Pagani Huayra Officially Debuts

The Pagani Zonda will go down in history as one of the greatest automobiles ever made. It's immeasurably gorgeous, superlatively fast, unique, impeccably designed and built - and it was probably one of the last supercars that didn't focus on the numbers.  But any good thing - even any great thing - must come to an end.  And the end has come for the Zonda.  It's gone through quite a life - originally debuting with a 408 horsepower 6.0L Mercedes V12 in 1999, all the way through the scarcely-related Zonda R track car with it's CLK-GTR engine, carbon-titanium chassis, and what are widely considered to be the sexiest headers on earth.

But frankly, 12 years is about two lifespans for any car - even one as fantastic as the Zonda.  What used to be a rocket-fueled flight of fancy, something of a UFO with a numbertag and insurance docs, well - it's not as magical as it used to be.  The Zonda has become something of a standard bearer in the supercar market, a point of reference.  I get the impression that Horatio Pagani is not the type of man that rests on his laurels, or enjoys having his creation considered a fixed entity.  Thus, the Huayra.

First things first - what is a Huayra?  Well, as a matter of fact, it's named after the Andean God of the wind - Aymara Huayra Tata.  That makes sense, considering the Zonda was named after an air current above Argentina (not a fruit crate.)  Perhaps they teamed up with VW's notorious "finding hard-to-pronounce-names" department? But a supercar should have a super name.  There's no fun in telling someon you drive a 599GTB HGTE F1.  Now, Huayra?  We're in business.

Stylistically, it's obviously related to the Zonda in it's general shape and dimensions, but there's a softness of form to the Huayra that was conspicuously absent from the Zonda.  There were a lot of angry, flat surfaces punctuated by dramatic angles on the Zonda - it's more smooth, flowing, organic with the Huayra.  Initial internet haters, who will likely never touch a Huayra in their god-given life, liked the Huayra's shape to that of a Catfish.  Well, "haters' gonna hate."  I think it's gorgeous.  I'm frankly a bit tired of overstyled Flash-Gordon supercars anyway.  Oh, and: Gullwing doors!

Now, performance has always been the hallmark of Pagani's creations, and the Huayra takes that bar... and raises it up a few feet.  We're talking crazy, bring-extra-underwear, weapons grade power here.  Most importantly, the Huayra is light.  Very light.  A few points of reference: a Veyron Super Sport crushes the scales to the tune of 4,052lbs.  A Lamborghini Murcielago LP-640 weighs in at 3,671lbs.  The Huayra?  2,976 pounds.  This is lighter than my four-cylinder Accord.  This is about the same weight as my 22-year-old 900 Turbo with no safety equipment.  The secret is the construction materials: the Huayra sits atop a monocoque space-frame made out of the carbon-titanium mix that first appeared in the Zonda R.  And the body panels are all carbon-fibre as well.