Have you ever wished your hypercar was a little bit bigger? Do you have eight figures lying around? Does your at-home racing sim rig cost more than a BMW M2? Do you wish your son were made of carbon fiber? Well, good news. This is the Pagani Huayra R Evo, which is like a Huayra R, only longer. Yes, this ultra-limited hypercar combines aspects of the Codalunga longtail with the Huayra R track-only special to create what promises to be the ultimate trackday Huayra.
Yep, Pagani took the Huayra R and stretched it by 7.48 inches to create the longtail Evo. That’s not as much extra length as the Codalunga gets over a standard Huayra, but it’s still significant. Add in a massive carbon fiber wing, a diffuser the size of a Wurlitzer, and a central fin aquatic mammals would be jealous of, and you get the maddest Huayra yet.
Under the rear clamshell sits an HWA-developed naturally-aspirated V12 pumping out 888 horsepower at 8,750 rpm. It’s essentially the same as what was offered in the Huayra R, save for new camshafts and velocity stacks that move the powerband even higher than on Pagani’s old apex predator. A six-speed sequential transaxle is tasked with putting that mighty grunt to the wheels, while a set of proper Pirelli racing slicks is given the herculean mission of not turning into smoke.
There’s some clever stuff going on under the skin too. The Huayra R Evo features a heave damper keeping vehicle height in check independently of wheel motion for aerodynamic consistency. It’s proper racecar stuff, even if the Huayra R Evo is more of a billionaire’s plaything than a foundation to win a championship on. Oh, and did I mention that this thing has a removable roof that actually increases downforce with the polycarbonate panels removed?
Of course, since this is a track-only car, it’s meant to be used at Pagani’s own trackdays, where Huayra R, Zonda R, and Zonda Revolucione drivers dice it up in between sessions with Pagani’s team and driver coaches. Think venues like Yas Marina, Paul Ricard Circuit, and Spa, instead of say, Knockhill.
The Huayra Evo R follows the standard Huayra, the BC, the Roadster, the Roadster BC, the Imola, the Tricolore, the R, the Codalunga, and the Imola Roadster in a lineage that will probably stretch out until the heat death of the universe. Keep in mind, Pagani made the Zonda until 2019, and will still re-do existing Zondas as part of a factory rebuild and upgrade effort.
There lies the rub of the Huayra Evo R. Sure, it’ll be monstrously fast and retail for the GDP of a small nation, but Pagani is far from the only brand to make limited batches of tweaked exotic cars. Ferrari has the SP series, a new trim level of Lamborghini seemingly launches every five picoseconds, and McLaren has become the Taco Bell of supercar makers with its popular recipe of a V8, a carbon tub, and other miscellaneous ingredients. Even Koenigsegg is about to sell two variants of Jesko and two variants of Gemera at the same time. If everything’s special and rare, does that make everything feel less special and less rare? Answers on a postcard, please.
(Photo credits: Pagani)
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To be honest, everything Pagani did after the Zonda is totally lost on me. At a risk of an unpopular opinion, I honestly think they are ugly.
Finally, something nice for the billionaires! Give them a chance to really unwind and let off some steam at 180mph or whatever! Poor guys.
I feel like it goes without saying sometimes people just don’t consider how much your girlfriend will be against parking it in her garage if it’s just too long to fit.
I’m so tired. This is the modern-day equivalent of Vedius Pollio feding his lampreys with his slaves and then serving said fish to his guests.
It’s interesting, but it’s far too niche. It’s so niche, that even if I could easily afford it, I don’t think I’d bother. There are so many ways to get on a track and go fast that sound better than a single-maker track day car.
There’s definitely almost nothing special about McLarens. Somehow Paganis don’t seem to fall into that trap. Every time they make a new variant, it’s unique and desirable
I hope the long tail is actually functional, either reducing drag, increasing downforce/stability, or some combination of both. I am particularly fond of the longtail version of the Panhard CD Peugeot 66C LeMans streamliner and its 0.13 drag coefficient. I don’t think this Pagani would hold a candle to that, and probably doesn’t even go below the 0.28 Cd of the Koenigsegg Jesko for that matter.
Does it make sense to compare the cd of a race car or prototype with a street legal car?
I remember reading that even relatively little objects like side mirrors, wipers, or door handles will bring down a very good cd to just an average one.
In this case it does, because the “street legal” car(Koenigsegg) is unnecessarily ornate(adding drag) and is generating far more downforce than is needed for basic stability at top speed(with the expense of added drag), whereas the “race car”(Panhard) still has the bare minimum it needs to be street legal for its time period but can also function okay on a race track at top speed without the operator losing control.
It’s actually easier to make a street legal car aerodynamically slippery where fuel economy would be a practical consideration, than an all-out race car where maximization of downforce even if it adds drag is generally the goal.
I think the Pagani was built more for looks than function(as is almost universally the case with so-called supercars and sports cars), and the long-tail is probably a gimmick that marginally reduces its drag and somewhat adds stability, a gimmick whose benefits are more than cancelled out by all the excessive downforce enhancements and useless stylistic bullshit the car is laden with.
Almost no one builds honest designs today. All sizzle, no steak. The closest you’ll get to honest designs with a modern-ish supercar would be either the McClaren Speedtail, or the aforementioned Koenigsegg Jesko, or perhaps the out-of-date Corvette C6. And even those have plenty of concessions to style that do nothing but slow the cars down by adding unnecessary drag without necessarily adding downforce, all in the name of perpetuating some fad corporate design language. It seems a Cd around 0.27 is the best the industry will allow us for a sports car or supercar at this current time, when about half that drag is possible while retaining basic stability at speed. There are still tradeoffs of course, but for a street legal car, I think doubling its fuel economy would matter much more to its daily usability than would a couple extra lbs of downforce to shave hundredths of a second off a lap time. And making the car fit some CEO’s definition of “cool” is just a stupid squandering of resources in all directions.
If I were to have my own car company and were to develop a sports car, the Panhard Cd Peugeot 66C would be the starting point for design. Aesthetics would come secondary to low drag, although with the right design, aesthetics could come into their own and it wouldn’t look ugly(see Lotus Elite, 1st gen Lotus Europa, Jaguar D-Type, Auto Union Streamliner, ect.).
For an idea of what is possible, consider Casey Putsch’s TDI-engined 100 mpg Omega sports car that can out-accelerate his Dodge Viper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbcOdFvXbxA
Dare I say a modern V8 could allow the right design to approach 60 mpg on the highway. And your 4-cylinder compact hatchback or a midsized sedan, where drag reduction were the primary goals? 80-100 mpg is possible. Without the consumer giving up a damn thing, over what is available now. Who cares if it looks “weird”? Many of the most cherished designs do!
I wish I was a baller
Wish I was a little bit taller
Wish I had a Huayra and a track
And a girl (I would call her)
I think Paganis are ugly.
There, I said it.
Lol, I thought this was going to be a Bishop article about an off-the-wall Pagani limo.
I spend too much time here.
Same. Leaving disappointed.
Since you can only drive this car at a Pagani track event, the only people you can attempt to impress have one also. Maybe they have a trackside valet who will park yours up front.
Everybody has exactly the same car? Sounds like communism to me.
Very exclusive communism.
If this car is 3D printed, you could call it automated luxury communism.