2012 Pagani Huayra First Look

In his hands, Horacio Pagani holds a 50th-scale aluminum representation of his work over the last seven years. It's a model of the 2012 Pagani Huayra, the fruition of the project long known as the C9 at his workshop. The name comes from a god of wind in the Andes, an appropriate talisman for a car propelled by a twin-turbo V12 and meant to fly along the ground at more than 200 mph.

It turns out that this aluminum model of the Huayra (it sounds like "wire" when spoken with a thick Spanish accent) is in fact the ignition key for Horacio's new car. It is the least inconspicuous key you'll find to any car.

But then it is just such an outrageous design sense that has helped lift Pagani over the last decade from relative obscurity to become a brand that every enthusiast recognizes. And yet Horacio Pagani says that his new car is utterly unlike his now-famous Pagani Zonda.

The wind is now blowing in a different direction.

The God of Wind
We're here on a tiny island in the Mediterranean Sea between Corsica and Sardinia as Horacio Pagani oversees the production of a promotional video for his new car. He's a long way from his workshop in San Cesaro sul Panero, a tiny suburb of Modena, Italy, where he began building the Zonda C12 back in 1999.

The 2012 Pagani Huayra is more than just an evolution of the Zonda, though. It starts with the engine, for the Zonda's racing-specification, normally aspirated 7.0-liter Mercedes V12 has been replaced by an AMG-tuned twin-turbo 6.0-liter Mercedes V12.

In standard form, the turbocharged 5,980cc V12 will produce 700 horsepower at 6,300 rpm and 664 pound-feet of torque from 2,500-4,250 rpm. The Sport version will make 730 hp and 811 lb-ft of torque. The basic engine comes from the Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series. AMG adds new pistons, cylinder heads, exhaust manifolds and turbochargers. Horacio Pagani notes this turbocharged powertrain makes it possible to meet air emissions regulations, so he plans to get certification for the U.S. market.

Horacio says that maximum speed is not important anymore, then he tells us that the car will do 230 mph.

The turbo V12 produces a very different engine note from the naturally aspirated wail of the Zonda's V12. At idle, the engine is relatively discreet, with a heavy bass note from the exhaust. But once the engine is on boost, the Huayra makes its presence abundantly clear, emitting a jetlike roar that's audible clear across the valley of this little island. It's less thrilling than the flamboyant V12, but more obviously forceful. Horacio says he wanted the Huayra to give the feeling of a powerful airplane on take-off.

The Art of Pagani
Even when it's stationary the 2012 Pagani Huayra is mesmerizing. As one would expect from Horacio Pagani's background in carbon-fiber research, the Huayra's composition is exotic. The bodywork is carbon fiber, of course. The car measures 180.3 inches overall, 80.2 inches wide and 46 inches high.

The carbon-fiber monocoque beneath features carbon-titanium. The tub's titanium reinforcement allows the plastic to flex rather than shatter when it responds to an impact, and yet structural strength and integrity aren't compromised. The car carries a double-wishbone suspension with coil springs and antiroll bars front and rear, and 15-inch carbon-ceramic brakes are at each corner. You'll find Pirelli P Zero tires at each corner as well, 225/35ZR19s in front and 335/30ZR20s in the rear. When the fuel tank is dry, the car weighs 2,976 pounds.

The Huayra has gullwing doors — a first for Pagani. Meanwhile, the overall body acts like a sophisticated aircraft wing with forward slats and rearward flaps, changing its shape to manage the airflow to best effect. Movable aerodynamic flaps lie at each corner, and each one has been programmed to independently trim the car at speed. They work together front and rear to add aerodynamic downforce and enhance traction during extreme acceleration and braking, and they also work from side to side to enhance cornering grip. In addition, the front ride height is reduced automatically at speed to decrease lift, then increases under braking to reduce dive. The ride height also increases at low speed so you can crawl the car into a parking garage.

A Machine for Speed
Throughout the 2012 Pagani Huayra's development, there have been lots of rumors about the transmission that would be selected for the car. Pagani decided that an automated manual system is appropriate for a race-bred car like this one, but he also soon discovered that dual-clutch gearboxes are still limited by their torque capacity. As a result, the Huayra features a quick-shifting single-clutch automated manual transmission, much like the ones in the Audi R8 5.2 FSI and Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. The 212-pound, seven-speed transmission is built for Pagani by XTRAC, the same British company that supplied the gearbox for the Pagani Zonda R.

When you take a seat in the car (look, airbags!), you'll find shift paddles on the steering wheel and a lever on the center console. Horacio Pagani has tried to maintain the special link between man and machine by giving the shift linkage a heavy, mechanical feel. Even the center console itself has been machined from a single block of aluminum. At the same time, there's a satellite navigation system with a touchscreen, because the Huayra is meant to be a GT car, not a racing car.

Currently Horacio Pagani is being quite coy about the Huayra's performance and says, "Maximum speed is not the most important thing for us." Yet in the next breath he mentions that 230 mph has been seen in testing. Zero to 100 km/h (62 mph)? The best Pagani has seen in cold track conditions is 3.3 seconds, which is pretty good considering the difficulty of getting the tires to hook up so much engine torque (a three-stage traction and stability control system from Bosch helps).

The Future of Flamboyance
The 2012 Pagani Huayra is a step into the future for Pagani. A decade ago, the Zonda cost $320,000, but now the Huayra will carry a price tag of about $1.4 million, and that's for the version with the standard engine.

It won't be easy to find customers for a car so expensive, but Horacio Pagani is confident that new access to the markets in China and the United States will make the difference. He's even getting ready to build a new production facility this year.

And why not? Horacio Pagani started with only a vision a little more than a decade ago and look how far he has come. When you name a car for the wind god of the Aymara — a native people of the Andes that pre-date the Incas — anything seems possible.