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Puritalia 427: Italian sports car pays homage to Shelby Cobra

As the nameplate suggests, the Puritalia 427 draws its inspiration from the legendary 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra.


Napoli-based Italian sports car manufacturer Puritalia Automobili designed the 427 because it saw a gap in the market for a high-end exotic roadster.

“We decided to design and engineer the 427 simply because a similar car doesn’t exist,” said Puritalia founder Paolo Parente. "It is unique in design, style, and most importantly in the way we build it. The result, a powerful car using best in class technologies and materials to enhance and elevate the driver’s experience."

Penned by Torino native Fabio Ferrante, the Puritalia 427 presented a tough challenge to the designer:

“[We aimed to] evoke the classic American muscle car spirit, enhanced by modern design and inspired by the taste and elegance of the Italian style," Ferrante explained, "without meddling with the design of the legendary roadsters of the swinging sixties, even though this [is] mainly a tribute to them."

Like the original 427 Cobra, the Puritalia 427 will be a lightweight sports car with truckloads of power. Under the bonnet is a 5.0-litre V8 developing 451kW/640Nm in supercharged guise, or 332kW/530Nm in naturally aspirated entry-level specification.

The Puritalia 427 weighs just 1090 kilograms and sports a 50:50 front/rear axle distribution.

The only transmission that will be offered with the 427 is a six-speed manual unit driving the rear wheels, with a limited slip differential and an aluminium driveshaft.

Also helping to keep all that power down are massive 335/30 series tyres on 20-inch alloy wheels at the rear and 275/35s up front on 19-inch wheels.

The brake package is sourced from Brembo and employs 380mm six-pots up front and 345mm fours at the rear.

Once homologation is completed, the company will build a limited run of just 100 cars, which can be ordered through the factory directly or via a small number of international dealers.

Puritalia Automobili is taking a bespoke customer approach to the specification and building of each car, and as such, the company has not yet released any pricing for the 427.

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