Lancia Aurelia Restomod On The Way With 300bhp Alfa Romeo Busso V6

One of the greatest, best-sounding engines of all time was offered in all sorts of relatively ordinary cars. We’re talking about Alfa Romeo‘s ‘Busso’ V6, named after its designer Giuseppe Busso, who died just days on from his famed engine going out of production at the factory in Arese.

By that time, the V6 had made its way into various Alfa Romeo models in various capacities. This makes the Busso engine ideal, then, for livening up older cars while still giving them something that provides a suitably retro soundtrack. Older cars like the Lancia Aurelia ‘European CSL’ from British company Thornley Kelham.

This isn’t it. What you see here is actually the final ‘Outlaw’ car, which uses an upgraded version of the original Lancia V6 producing around 220bhp, and features a steel body. While revealing this, Thornley Kelham also gave tantalising and somewhat distracting details of the CSL.

220bhp is already nearly double what a stock Aurelia manages, but the Busso-engined Aurelia will be taking things further. A 3.2-litre version of the V6 will be treated to balanced, ported and polished cylinder heads, providing over 300bhp. All of this will be sent to the rear wheels via a five-speed transaxle.

It’ll be plenty fast, since the CSL uses a new aluminium body, dropping the weight by 75kg. All told, it tips the scales at a mere 1,100kg.

With the rest of the car left alone, that power-to-weight ratio would be a recipe for a boisterous driving experience, but thankfully the work doesn’t stop there. Like the steel-bodied Outlaws, the CSL will receive a modern disc brake setup, rack and pinion steering and upgraded suspension. The CSL adds a limited-slip differential, further uprated suspension and optional power steering into the mix.

CSL’s cabin will still offer a thoroughly retro experience, but with plenty of modern touches including Alcantara headlining, air conditioning and a roll cage. The interior can be specced to the customer’s tastes with various seat, dashboard and trim options offered.

Pricing isn’t mentioned in the press release, but with it taking 5,000 hours to make one of these starting with a “basket case” Aurelia, we’re safe to assume the figure is one best described as “a lot”. There’ll be three CSLs, on top of the six Outlaws already built.