Osca hasn’t built a car in over half a century. Now the obscure Italian marque, once a Formula 1 also-ran, is promising a new V6-powered sports coupe that appears to borrow its guts from the Lotus Emira.
The revival is the brainchild of Massimo Di Risio, founder of DR Automobiles, Italy’s scrappy budget-brand conglomerate known for rebadging Chinese vehicles and selling them across Europe. Di Risio unveiled the Osca name alongside the MT6, a compact coupe-style SUV, but it was the teaser sketches of a proper sports car that turned heads.
Osca has confirmed two things: a partnership with a European automaker and a supercharged V6 engine. That narrows the field to one candidate. The Lotus Emira is the only current production car from a European manufacturer running a supercharged six, a Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter unit making 400 horsepower and 310 pound-feet of torque, routed to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual.
Lotus is owned by China’s Geely Group. DR Automobiles has built its entire business model around partnerships with Asian manufacturers, so a deal brokered through Geely’s corporate umbrella wouldn’t be unusual. Osca’s pointed, repeated use of the word “European” to describe its partner feels deliberate — technically accurate while sidestepping the Chinese ownership question entirely.
The teaser sketches, penned by Italdesign, show an aggressive two-seat coupe with round headlights, a wide grille, muscular fenders, and short overhangs that scream mid-engine layout. The proportions track with the Emira’s footprint. Italdesign also styled Osca’s SUV models, so the relationship is already established.
The original Osca — Officine Specializzate Costruzione Automobili — was founded in 1947 by the Maserati brothers after they left the company bearing their family name. It produced small, lightweight sports and racing cars through the 1950s and 1960s before fading into obscurity. The brand carries genuine heritage, even if most enthusiasts would need a history book to find it.
What makes this revival different from the usual zombie-brand exercise is the sports car itself. Most resurrected nameplates go straight to SUVs and crossovers because that’s where the money is. Di Risio is doing that too, with the MT6 and MT8, but leading the conversation with a rear-drive, manual-transmission coupe is either a sincere statement of intent or extremely effective marketing. Possibly both.
The open question is execution. DR Automobiles is not a luxury or performance house. It sells affordable, rebadged vehicles. Building a credible sports car — even one based on proven Lotus mechanicals — requires engineering depth, quality control, and brand credibility that DR has never had to demonstrate at this level.
The Emira itself is a strong foundation. It’s widely regarded as one of the best driver’s cars on sale, a last-of-breed analog sports car from a company now pivoting hard toward electrification. If Lotus is willing to sell the platform, it likely means the Emira’s days in its current form are numbered. Squeezing additional revenue from the architecture through licensing makes strategic sense.
No timeline, pricing, or production numbers have been announced. The project remains firmly in the teaser-sketch phase, which in automotive terms means anything from eighteen months to never.
But the idea alone is potent: a forgotten Italian name, a supercharged V6, rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox, and Italdesign bodywork over Lotus bones. If it actually happens, it could be the most interesting sports car nobody saw coming.
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