The Pagani Huayra looks set to drop its turbochargers with a hardcore ‘R’ variant
The Pagani Huayra looks set to drop its turbochargers with a hardcore ‘R’ variant
Launched in 2011, the Huayra marked the beginning of the end for Pagani’s glorious naturally-aspirated V12s, coming with a twin-turbocharged unit. In October, however, a preview for the Autostyle Design Competition revealed that this might be about to change with a hardcore Huayra R, further confirmed by a recent sound clip released on its social media channels.
Details will remain under wraps, however an ‘R’ name badge suggests it will be the most focussed iteration of the hypercar yet. The last time we saw the name was in the track-only Zonda R, a model that went on to lap the Nürburgring in only 6:47, the lap record for a production-derived sports car at the time.
Commenting on the Huayra R, company founder and CEO, Horacio Pagani, said: ‘It is a project in which we have been greatly committed to create such an incredible product that it comes even with a new aspirated engine, made especially for this purpose.’
Every iteration of the Huayra to date has come with AMG’s M158 twin-turbocharged 6-litre V12 with up to 610kW in the recent Imola special edition. Details are few and far between about the proposed powertrain, however talk of a bespoke ‘new aspirated’ unit rules out the use of the Zonda’s now-discontinued 7.3-litre M297.
This is said to build on the standard Huayra’s performance figures, which still stand up even nine years since its launch, with 0-100km/h said to come in only 2.8sec, hitting a top speed of 238mph. A design more concerned with downforce is likely to lower that top speed, but we can’t imagine it’ll be a slouch – the Zonda R adopted the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR’s 6-litre V12 for a 551kW output, whereas the one-off Revolución produced 588kW. Just 15 were produced in total (alongside one Zonda Revolución).
Like the hardcore Zonda, the Huayra R will likely be a track-only affair, competing against the likes ofLamborghini’s 610kW Essenza SCV12, the Ferrari FXX K Evo and the upcoming Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR Pro.
Sam Jenkins