2012 Pagani Huayra - Review and Drive

2012 Pagani Huayra - First Look

2012 Pagani Huayra - Preview

2012 Pagani Huayra - Unveil

2012 Pagani Huayra - Reveal

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.

Named after the wind god of the South American Aymara culture, the Huayra should be swift, thanks to its AMG-built, biturbocharged, 6.0-liter V-12. With about 700 horsepow

er and 730 pound-feet of torque, the Huayra overpowers every Zonda except for the bonkers R track toy. All that power goes to the rear wheels courtesy of a seven-speed sequential gearbox. According to Pagani, a dual-clutch setup was considered, but would have added an unacceptable 154 pounds of weight. Somehow, we don’t think anyone will complain about shifts speed anyway.

Besides the insane amount of power, the Huayra promises to be quite light on its feet. Thanks in large part to a carbon-titanium monocoque and some clever packaging the Pagani has a dry weight of less than 3000 pounds. That means weight-to-power and weight-to-torque ratios of about 4.25 and 4.07, respectively, along with a top speed of around 230 miles per hour.

Backbone

The new central monocoque on the Pagani Huayra is an entirely new design made from carbontitanium. However, with the gull wing doors cutting deep into the roof, much research was focused on achieving the highest levels of rigidity through the application of new advanced composite materials and technologies first tested on the Zonda R. The fuel tank is located integrally in the best protected area of the monocoque, behind the driver, reinforced by safety cell made of different composite and ballistic materials. The front and rear CrMo subframes offer an exceptional rigidity-to-weight ratio to allowing the suspensions to work at their best while incorporating an advanced energy absorbing crash structure, ready to protect the occupants in the unlikely event of an impact.