignatta did provide a few tidbits of information that make the car sound promising.
Under the hood is an unspecified, naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V-8 engine. Mignatta will announce official output later, but it’ll power the rear wheels through a six-speed gated manual transmission. Best of all, the H-pattern is gated—a sign of any truly great exotic sports car. When the Rina goes into production, it’ll be one of just two gated manual cars on sale (the other being the Pagani Utopia).
Photo by: Automobili Mignatta
Photo by: Automobili Mignatta
It’s light, too, weighing about 2,205 pounds—not having a roof and windshield will do that. The Rina has 19-inch front and 20-inch rear wheels. They help hide the six-piston front and four-piston rear Brembo brake calipers.
The Rina is all about providing an analog experience, and you won’t find any fancy screens spanning the dash or crammed behind the steering wheel. The Rina lacks those digitized goodies, instead featuring a big, Porsche-like tachometer in the center with a 6,200-rpm redline and four smaller dials around it.
The speedometer is in the center of the dashboard between the seats, above the aluminum switches for the various vehicle functions and the HVAC. The cabin has dark brown leather accents and exposed carbon fiber throughout. There’s even a cigarette lighter and what appears to be an ashtray next to the shifter.
The car starts at €290,000 ($322,000 at today’s exchange rate). There’s no word right now on how many will be built, or if any will make it to the US.
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