Goosebumps. That's what separates the outrageously brilliant from the merely excellent.
Drive a Porsche 911 GT3 RS and you'll get them; a Ferrari 458 serves them up before you even start the engine. And the Pagani Zonda? Well, the first time we drove one there were goosebumps on top of goosebumps.
That wailing AMG V12, the gorgeous feedback and the effortlessness of the steering, the sheer tactility of the surroundings and the sense that inertia had ceased to exist as soon as we pulled that flyweight carbon-fiber door shut. The Zonda compressed time, not just in the way it accelerated, but the time from input to output. You steered, it turned — instantly. You brushed the throttle and another 2,000 rpm appeared on the dial — instantly. It was, and remains — more than a decade later — an extraordinary machine.
So when you look at the incredible impact and staying power of the Zonda formula, you start to understand the weight of expectation on the 2012 Pagani Huayra. Imagine the magical qualities of all your favorite albums rolled into one cohesive whole. That was the Zonda, and the Huayra is the Difficult Second Album From Hell.
The Numbers That Matter
Flick a delicate catch and the huge door hisses up, gullwing-style. The strut is only just strong enough to take the door on its journey and asks a bit of effort from you. The Huayra is 2,976 pounds dry so even the door struts are minimalist. Sit down and pull the door down as you do so. You're in. Inside is a leather, carbon-fiber and aluminum cocoon of obsession, every detail agonized over and beautifully thought out, every material used sympathetically and expertly integrated into this stunning sculpture. The driving position is superb.
Pull the aluminum, Huayra-shaped key apart like you might a car-shaped USB stick, slot it into the center console below a row of slender oval switches and twist. The metal-faced dials light up in blue and the needles swing around their arcs before resetting at zero. Twist again and the starter whirs before the twin-turbocharged AMG V12 catches with a resounding boom. The engine noise is deep and saw-toothed. Blip the throttle and it crackles like a racecar.
The early Zondas used to wrap you up in a warm, sonorous howl, while the Huayra's anger sets you on edge. It's like you're being tapped on the shoulder and reminded that this rear-wheel-drive supercar has 700 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque. Incredibly, AMG has more staff working solely on Huayra engines than are actually employed at Pagani. It's taken a huge amount of time and effort, but Pagani's young test driver, Davide Testi, suggests that the twin-turbo engine is now every bit as responsive as the masterful normally aspirated engine it replaces.
Behind the V12 there's an Xtrac seven-speed automated manual gearbox. It's a single-clutch setup, as Pagani couldn't bear the thought of a heavy twin-clutch arrangement at the rear of the car. It weighs just 211 pounds and by Pagani's reckoning, a twin-clutch unit capable of handling 737 lb-ft would be closer to 440 pounds. Furthermore it's mounted transversely to improve the weight distribution and create a safer, more manageable car at the limit.
Engaging or Enraging?
From an engineering point of view, the transverse single-clutch transmission is the optimum setup. However, pulling back the intricate gear selector (67 parts aimed at creating a mechanical feel when in reality it simply triggers a solenoid) and waiting to hear the distant thunk of 1st gear engaging, we can't help but wonder if Ferrari and Bugatti owners might find the ponderous low-speed response unsettling. Tickling the throttle gets the Huayra rolling but you do feel like you're second-guessing when the clutch will fully release, so immediately a barrier is put between you and the car. Pulling out of a junction across traffic can be a nerve-jangling affair.
Fortunately that hesitancy is short-lived and, once above walking pace, the Huayra delivers rapid, decisive shifts. Within 100 yards you'll have hit the ESC button to switch from Auto mode to Comfort so you can use the smooth, wheel-mounted paddles for total control.
You'll notice that familiar Zonda suppleness, too. Here the 2012 Pagani Huayra feels perfectly judged — comfortable but with an underlying control and firmness so you know you're in something very serious indeed. Puttering around below 3,000 rpm, gearbox snapping between ratios with a sweet pfffftttt, the Huayra feels refined and effortless.
But my God it goes. Power delivery is genuinely progressive, with no off-boost lethargy or spike of runaway power.
The road we're on supplies a string of Italian villages with just a few hundred yards between them, but it's enough to feel the engine surge up to 6,500 rpm in 2nd. Quite how the rear 335/30ZR20 P Zeros cope with the torque is unknowable, but they are absolutely hooked up and the result is that your legs go light and your head is pressed hard against the seat. "Violent" is the best word to sum up a trip from 1,500 to 6,500 rpm in one gear.
Brutally Capable
As the pass winds up into the trees and the villages dwindle in number and frequency, we get to enjoy the delivery for sustained periods and feel the carbon-ceramic brakes bite hard, the much-talked-about active aero wings lifting to increase drag and the suspension actively compensating before any destabilizing dive sets in.
It's obvious that the transverse-mounted 'box and the general commitment to keeping mass to a minimum has once again paid dividends. But the engine is phenomenally powerful, and when it's delivering the full 737 lb-ft of torque, it scrambles your brain. This is the sort of performance that doesn't dull even with prolonged exposure.
Perhaps more impressive is that the chassis feels so able to soak it up. The traction is truly extraordinary and the light, compact drivetrain creates a supreme ability to change direction even when subjected to the full might of the V12. So great is the Huayra's stability that very quickly you use Sport mode as the default setting. This reduces shift times to a scarcely believable 20 milliseconds, further improves throttle response and gives the traction and stability control systems a much better sense of humor. In fact, it gives all the freedom you'd ever need on the road, and when those monster Pirellis spin demonically over big crests it requires nothing more than a gentle, intuitive correction.
When Testi asks our opinion it's obvious that we've already grown to love the snap of the shift, which isn't brutal like an Aventador's but feels just as quick and much more enjoyable. It really has the feel of a pneumatically actuated race 'box. Shame it's a bit unnerving at low speeds. The fury of the engine and the overwhelming traction are undeniably appealing as well. Still, the steering could be a little quicker.
Testi admits he feels the same and prefers the most aggressive of the three steering racks that are offered (our test car has the middle option). The ceramic brakes need that instant bite that only Porsche seems to nail. Still, the 2012 Pagani Huayra provides all the tools to use 700 hp pretty much at will.
There's just one thing missing so far. Those goosebumps.
ESC Off
If we're ever going to find them it will be on this road. There's very little that concentrates the mind like flicking a Huayra's ESC button from Comfort to Sport, which makes the central display turn red, and then bringing yourself to hold the button down for a few more seconds until it reads ESC Off.
For the first mile or two we do what we always do when stability systems are disengaged: drive more slowly. Suddenly we're on high alert, tense and clumsy. But soon the Huayra's natural stability reassures our senses. Snap from one direction to another and the Huayra responds quickly, shrugging off inertia in the best Zonda tradition. We dare to wonder if a 224-mph car should feel so benign.
A blind right, a few too many revs and the Huayra snaps sideways. That's more like it. The Huayra might seem like a pussycat much of the time, but take liberties with it and it's still liable to bite you. Face flushed, heart bouncing off the rev limiter, limbs heavy with adrenaline — not many cars can provide moments like these.
It's the payback for that immense traction. When the rear tires finally cry enough, the V12 is right in the crazy part of its power curve and wheelspin builds in a wicked flare. It's a testament to the chassis' inherent balance that this doesn't immediately cause a spin. In fact, though respect is most definitely due, the Huayra remains tactile and composed even beyond the limit. You won't pull wild slides on a narrow mountain pass, but you can tweak and tease the car. And when you start to provoke this monstrously fast car on corner exits and spin the rear tires up just as the road straightens, you know that Testi has created something of a masterpiece. You wouldn't — couldn't — drive a Carrera GT like this.
Beyond Zonda
The 2012 Pagani Huayra is more than a refined and sanitized Zonda. Beyond the refinement and ease of use is a demon with one eye open waiting for its turn, a car that is scintillatingly fast and hugely demanding, a car that can thrill and terrify in equal measure, a supercar in every sense of the word.
The gearbox isn't perfect, a little of the Zonda's steering feel has been lost and some people will suggest that a twin-turbocharged engine will never hold the romance nor offer the response of a huge, normally aspirated V12. They might even have a point. But when that engine is hurling you into the sunset, hitting you again and again with all its might, you won't care.
You might even be too wired to notice those goosebumps, but they'll be there.
