The Pagani Huayra looks set to drop its turbochargers with a hardcore ‘R’ variant
Launched in 2011, the Huayra marked the beginning of the end for Pagani’s glorious naturally-aspirated V12, coming with a twin-turbocharged unit. Late last year, though, a preview for the Autostyle Design Competition revealed that this might be about to change with a hardcore Huayra R, further confirmed by a handful of teasers on social media.
Though we’re still limited to brief glimpses of CAD models, the latest teaser gives us our best look yet at its design. A large front splitter and rear wing reveal there’s a strong focus on aerodynamics, with a yoke-style wheel also suggesting it will be a track-only model to rival the likes of Lamborghini’s SCV12, the GMA T.50s and Aston Martin Valkyrie AMR.
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Commenting on the Huayra R, company founder and CEO, Horacio Pagani, said: ‘It is a project in which we have been greatly committed to create such an incredible product that it comes even with a new aspirated engine, made especially for this purpose.’
Every iteration of the Huayra to date has come with AMG’s M158 twin-turbocharged 6-litre V12 with up to 818bhp in the recent Imola special edition. Details are few and far between about the proposed powertrain, however talk of a bespoke ‘new aspirated’ unit rules out the use of the Zonda’s now-discontinued 7.3-litre M297.
This is said to build on the standard Huayra’s performance figures, which still stand up even nine years since its launch, with 0-62mph said to come in only 2.8sec, hitting a top speed of 238mph. A design more concerned with downforce is likely to lower that top speed, but we can’t imagine it’ll be a slouch – the Zonda R adopted the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR’s 6-litre V12 for a 739bhp output, whereas the one-off Revolución produced 789bhp. Just 15 were produced in total (alongside one Zonda Revolución).
This article originally appeared at evo.co.uk
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