You may not be able to pronounce the name of this new Italian supercar, but you can be sure that the Pagani Huayra will be one of the most talked about automotive reveals of the year. Costing close to €1 million (a lot more in Ireland, naturally), the long rumoured replacement for the Pagani Zonda goes into production this year, with performance figures of 370km/h and 0-100km/h in 3.3 seconds being bandied about.
Those numbers are not official as yet, but you wouldn't bet against them, knowing that the latest two-seat hypercar is powered by a mid-mounted 6.0-litre V12 with two turbochargers. It's a Mercedes-Benz AMG developed unit, based on that used in the SL 65 AMG. Pagani will offer it in 700- and 730hp Sport tunes, with torque outputs 900- and 1,100Nm respectively.
XTRAC, the race gearbox specialist, builds a bespoke seven-speed paddle shift transmission for the Huayra. As you'd hope, it retains rear-wheel drive and hence adopts a sophisticated Bosch multi-level traction control system to assist with controlling all that power.
Pagani may have a big top speed number to boast about, but it's not the most interesting aspect of the car in our eyes (and no, I'm not referring to the divisive styling, which already has bloggers the world over arguing). The Huayra features an advanced aerodynamics system utilising an active wing on each corner of the car. These automatically adjust depending on conditions, varying downforce and drag. The adaptive suspension also assists.
The gullwing doors are made of carbon fibre, as is much of the rest of the car, though interestingly (and perhaps contributing to the outlandish price) Pagani has used titanium in the chassis in a bid to improve the car's performance in a crash.
Inside, the Huayra is a typical Pagani, though apparently it's bigger and more comfortable than before. This is in a bid to expand sales to markets such as China and the USA.
We hope to see the new Pagani Huayra for ourselves at the Geneva Motor Show in March.