Pagani Zonda In spotlight
Pagani Zonda
The Pagani Zonda is one of those cars that makes you desperately want to win the lottery. It's got everything a proper supercar should have: a gorgeous, lightweight carbon fiber body, a race inspired chassis, gobs of power from a smooth, high-revving V12, and a shift-it-yourself 6-speed manual that lets you feel the power meet the road.
For being a relatively newcomer to the supercar market, the Zonda has a surprisingly long and interesting past. Its roots go all the way back to Argentina in the early 1970's where Horacia Pagani first developed his love for cars. As a teenager Horacio was tuning cars, and by twenty years of age he had already built his own racecar. As fortune would have it, the young Horacio would become friends with legendary racecar driver Juan Manuel Fangio who helped him get a job with Lamborghini in Italy. While at Lamborghini, Pagani helped create the Countach Evoluzione, the first ever road car with a chassis composed of composite materials. His work with carbon fiber correctly convinced him that lightweight composites would be the material of the future for supercars.
Horacio first approached Juan Manuel Fangio about building a supercar in early 1988. Pagani wanted to name the car after his long-time friend, and the ex-Mercedes driver agreed as long as a Mercedes-Benz engine was used. By 1991, Pagani had created his own company, Modena Design, and took on several major clients like Ferrari and Renault using his expert knowledge of composites. Using the cash flow from his new business, Pagani began the development of his new supercar. Even with the down-turn of the economy in the mid-1990's, Pagani's financial situation remained stable, and the development on the car slowly continued.
The Zonda C12 (due to Juan Manuel Fangio's recent death, Pagani changed the name of the car out of respect - C stands for Group-C cars which influenced the design of the car, and 12 stands for the V12 engine) was first introduced at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show. Horacio was so convinced of the demand for the car that it was already crash tested and ready to be produced. Within just a few months after its introduction at Geneva, Pagani already had two years worth of orders for the car.
Costing an incredible $320,000, the Zonda was on the higher end of competing exotics but still offered a lot of car for the money. With the help of a free-breathing exhaust, the Mercedes V12's output is just slightly more than when mated with the Mercedes SL600. The 6-liter engine produces 408 hp @ 5200 rpm and 421 lb-ft torque @ 3800 rpm. Power is transmitted through a 5-speed manual gearbox, and massive tires (255/402R18 front, 345/352R18 rear) help the power get to the ground with the absence of traction control. Besides the smooth-revving engine, weight is perhaps the most important aspect of the car's performance. Owing to Horacio's expert knowledge of carbon fiber, the Zonda tips the scales at just under 2775 lbs. That's nearly 1000 lbs less than a Murcielago, and about 1100 pounds lighter than a 550 Maranello, and it shows with the performance of the car. Sixty mph comes up in just over four seconds, and 100 mph arrives in double that. Top speed is listed at a conservative 185 mph.
Also setting it apart from rival supercars is the attention to quality that was given to the design and production of the Zonda. Unlike most small car makes that generally have to source parts from larger manufacturers, Horacio was able to design nearly every part of the car. Just as the exterior design of the car could be considered artwork, the interior shows Pagani's talent for design as well. The combination of carbon fiber, aluminum, and leather surrounds the passenger and driver in perhaps the most attractive interior of any supercar ever built. Pagani even provides a custom set of leather luggage and a set of driving shoes with every car.
Just a few years later in 2002, Pagani introduced an improved version of the Zonda named the C12-S. Removing the 6-liter V12, Horacio stuffed Mercedes' largest engine, a 7.3 liter unit, into the rear of the Zonda. Power figures increased to 555 hp @ 5900 rpm and 553 lb-ft torque @ 4050 rpm. Other enhancements to the car include a new 6-speed gearbox, a custom air intake, traction control, and ABS brakes. A close inspection of the exterior reveals a new two-piece rear wing and a F1-inspired front end. All of these changes came at a price increase of only $25,000. With the upgrades, the Zonda performs on par or better than elite supercars of the world. Sixty mph could now be achieved in the mid three second range, and with a long enough straightaway the C12-S could hit 220 mph.
A year after the C12-S was introduced, Pagani came right back with a limited-edition roadster version of his already exclusive supercar using the 7.3-liter V12 from the C12-S. The drop-top Zonda featured several important changes to help it maintain the performance of the original models. The carbon fiber chassis was modified to improve the structural rigidity, and a roll bar was installed that is directly linked to the chassis. The rear of the car featured substantial changes to help get air to the engine including two NACA air vents. New 9-spoke rims also set it apart from the other models. The weight of the roadster is listed at a heftier 2975 lbs, but performance remains similar to the hardtop version: 3.6 seconds to sixty mph, and a top speed of 200+ mph. Only forty Zonda Roadsters will ever be produced.
Pagani has not only succeeded where others have failed, but he has succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. In just a few years the Zonda has established itself as the supercar to beat in terms of performance, exclusivity, and desirability. One could even speculate that the name Pagani would be more synonymous with exotic cars than Ferrari or Lamborghini if Horacio had started making cars 50 years earlier.
