Ask any 10-year-old what their dream car is and you can bet most of them will say a Pagani Zonda. Not only did it put design extraordinaire Horacio Pagani firmly on the map, but its drop-dead looks and mesmerising Mercedes V12 saw billionaires clambering to commission their own, arguably spawning the highly lucrative business of ‘one-off’ supercars. Such is the Zonda’s celebrity that there are people out there blithely unaware of the company that built it, simply referring to it as a ‘Zonda.’ Like Bono.
That made it a tough act to follow when the Huayra arrived in 2011. Unlike the howling naturally aspirated V12s that powered the countless iterations of Zondas, its replacement made use of a new, Pagani-specific AMG twelve with a brace of turbochargers strapped to it. Power and torque were up substantially, though that came at the expense of character. Whooshes are cool, but not as cool as the sound of an F1-style scream. Then there was the way it looked; more subtle than its predecessor and possibly more elegant, but, again, not as arresting as the Zonda either.
Until the special editions came along, that is. The ballistic BC upped the wow factor considerably with giant wings and even more grunt, while the track-only R brought the Zonda’s signature shriek back by ditching the turbos. Then there was the model we have here: the ultra-limited Huayra Roadster. While the BC added some much-needed purpose to its silky smooth silhouette, the Roadster proved that there was a stunning car in the Huayra waiting to be unlocked - it just needed a nip and tuck to get there.
Much of the Roadster’s design was inspired by the BC with a more pronounced nose, horizontal daytime running lights and a deeper front splitter. But it’s the two flicks above the trail lights that elevate Huayra’s style, topping off the supercar’s look with a touch more purpose than the coupe. Is it beautiful? That’s not for us to decide, but there’s no denying it's jaw-dropping. Not only that, but the Roadster is claimed to weigh less than the coupe. Pagani revised its sci-fi carbotanium material for the drop-top’s tub, making it both stronger and lighter than the fixed roof’s chassis and swerving the requirement for any strengthening to claw back lost rigidity. The result is a car that tips the scales at 1,280kg dry, some 70kg lighter than the coupe.
The engine, meanwhile, was the same 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 that powered the standard car, albeit dialled up to 764hp. The handful of people to have driven a Roadster say it’s let down by a dimwitted seven-speed automated manual gearbox, although surely that’s something most owners would happily gloss over because, well, look at it. Finished here in Rosso Dubai with gold accents, this 2019 car takes the Roadster’s phenomenal looks and dials them up to 11, nor is it undone by a garish interior; just plain black leather with red stitching and glossy carbon. This might just be one of the most tastefully specced Huayras on the planet.
A rare one at that, too. Though production was capped at 100 units, the same tally as the coupe, only 12 of those were produced in right-hand drive and (according to the ad) just five were destined for the UK market. This is one of those five cars, recently serviced by Pagani and upgraded with the latest spec clutch and flywheel. You’ll need to give the seller a bell to see how much it’s going for, but a quick Google search suggests the going rate for coupes is north of £2,000,000. Expect to add at least another million on top for the Roadster. So then, do you take the Huayra Roadster or hunt down an old Zonda for similar money? The floor is yours…
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