Horacio Pagani teases hi-po Huayra R

THE founder and CEO of what has become one of the world’s most iconic supercar brands, Pagani, has confirmed the development and imminent debut of a new performance flagship, the Huayra R.

Speaking in a video revolving around the 2020 edition of the Autostyle Design Competition, Horacio Pagani announced that a new bespoke Huayra R was in the works and would debut on November 12 as part of the event.

Very few details of the car are known at this stage however Mr Pagani did confirm that the new flagship supercar would be powered by a naturally aspirated V12 petrol engine as opposed to the twin-turbo unit found in the standard models.

“We would like to unveil our new project,” he said.

“It is a project in which we have been greatly committed to create such an incredible product that it even comes with a new aspirated engine made especially for this purpose.

“So on November 12 we will tell you the genesis of Huayra R.”

The Huayra first launched in 2012 as a successor to the long-running Zonda, a vehicle whose legacy culminated in the creation of one of the world’s most capable and blistering track cars ever, the Zonda R.

If Pagani sticks to same formula that created the ballistic Zonda R, then the Huayra R will be by far and away the fastest version ever to drive on a racetrack and given there were only 15 examples of its predecessor ever made, one of the most exclusive.

Expect a body and cabin made almost exclusively out of carbon-fibre, barely enough ground clearance to clear a fallen leaf, fat, slick tyres and levels of aero bordering on biblical.

If the Huayra R does pan out to be the successor to the Zonda R, it is also sure to be extremely loud and brutally fast – the old car lapped the Nurburgring in six minutes and 47 seconds.

Given Pagani’s long engine partnership with Mercedes-AMG – the German outfit developed all of the engines used in every Zonda and Huayra variant to date – we expect the bespoke V12 to once again be German-sourced.

For reference, the Zonda R’s naturally aspirated 6.0-litre V12 developed 552kW of power and 710Nm of torque while the twin-turbo unit in the Huayra develops between 537kW/1000Nm and 616kW/1100Nm depending on the variant.