Horacio Pagani presentation:
Dear Friends,
Welcome to you all.
Thanks for being here tonight for the official presentation of the Zonda R.
I wish to share with you some moments of amusement and relax, during which
we will tell about the new Zonda R and the other projects Pagani is currently
developing, bringing to you my ideas and my dreams.
We are all aware of the fact that the Zonda R is a toy, one of those toys which
made us happy when we were kids, encouraging our fantasy and dreams, bringing
our mind to an ideal world. It is important to follow this childish feeling inside,
and still enjoy these toys, more or less expensive, along all phases of life.
The Zonda R is a completely new project, the result of more than 2 years work
and the introduction of 2.100 brand new components. For Pagani it represents
the ideal environment to test new solutions for the future products. Prestigious
technical partners have teamed up with Pagani in the development of this
demanding project. Among them, the AMG, Aspa, Automac, Bagatti, Bosch,
Ennegi, Pirelli, Poggipolini, Xtrac, highly qualified professionals pushed by a strong
motivation. I am deeply thankful to all of them.
The project “Fangio”, later renamed “Zonda”, from a technical and stylistic point
of view was inspired by the group C prototype, when the design was not imposed
by aerodynamic restrictions. You might remember, the Sauber Mercedes C11, the
Peugeot 905, the Jaguar XJR-8, as also the older Ferrari P4, and Porsche 917,
all beautiful cars which influenced the design of sport cars.



Some years ago in Les Mans, I had the chance to admire one of the most attractive
cars of the last decade, the Bentley EXP Speed 8, from that moment I began to
wonder about the Zonda R. After that, I was speaking to a friend and customer
and he convinced me to think this was the right idea and to go on in the project.
The Zonda R is designed out of pure creativity, free from road or homologation
limitations. Each individual involved in the realisation was able to express his own
talents and arts, according to the tradition of the ancient masters of the Renaissance.
The first concepts and ideas of the car were discussed within my design team at
the factory, then we forward the request to AMG to supply a high performance
engine according to our technical specifics. Both the AMG confirmed their
commitment in this new challenge, and in short time we had the first mock-up
engine, which we brought to Geneva on the Pagani stand together with a scale
model of the Zonda R. Honestly, I was not sure there were people who would
invest such a high amount for a Pagani racing car, with luck these thoughts have
been denied and in only few months already 9 orders were confirmed. Since that
moment we thought the project was perhaps too crazy, but in fact there are
customers that are even crazier!
And for them we concentrated all our energies.
The first concept planned to use some parts of the Zonda F, and the look was not
as extreme as it is now, both for technology employed and dynamic, in fact after
3 months we thrown all away and restarted from zero.
Horacio Pagani
San Cesario sul Panaro, Modena Italia • tel. 059.952811
www.paganiautomobili.it
Technical Description
The chassis is in carbon titanium, for the first time in the automotive history these two
materials have been combined to form a monocoque. The combination allowed us to
build a rigid frame that remained safe in a crash, 25kg lighter than on a Zonda F. The
suspension components are forged Avional parts, technologies lifted from the aerospace
industry. This allowed us to safe 30 % in weight while maintaining the mechanical
characteristics.
The engine is fantastic as are all AMG engines, 750 hp and 710 Nm of torque.
The engine drivetrain is bolted directly to the chassis, becoming stressed member. The
interface components between the suspensions, gearbox and engine are machined out
of a block. They start out as a 75kg block, to become the weight optimised 12kg parts. To
the company Aspa go the credits for these masterpieces.
Many components on the car are in Titanium and they are made by the world leader
in the performance automotive sector, Poggipolini Titanium.
The gearbox is a sequential straight cut Xtrac box in Magnesium casing. The robotisation
is performed by Automac Engineering, allowing shift times as low as 20ms.
The research of lightness is not only an aim for us, it is an obsession. Each part is
engineered with three objectives, to be functional, to be beautiful and to be light. We
did not accept compromises regarding costs, as we firmly believe that the few fortunates
being able to own this car deserve only the best. The toolings to make the Zonda R are
completely new and would allow to build the parts for a production run of 300, but the
total number is limited to 15 units. The companies ENNEGI and Bagatti have machined
the models on Pagani CAD data to create the moulds for the new components.
The aerodynamic research was focused on three aspects, the general function and shape
of the exterior, the internal aerodynamics and the microaerodynamics, the research in
the smallest detail
Our target dry weight was 1.120kg, but in the end we managed to reach 1.070kg
without compromising the safety requirements set out at the beginning of the project.
The front frame has energy absorbing elements that are similar to the upcoming C9.
At the 56 kph rigid barrier crash tests, the behaviour is comfortably within the legal
requirements.
As far as the tyres are concerned I would like to emphasise the work of Pirelli, our partner
for over a year now. Developing bespoke slick tyres for the Zonda R has been a tough
challenge for the dimensions we were seeking.