By LAWRENCE TAN
It’s the end of the road for Pagani’s Zonda
model range but the Italian supercar maker wants to see off the Zonda in
spectacular fashion by unleashing 15 track-only versions of its road-going
Zonda F, this time, given the R designation.
However, only 10 percent of the Zonda F’s
DNA has been retained in the R version, and the remaining 90 percent designed
by Horacio Pagani from scratch.
The Zonda R goes one up over the F in every
sense of the word: it is longer and wider than the F, shells out 750hp from a
Mercedes-Benz AMG-sourced 6.0 liter V12, and catapults from rest to 100km/h in
less than 2.7 seconds. That’s three-quarters of the time the Zonda F takes to
achieve the same acceleration. Pagani claims the Zonda R is capable for a top
speed of more than 350km/h.
Its enlarged proportions did not add excess
weight to the car though. On the contrary, the Zonda R is 160kg lighter than
the F, thanks in large part to a carbon-titanium chassis with exceptional strength-to-weight
ratio. The R is also the first in Pagani’s lineup to feature a paddleshift
gearbox.
Pagani has 16 Zonda Rs in the pipeline but
only 15 of these collectibles would be available for sale at a handsome tag of
1.46 million Euros (or upwards of US$1.8 million). The company is keeping one
Zonda R for itself.
Pagani