- DR Automobiles is reviving Osca after almost 60 years of lying dormant.
- The company will first launch the MT6 SUV, based on the Changan UNI-T.
- A Lotus-based model will then be launched with a 3.5-liter supercharged V6.
Italian company DR Automobiles, a firm that built its name importing Chinese vehicles and rebadging them, is bringing back Osca, a long-dead Italian sports car maker, and says a mid-engined model built on Lotus hardware is part of the plan.
The first Osca-badged model to arrive under the revived marque, which started life in 1947 and folded in 1967, is an SUV called the MT6. Underneath, it’s essentially a badge-engineered version Changan UNI-T wearing a reworked front bumper, a different grille, and reshaped headlights. DR Automobiles also says the 1.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder has been given a unique calibration along with a handful of other changes.
Read: Italy Fines DR Automobiles $6.4M For Passing Off Chinese Cars As Italian
It’s not exactly the most compelling SUV, although it’s clear the company thinks there’s a future in vehicles like this. This comes despite the Italian Competition Authority fining the firm €6 million ($6.8 million) two years ago for implying that its vehicles were built in Italy, even though they were actually produced in China and only slightly tweaked before landing on European shores.
There Is Something To Get Excited About
More exciting is what DR Automobiles has up its sleeve. While speaking recently with Askanews, company boss Massimo Di Risio said Osca will have a mid-engined sports car prototype ready later this year and will start selling it in 2027.
Di Risio revealed that the model will be based on the Lotus Emira, using the same aluminum chassis and Toyota’s 3.5-liter supercharged V6 engine. Apparently, the car will be created in partnership with Italdesign, so it certainly has the potential to be quite good-looking. Whether or not it will retain most of the Emira’s panels and receive new badges remains to be seen.
Osca plans to sell the sports car in Europe first, with a starting price of at least €200,000 (about $227,400 at current exchange rates), reports Autoblog. To put that into perspective, you can get a well-equipped V6-powered Emira for around €110,000 ($125,000). Just where the added value of the Osca model will come from remains to be seen. After launching in Europe, DR Automobiles also hopes to start selling the car in the United States.
