The Zhonda is a line of supercars that are produced by the Italian supercar manufacturer Pagani. From its design, to its engine, to its features, the Pagani Zhonda is truly a remarkable feat of automotive engineering, and arguably one of the best supercars ever produced. There is a reason Pagani describes the Zhonda as “the supercar”. Made entirely from hand in their high-tech factory out of the highest quality material, Pagani took no shortcuts with the Zhonda when they first introduced the supercar back in 1999. While the car is super popular, it is produced in extremely limited numbers and there are less than 250 to have been produced in its entire history. We are going to take a few minutes to look at this super car to see what makes it so special.
Pagani was formed when Hoarcio Pagani, an old manager in charge of Lamborghini’s composites left the company and created Pagani Composite Research in 1988, where he produced high-tech carbon fiber. The newly formed company even worked on some projects with Lamborghini. After that they began developing plans to make their own car and named the prototype the “Fangio F1” after Horacio’s friend and five-time Formula 1 driver, Juan Manuel Fangio. They began production and testing their prototype car in the 1990’s. Once Mercedes-Benz agreed to supply Pagani with their V12 engines, interest began to form around the company. When Fangio passed away in 1995, the company decided it would be best to change the name of the car. In 1999 Pagani revealed the Zhonda C12.
Since the Pagani Zhonda was first introduced in 1999, there have been many different versions of the vehicle, each being a more improved version over the others. The first Zhonda was unveiled at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show and packed a 6.0 litre V12 engine which produced 389 horse power and 420 pounds-feet of torque. This allowed the Zhonda to go from 0-60 in 4.2 seconds. Only five of the first Zhondas were built.
Zhonda would continue the tradition of only making a few of these million dollar plus supercars for awhile. Each version would improve on the last and feature more impressive specs. These cars all feature state of the art technology to provide the best balance of performance, handling, and even luxury. Despite being a performance based supercars, many Zhonda’s have incredible interiors that are out of this world.
One of the more impressive Zhonda’s, (as if the earlier cars are lackluster) would be the Zhonda R. This version of the Zhonda was produced from 2009-2014, and was one of the last “mass produced” Zhonda’s ever made, and by mass produced I mean they only made 15. This car features a 6.0 litre V12 Mercedes AMG M120 engine that had 740 horse power and 524 pounds-feet of torque. The combination of this cars massive engine and its all carbon-fiber body allowed this Zhonda to accelerate from 0-60 miles per hour in a blistering 2.6 seconds making it one of the fastest, if not the fastest supercar in the world in terms of acceleration. The newer Zhonda’s also have top speeds that are over 220 miles per hour as well. Pagani has also made a variety of one-off Zhondas for various VIP’s like a Sheik from Qatar and rich Scottish oil baron who wanted custom made versions. These Zhonda’s are incredibly rare and are truly unique vehicles.
Unfortunately Pagani has said they are going to discontinue the Zhonda line after the Zhonda Revolucion, which will be the last mass-produced Zhonda’s. Mercedes has improved their 6.0 liter V12 engine for this version and now it provides the car with 800 horse power and 540 pounds-feet of torque. So it seems that they made the ridiculously fast Zhonda even faster with this version. The car is also very light at just 2,359 pounds as it is made from carbon-fiber and carbon-titanium. The company only produced five of these cars and the were priced at $2.74 million dollars each.
The Pagani Zhonda’s are some of the best performing, coolest looking, fastest, extremely limited, and most expensive supercars to have ever been produced. Its very difficult to get you hands on these cars, and now more than ever as Pagani is going to stop producing these vehicles. Pagani really does have the right to call it “the supercar”, as there are truly no others like it.
Photo from pagani.com
