Pagani Can’t Stop Building New Zondas

Pagani said the beloved Zonda would go out of production in 2013, but here we are four years later with a new model, the HP Barchetta. Not that we’re complaining because, well, look at it. Just like every other Zonda, it’s stunning.

Pagani

Pagani confirmed to us that the HP Barchetta is an all-new car from the ground up—not just a heavily reworked chassis like the recently debuted Zonda Fantasma Evo and Zonda Riviera.

The company will build three examples of the Zonda HP Barchetta, with the one pictured above headed to Horacio Pagani’s personal collection. It’s powered by a 7.3-liter naturally aspirated Mercedes-AMG V12 that’s hooked up to a six-speed manual transmission. While official power numbers haven’t been released, this is an engine that can make 760 horsepower in certain applications, so it certainly won’t be slow.

While AMG produces new 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12s for the Pagani Huayra, it hasn’t built naturally aspirated V12s for years. A Pagani representative told us this engine was left over from older production specifically for this car.

The Zonda HP Barchetta uses a central monocoque made from Pagani’s proprietary Carbo-titanium Carbo-Triax HP52, while the front and rear subframes are steel. Double-wishbone suspension is used at all four corners as are manually-adjustable Ohlins dampers. Brakes are supplied by Brembo and the tires are “HP”-spec Pirelli P Zeros. The whole thing weighs under 2800 lbs.

You can see that the HP Barchetta features a very low windscreen and a striking ram-air intake that rises above the passenger compartment.

Denree Smith Author

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *