(Pagani)
Chopping the roof off a car doesn’t, on the face of it, seem like a particularly complicated task – just ask any fireman. However, according to Horacio Pagani, founder of the Italian supercar company, removing the roof from the multi-million pound Huayra has been the most complicated thing he has ever undertaken.
The hard work appears to have paid off, however. This is the new Huayra Roadster (pronounced Way-rah, so you know, and named after the God of wind), which looks as glamorous and exotic as its $2.8 million price suggests it should be.
The new model will make its public debut at next month’s Geneva motor show, where the great and the good take a break from skiing and gather a stone’s throw from the shores of Lake Geneva to take their pick of the world’s most expensive cars.
Just 100 examples of the Huayra Roadster will be built, and the company says all have already been sold – despite it costing more than twice as much as the Huayra coupe.
Pagani claims that new manufacturing techniques, using carbo-titanium, mean the Roadster is almost 80kg lighter than the coupe, at a total of 1280kg, and its structure is 52% stiffer.
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Buyers get two roof mechanisms. The first is a carbon top with a central glass section, which is removable but can’t be stored in the car. Once this is left at home, the Roadster features a fabric cover with a carbon frame that is stored onboard. Pagani says this is a temporary feature that can be used when the weather suddenly turns.
Its twin-turbo, 6-liter, V12 engine develops 754bhp and drives the rear wheels via a seven-speed sequential manual gearbox. The company is still to release performance figures for its new model, but expect it to accelerate from 0-62mph in a shade over 3 seconds and boast a top speed of over 220mph.