Pagani Huayra C9


Debut: 2012
Maker: Pagani
Predecessor: Zonda (1999)



 Published on 9 Nov 2012 All rights reserved. 


In the past decade the supercar world has experienced a radical shift of power. Pagani has emerged to the top tier (together with Koenigsegg and the reborn Bugatti) as it offers the exclusivity, craftsmanship and engineering excellence not even its Modena neighbors could match. Through endless evolution, its C12 Zonda has become the most sought after supercar in the world. However, originally designed in the early 1990s, the Zonda has well past its planned lifespan, whereas the supply of AMG M120 V12 is also coming to the end as AMG committed to build only 250 units. Both reasons motivated Horacio Pagani to develop his second generation supercar, C9 Huayra.

The Huayra is named after the God of Wind in South American legends. More so than Zonda, it is shaped to enhance aerodynamics and cooling – the former is required by its higher, 224 mph top speed, while the latter is necessary for its now turbocharged V12 engine. The Huayra might look a bit fatter and bulkier than the Zonda in pictures, but in the real world you will find it more beautiful. Its curvier surfaces appear more modern, its details more elegant and the build quality is better than ever. As Horacio Pagani said, it combines Art and Science like the masterpieces of Leonardo da Vinci. Some rivals, say, Ferrari F12, might be more aerodynamic efficient, but their aero aids usually spoil aesthetic. Unlike them, the Huayra captures your imagination with its fighter jet-inspired shape. Its centrally mounted quad-exhaust is definitely the highlight. Ditto the 4 movable aero flaps that adjust downforce and maintain dynamic balance of the car. Depending on their angles the coefficient of drag varies between 0.31 and 0.36. Viewing from the cockpit, the regularly rising and falling flaps bring an extra sense of occasion. In short, this car combines forms and functions better than any other supercars.


Like the last Zonda Cinque and Zonda R, the Huayra employs a stronger yet lighter kind of carbon-fiber materials than those of its rivals – carbon-titanium. It is made of titanium threads woven with carbon-fiber sheets. The central tub, integrated roof frames and the whole bodywork are all made of this exotic material. This helps the Huayra to achieve a dry weight of 1350 kg, some 225 kg and 490 kg less than Lamborghini Aventador and Bugatti Veyron SS respectively. It is not as remarkable as the 1210 kg Zonda Cinque though, mainly because of its heavier turbocharged engine, enhanced comfort and compliance for the US market.

Bolted fore and aft of the load-bearing survival cell are subframes made of chrome-moly steel. They provide mounting for the powertrain and the all-double-wishbone suspensions. The latter is made of avional, an aluminum-based alloy that is lighter than aluminum by 30 percent. Predictably, racing-style in-board horizontal spring and damper units are used. The front suspension has a hydropneumatic jack to avoid damaging the nose on rough roads. Otherwise, the suspensions are purely passive. The 19-inch front and 20-inch rear forged alloy wheels house Brembo carbon-ceramic brakes and are shod with specially developed Pirelli P-Zero tires.



Like us, Mr. Pagani preferred a naturally aspirated V12 for its sharper throttle response and better sound quality, but obviously his request was turned down by Mercedes on the ground of cost – although the official reason is to reduce emission. What AMG offers is a 5980 c.c. twin-turbo V12 with codename M158. It is derived from the one powering the now retired SL65 AMG Black, and its roots can be traced back to the S600 in 1998. No wonder it still employs cylinder heads with single overhead camshaft and 3 valves per cylinder. There is neither variable valve timing nor direct injection. What it does get are bespoke intake and exhaust system, new IHI turbochargers, new intercoolers, dry-sump lubrication, revised ECU and of course plenty of capacity and turbo boost. At merely 5800 rpm, it releases 730 horsepower, 52 more than the last iteration of road-going Zonda. Unsurprisingly, its torque delivery is even better. From 2250 to 4500 rpm it delivers the maximum 738 lbft or 1000 Nm of torque. This could have been higher still if not limited by the gearbox, but who cares?

One problem concerning the M158 twin-turbo V12 is its extra weight and tremendous torque. The latter necessitates a stronger and heavier gearbox which could hamper chassis balance further. That's why Pagani adopted a 7-speed sequential gearbox built by British company Xtrac. Compared with a modern twin-clutch transmission with comparable torque capacity, it is at least 70 kg lighter. Moreover, the Xtrac unit has a strong advantage in packaging because it is mounted transversely behind the engine. As it does not protrude beyond the rear axle, weight distribution is greatly improved. In addition to a lengthened wheelbase (from the Zonda's 2730 to 2795 mm), the Huayra manages to attain 44:56 weight distribution, better than most mid-engined rear-drive supercars and even the 4-wheel-drive Lamborghini Aventador.



On the downside, the lack of twin-clutch gearbox means it is impossible to launch the Pagani as quick as some rivals. Even with the presence of electronic launch control, Pagani claims 3.2 seconds to sprint from standstill to 60 mph. That might be a magic number in the days of McLaren F1, but today even a Nissan GT-R is good for 2.9 seconds. Is the Pagani too tamed?

No, of course not. The Huayra's power-to-weight ratio guarantees spectacular performance once it has overcome initial tire slip. Moreover, the attraction of Pagani has always been more than numbers...

Swing up the gullwing door, you will find the most beautiful cockpit in the sports car industry. Its extensive use of carbon-fiber and CNC-milled aluminum parts is astonishing, and their finishing is first rate. Equally amazing are the jewel-like instruments, bespoke switches, stylish air vents and exposed gearshift mechanism – if da Vinci designed a car today, it could have looked like this one! Style aside, the cockpit also functions very well. There is excellent visibility to the front as the windscreen is deep and expansive. Less so to the back but still better than most supercars. The glass roof leads to a light and airy ambience not found in its rivals. The space and seating comfort are excellent. Entry to the cabin is easy, thanks to the gullwing doors. A modern satellite navigation screen and a stylish driving information display guarantee convenience of use.




The Huayra does not start with push-button but the most elegant ignition key we have ever seen – it is a miniature Huayra milled from solid aluminum. Fire the engine, however, you might be slightly disappointed. The AMG twin-turbo V12 does not sing as beautifully as the outgoing 7.3-liter unit at any rev. Its bass soundtrack is occupied with busy whoosh and whistles from the turbo wastegates which sound more noises than music in the ears of purists. Unsurprisingly, throttle response is not as sharp, too, but this engine has precious little turbo lag – less than the one on SL65 Black because of the smaller turbines it used. It would pull smoothly from as little as 1000 rpm, but its true colors lie beyond 2500 rpm, when a rush of thrust surges the car forward, pressing your head hard on the headrest. Keep pressuring the throttle and you will exceed triple-digit speed in the blink of eye. Forget that 0-60 claim, this is really one of the fastest cars on the planet, one that needs your full commitment to the driving when its wild temper is released.

With 738 pound-foot of torque running through the rear wheels, the Huayra is not as easy to drive as Bugatti Veyron or Ferrari F12, of course. However, it is neither as difficult to tame as imagined. Thanks to incredible traction and grip generated by those Pirelli rubbers, it is not easy to spin or slide unless you deliberately do so, at least on dry surface. While the Xtrac gearbox is nowhere as smooth as DCTs, its gearshift is fast, and the shift quality is not as brutal as that of Lamborghini Aventador.



Like Zonda, the Huayra rides with suppleness rarely seen on supercars. It feels at home on mountain roads, in town as well as on highway. This versatile manner makes it a lot more usable than the single-minded Koenigsegg. You can drive it for a cross-country trip if you don't mind its lack of luggage space. Meanwhile, the car also corners beautifully. It shows excellent balance and body control. The active aero flaps keep it stable through corners. The hydraulic steering is quick and old-school communicative. The ceramic brakes are immensely powerful, accompanied with excellent pedal feel, too. At the limit, its handling is fairly progressive. As long as you control the throttle sensibly and act fast on the steering, you can induce oversteer in slow corners. On regular roads, the Huayra is more agile and adjustable than Bugatti and Koenigsegg.

Nevertheless, compare with the previous Zonda, some sense of agility and feel has been lost. In order to tame its beast side, Pagani has dialed some initial understeer into its suspension geometry and increased its steering effort. This makes it feel less sensitive and less transparent to the driver. Purists will also prefer Zonda for its keener throttle response, linear power delivery and better sound quality, whereas Huayra will attract those pursuing dramatic performance, sense of occasion and the best build quality. In other words, it is a better car to compete with Bugatti and Koenigsegg. Is it a better car than those? If you appreciate the art-and-science philosophy of Leonardo da Vinci, the answer will be definitely yes.

No wonder Pagani has already got 96 units or more than 2 years worth of orders, even though each costing 845,000 euros plus tax! If you place order now, you won't get delivery until 2015. No kidding!
Verdict: 
 Published on 5 Nov 2021
All rights reserved. 
Huayra BC Roadster


There must be some good reasons why a €3.2 million car could sell out before announcement...


In the world of hypercars, Pagani is rather old-school. Built by hands and crafted like a piece of art, using the most expensive and the lightest materials available, but the powertrain is old-school V12 and it drives the rear wheels through a single-clutch gearbox in conventional way. No all-wheel drive to spread its tremendous torque. No clever electronics like Ferrari to put down its power controllably. No clever suspension tech like McLaren. No hybrid power assistance, torque-fill or torque-vectoring, of course. Horacio Pagani doesn’t care what direction other hypercar makers are chasing. Top speed, 0-60, 0-186-0, Nurburgring lap time, all are not important to him. Because Pagani is a small company, because each car is sold at millions of dollars, Pagani is content to build only a few dozen cars a year. He has never worried about lack of orders. Whatever new cars he introduced, his loyal customers snapped up all quotas immediately – in fact, usually before announcement.

The current Huayra entered production in 2012. That’s a long time ago for a hypercar, but Pagani keeps introducing special editions, and one better than one. The Huayra BC was introduced in 2016 and entered production the following year. It was named after the late Benny Caiola, the first ever customer of Pagani, also a friend of Horacio and his motivator. With extended front splitter, side vanes, a high-mounted rear wing and Le Mans-car-like massive diffusers, this car is obviously more track-friendly, but it loses virtually nothing in road driving. It looks better, too, as those extra wings and spoilers add aggression that the original Huayra lacks. Power output of the 6-liter AMG twin-turbo V12 was lifted from 730 to 764 hp, while dry weight dropped from 1350 to 1218 kg thanks to using lighter body panels made of a new kind of carbon-fiber, a titanium exhaust, lighter brake calipers, lighter forged alloy wheels and a lighter gearbox, though the latter remains a 7-speed automated manual supplied by Xtrac. This car was priced at €1.6 million plus tax, or double of the original Huayra. It took Pagani 2 years to finish the promised batch of 20 cars.




Apart from the usual center-exit quad-exhaust, the Roadster added 2 underbody exhaust to realize "blown diffuser" and a lot more noise.


After the completion of BC, Pagani introduced the Roadster version. This time, the quota is doubled to 40 cars, but the price is also doubled to €3.2 million before tax.

Normally, I am not interested in roadster version of any coupes. Not this one, because it looks even better. Pagani used the 2 years gap to improve the Roadster in many areas, starting from aerodynamics. The front splitter, side skirt and rear wing were reshaped to look sleeker and more stylish while still generate 500 kg of downforce at 280 km/h (174 mph). An optional roof snorkel adds further sense of occasion. Losing the roof does not hurt chassis rigidity, and it adds only 32 kg to the dry weight, which is a class-leading 1250 kg. Thanks must go to the use of both carbon-titanium and carbon-triax materials for its chassis and body.

Meanwhile, AMG redeveloped the V12 motor, using larger turbos and intercoolers to boost its output to 802 horsepower and 774 pound-foot of torque. This means, the power-to-weight ratio of BC Roadster is higher than its coupe sibling. Interestingly, the Roadster adopts F1-style blown-diffuser. The Huayra’s signature center-exit quad-exhaust remains intact, but 2 more invisible exhausts are added at the underbody, exiting straight from the catalytic converters and injecting hot stream of exhaust to the diffusers. Apart from adding downforce, they produce extra noise.

At the chassis, the biggest change is replacing the coupe’s Ohlins manually adjustable dampers with electronic-controlled dampers. As a result, stiffness and ride height change according to driving modes (Comfort, Sport or Race). Not exactly adaptive, but it gives the Roadster a broader range of ability. The Roadster also gets larger Brembo CCM brakes up front, with 398mm discs clamped by 6-pot calipers, while the rear remains at 380mm and 4-pot. The coupe’s bespoke Pirelli P-Zero Trofeo R rubbers are carried over.



Track-oriented rubbers and downforce allow Pagani to claim as much as 1.9 g in corner.


On the road, the first impression is: what a noise! The AMG V12 is astonishingly loud when you press it on motorway. The combination of 4 titanium tailpipes, 2 straight out underbody exhausts, the lack of sound insulation and the hollow effect of the bare carbon-fiber monocoque all contribute to the mad soundtrack. You don’t even need to detach the roof to enjoy the tremendous noise. It pops and crackles angrily whenever you back off. Its turbo wastegates whoosh and whistle on overrun. Who said turbocharged engines are boring?

Turbo lag is noticeable, but the V12’s delivery is quite linear in normal driving. However, it gets trickier to launch from a standstill, because it has enough torque to spin the rear tires – despite the massive size of 355-section – in the first 2 gears. Remember, only a handful of cars can compare with its 774 lbft of maximum torque, and none is quite as lightweight. Moreover, the Pagani’s traction control is far from sophisticated. This is why Car & Driver timed an unremarkable 3.3 seconds to go from 0-60 mph. However, once getting into triple digit speed, it storms forward like an arrow. Maybe not as strong as Bugatti or Koegnisegg or just any of the latest hybrid exotic, but I doubt if you can feel the difference on the road, especially when you are immersed in the thunderous engine noise.

Unfortunately, the Xtrac automated manual gearbox is the weak point. It is claimed to halve the shift time to 75ms, but you can feel the pause and shock during each gearchange. Why didn’t Pagani opt for a DCT? The official answer is weight penalty, but I suppose there is currently no DCT on the market could handle more than 664 lbft of torque. For a mid-engined application, even no more than 590 lbft. Maybe Tremec could make one for the next Corvette ZR1, just like what Ricardo did exclusively for Bugatti, but the low volume of Pagani is difficult to persuade any gearbox specialists to build one.

That’s a pity, because the BC Roadster rides and handles very well. Its ride is surprisingly livable in Comfort mode for a car looking like a track special. Its roadholding is tremendous, thanks to those track-oriented rubbers and downforce that allow Pagani to claim as much as 1.9 g in corner. Braking is powerful and pedal feel is excellent. The steering is suitably geared to avoid nervous reaction. Understandably, there is some understeer built into the chassis to avoid abusing its power, but you can dial into a bit of oversteer with steering and throttle. Want to enjoy the endless fun of powerslide as in a Ferrari 488 Pista? Sorry, the traction control won’t allow big slide. Switch it off and you will need to be absolutely concentrated and subtle with your inputs to keep it on track. However, neither Koenigsegg nor Bugatti will do that like a Pista as well. The Pagani might be slower and less sophisticated than both rivals, but it feels more analogue, more charismatic and more artful. Only the flawed gearbox, traction management and turbo lag stand in the way of being as great as Zonda used to be.
Verdict:

Specifications





Year
Layout
Chassis

Body
Length / width / height
Wheelbase
Engine
Capacity
Valve gears
Induction
Other engine features
Max power
Max torque
Transmission
Suspension layout
Suspension features
Tires
Kerb weight
Top speed
0-60 mph (sec)
0-100 mph (sec)
Huayra
2012
Mid-engined, RWD
Carbon-fiber monocoque,
tubular steel subframes
Carbon-fiber
4605 / 2036 / 1169 mm
2795 mm
V12, 60-degree
5980 cc
SOHC 36 valves
Twin-turbo
Twin-spark
730 hp / 5800 rpm
737 lbft / 2250-4500 rpm
7-speed automated manual
All double-wishbones
-
F: 255/35ZR19; R: 335/30ZR20
1350 kg (dry)
224 mph (c)
3.2 (c)
-
Huayra BC
2017
Mid-engined, RWD
Carbon-fiber monocoque,
tubular steel subframes
Carbon-fiber
4767 / 2050 / 1181 mm
2795 mm
V12, 60-degree
5980 cc
SOHC 36 valves
Twin-turbo
Twin-spark
764 hp / 6200 rpm
737 lbft / 4000 rpm
7-speed automated manual
All double-wishbones
Ohlins adjustable dampers
F: 255/30ZR20; R: 355/25ZR21
1218 kg (dry)
220 mph (est)
2.9 (est)
-
Huayra BC Roadster
2019
Mid-engined, RWD
Carbon-fiber monocoque,
tubular steel subframes
Carbon-fiber
4605 / 2050 / 1181 mm
2795 mm
V12, 60-degree
5980 cc
SOHC 36 valves
Twin-turbo
Twin-spark
802 hp / 5900 rpm
774 lbft / 2000-5600 rpm
7-speed automated manual
All double-wishbones
Adaptive dampers
F: 255/30ZR20; R: 355/25ZR21
1250 kg (dry)
220 mph (est)
2.9 (est) / 3.3*
5.7*




Performance tested by: *C&D






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