PAGANI LOOKS BACK IN DYNAMIC STYLE
Provocative mirrors represent elaborate quest for perfection by creative executive
Horacio Pagani loves him some mirrors. There is a video — 4:27 long, no less — of him extolling the beauty of the lowly side mirror. He was, by way of explaining the origins of his provocatively shaped looking glass, inspired “by the eyes of a beautiful woman.”
Like most things engineered by Pagani, his mirrors serve a dual purpose, their unique shape another small part of the elaborate aerodynamic design that sees his cars generate as much as 1,000 kilograms of downforce without the attendant increase in drag. And, like everything Pagani produces, the final product is hugely over-engineered, its Cnc-milled aluminum fitting based on a part from Formula One suspension systems.
Yes, it's just a mirror. But it is also the single part that survived the transition from road-going Huayra to track-only Huayra R.
It was not supposed to be thus, at least not according to Francesco Perini. The original plan, says Pagani's head of technical office, was to use as many of the street-going Huayra's parts as possible. It's just that the deeper they got into the project — and the more Horacio's unending quest for perfection challenged even the world's greatest (road-going) supercar — the more the Huayra's parts got modified beyond recognition.
Take the all-important carbon-fibre tub, for instance. Perini says the engineering team really did intend to use the original chassis. But as Pagani Senior kept upping the ante for torsional rigidity — the R ended up with just over 50 per cent more resistance to twisting than the base item's granite-like rigidity — less and less of the base Huayra survived the transition.
By the time they were finished, the R's door sills were almost one-third of a metre higher, and the number of parts used to make up the tub cut by almost half: The fewer joints to be bonded, the more rigid the car's backbone. That required a different suspension superstructure which, in turn, required different suspension components. By the time all the machinations were complete, the engineering team had designed all the basic chassis ingredients — especially all the suspension hardware — for the third-generation Pagani supercar, code-named C10 and set to be unveiled on Sept. 12.
Though its path to final specification is not nearly as convoluted, the R's engine is no less unique. Although both the Huayra and the R are powered by 6.0-litre V-12s with a Mercedes-benz affiliation, they could not be more different. In fact, they share not a single part. That's because, while the Huayra's V-12 is a low-revving twice-turbocharged torque monster built by Mercedes-amg, the R's engine is built by a small racing firm called HWA. And although there's little doubt that some of the expertise that went into the Huayra's M158 motor ended up in the R's purpose-built track engine (HWA founder Hans-werner Aufrecht is also the “A” in AMG) they are as different as night and day. The new V-12 eschews forced induction, relying instead on the miracle of high r.p.m. to produce power.
So, while the Huayra BC'S twin-turbo V-12 produces its maximum 753 horsepower at a measly 5,500 r.p.m., the naturally aspirated R spins to a shrieking 8,300 revs in rendering its 838 hp.
I thought perhaps the transmission might have been carried over. But no, the six-speed, threedisc, non-synchro sequential gearbox is completely unique to the R. Ditto the 12-into-four Inconel 625/718 exhaust system, not to mention the Brembo CCM-R “self-ventilating” carbon-ceramic brakes, APP Tech forged aluminum wheels, and, of course, the Pirelli slick tires.
Nor are any body parts interchangeable, and none of Pagani's trademark interior hedonism makes the grade either. As I said, the Huayra and the Huayra R have no parts in common — except the mirrors.
Why the mirrors? If you've redesigned virtually every other piece of your latest supercar, why go with carry-over versions of what would seem the most trivial part of a supercar? And it is made all the more inconsequential, one presumes, because the Huayra R will never see the traffic of a public road.
According to Perini, the answer is simple: “We had to call it a Huayra.”
I guess if the one part carried over was lovingly fashioned by one of the most creative minds in supercar design, then it's more than enough justification for an orderly nameplate transition.