It seems that just about every other week there is a new, small-scale company that is busy restomodding old favourites, or reskinning more modern machinery. But the Automobili Mignatta Rina is an all-new product from a boutique manufacturer based near Turin, Italy. The latter is a fact that the company is really proud of, underlining its Piedmontese heritage.

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Rina is proudly linked to Piedmont, the homeland of many milestones in the international automotive industry. It is a sports car that celebrates Italian style and conveys the feeling of driving ‘for real’, perhaps on the hills of Monferrato or the Langhe, enjoying the evocative Piedmontese landscapes and the inebriating sound of its powerful V8 engine. With Rina we aspire to make the art of making cars coincide with pure grace, creating a beauty characterised by noble simplicity and quiet grandeur
–  Josè Mignatta Automobili Mignatta

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Cutting Edge

The Automobili Mignatta Rina is not a restomod or reskinned/rebodied version of some other sportscar. Instead it is based on a completely unique and new carbon-fibre monocoque of the company’s own design and manufacture. As a result of the lightweight construction, the company says it is targeting a mass of 1 000 kg. This reminds us of another, small-scale Italian manufacturer that is based in Modena, and goes by the name Pagani.

Click here to watch our video drive of a Pagani Huayra BC.

The Rina is a barchetta (little boat in Italian) as it is an open-top car, with no provisions for a roof. There are just little wind deflectors to protect the occupants from the elements. There are also two roll hoops attached the rear bulkhead. The shape was penned to evoke the classic Italian sportscars of the 1960s. Think Lamborghini Miura, Bizzarrini Strada and Ferrari Lusso and you start to get the idea. There are no spoilers, no movable aero devices and no diffusers to be seen as maximum grip isn’t the priority here.

Click here to watch our video drive of a Dallara Stradale.

Old School

To keep the theme of driving purity, Automobili Mignatta will fit the Rina with a 5,0-litre V8 under than sensuous bonnet. There is no detail regarding power outputs, except to say that the engine is naturally aspirated. The name Italtecnica Engineering, a specialised firm that rebuilds and reengineers powertrains, has been bandied around. The best part is that the engine will be mated to a six-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels through a limited-slip differential.