Review: Pagani Huayra
blogs.wsj.com
blogs.wsj.com
Pagani are a small company, but they're not tiny for their sector of the market and have 55 employees. A niche car company can be that small for two reasons - one is that they buy in most of their mechanicals from a mass-manufacturer, the other is that they make chassis from composites, which can only be manufactured by hand and have no meaningful economies of scale. Aside from the chassis, a car like this is assembled rather than manufactured - the engine comes in a box from AMG, the exhaust system from MHG, the interior from Dani and most of the metal components from Aspa.
The Zonda and Huayra are phenomenal cars, but they're not the unique creations of one special genius. They're what's possible when a clever designer is given a blank cheque. The moveable aerodynamic elements on the Huayra are sophisticated, but they're not unique and would be commonplace in racing cars if the technology wasn't banned by the FIA. It's infinitely more difficult to design a good car that costs $20,000 than a great car that costs $2,000,000.
I don't mean to take away from the achievements of Pagani, but instead celebrate the work of the network of companies that make their cars possible. A modern supercar is like stone soup - the designer is just a catalyst for the expertise and resources of a whole army of manufacturers.
Edit: in response to the comments below, yes, I recognize this may be hype, and yes, I recognize designing and building the car must have been an interactive process involving many other people. Still, there's little doubt that Mr. Pagani was the main creative force, and I can't help but be impressed by his accomplishment as a company-founding "car hacker-artist" CEO.
Just to put it into perspective, the new Mustang GT500 can reach 200mph stock from the factory and that starts at $49,600. ~220+mph is the norm for supercars these days.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2011/11...
edit
>I can't help but be impressed by his accomplishment as a company-founding "car hacker-artist" CEO.
I strongly suggest you look into Noble Automotive, Vector Motors and Koenigsegg. All founded by "car hacker-artists." You'll probably find their stories interesting too.
http://www.speedwaysedans.com/index.php/super-sedans
It basically consisted of fabricating a frame and some body panels and then bolting bits you'd bought from elsewhere, but 90%+ of the construction/assembly work was done by a single guy (the other 10% being the paint guy across the street, and calling on people to help him line up and hold things in place while he welded). If any plans existed (I never saw any) they were probably on a scrap of wood.
It's not as glamourous as a Pagani, but the cars would still cost over $100k and some of them went on to win national championships and similar.
Turns out a lot can be done by one guy in a tin shed.
Likewise, the Pagani motors are all from AMG, so no manufacturing there, just tuning. If anything, we should be crediting the engineers that actually build the chassis and body.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Britten
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britten_V1000
(I grew up reading about Britten in motorcycle magazines in Israel, and when years later I got to NZ it was cool to see find one of his bikes as a well deserved centerpiece in the national museum :)
You can learn without an education.
Without his sheer bloody-mindedness I doubt the entire supercar industry as it stands would exist today.
Just look at that poor bastard, Billy Gates. He dropped out from [s]a community[/s] college! This must be a sensation!
That is one awesome car.