2017 Ford GT

Back in the racing heydays of the 50s and 60s, Ferrari was the domination force, and Ford wanted to buy the small Italian company. At the last hour, Enzo Ferrari pulled out of the deal and Henry Ford was infuriated. Ford issued a command to his engineers that they were to build a new car that will trounce the Italians at Le Mans, and he gave them a blank check to make it happen. The car created would be dubbed the Ford GT40, and it went on to win Le Mans four times running. Almost forty years after the GT40, Ford created a modern interpretation simply called the Ford GT. The first-generation Ford GT only lived for two years before its demise, but Ford is now releasing a second-generation GT in 2017, and it is the best one yet.

At the 2015 North American Auto Show in Detroit, Ford pulled the curtain off of the all-new 2017 Ford GT. With a super-light carbon fiber and aluminum construction, a 600-plus horsepower, Eco Boost V-6 and a race-ready cockpit, the latest Ford GT is hands down the best super car in the history of the Blue Oval brand. This new two-door builds on legendary design history with modern materials to hopefully recreate the original car’s success.

Exterior

  

The new Ford GT has a design that instantly recognizable when viewed with its older siblings. The mid-engine design lends itself to a long wedge shape, and the car has the signature sloped GT nose with the dual ducts in the front that create a menacing and memorable look. The rear of the car looks far more modern than past GTs, with round hips, crisp cuts near the taillights reminiscent of modern Ferrari 

s, and set of flying buttress wings for extra downforce. There is also a huge set of canon exhaust outlets mounted high-center and the lower part features an aggressive rear diffuser.

Compared to old cars, the new model is much more sleek, and looks less like a fast wedge carved from a brick.

The greenhouse is less open and wide than previous cars, making for a more aerodynamic design that tapers inward toward the top. Compared to old cars, the new model is much more sleek, and looks less like a fast wedge carved from a brick.

There are still lots of subtle details that harken back to the old models like the outboard circular taillamps. This new and exciting shape is made from carbon fiber to help reduce overall weight. To make sure the car is as fast as possible while maintain stability, each and every curve you see has been fine-tuned for a specific purpose. The windshield is sloped and rounded to cut drag while improving visibility, and the rear spoiler will actively adjust based on conditions.

With such a different shape, Ford had to give the GT elegant upward-swinging doors to make it easier to enter and exit the cockpit.

As we suspected from the day it broke cover, the GT shown at the Detroit Auto Show was actually more of a concept than a production model. One year has passed since its debut and what appears to be a near-production-ready vehicle has finally surfaced the Interwebz. The photo comes courtesy of Ford GT Forum and depicts an example featuring mild changes compared to the show cars. The mirrors are larger, while the front fenders received vertical turning signals. Thankfully, these appear to be the only changes, meaning that the production model will remain true to the vehicle we first saw in Detroit.

On top of being a cool-looking supercar that pays homage to the iconic GT40, the new GT will also be the first production vehicle to feature a gorilla glass windshield. For those not familiar with the term, gorilla glass is a type of glass that’s designed to be thin, light, and damage resistant. Devel oped by Corning Inc., the material has numerous applications in consumer electronics, being used as cover glass for portable devices, including mobile phones, tablets, and laptops.

But unlike the aforementioned items, the GT won’t employ standard gorilla glass, but a hybrid technology with a three-layer hybrid window consisting of gorilla glass specifically designed by Corning for automotive applications, thermoplastic, and annealed glass. According to Ford, this hybrid windshield is thinner than traditional laminate glass and will improve handling by lowering the vehicle’s center of gravity. At the same time, it will make the car’s windshield tougher, more durable, and scratch-resistant. Moreover, being about 30-percent lighter than traditional glass, it will reduce the vehicle’s weight by more than 12 pounds, which will positively impact acceleration, fuel economy, and braking performance.

The hybrid glass will be used on both the windshield and the rear engine cover of the Ford GT. The new technology was already tested over stone and in rough road conditions, and "had to endure specific projectile, rollover and wind tunnel testing."

Interior

As fitting for such a purposeful machine, the GT’s cockpit is designed for control and usability. The seats are directly integrated into the car’s monocoque shell. This provides a direct connection to the chassis, and gives the driver a better feel for how the car is behaving. With a fixed seating position, the GT has an adjustable steering wheel and pedals to make sure that drivers of various shapes and sizes can get their driving position just right.

Ford has taken a page out of Ferrari’s book, and given the GT an F1-inspired steering wheel with all the needed controls for car function mounted to it. This opens up the steering column and gives you uncluttered access to the shift paddles used to control the ’GTs transmission.

The gauge cluster is just a large LCD display that is configurable to display carious levels of information. There are multiple modes that can be chosen and activated to display different types of information depending on the type of driving, or driver preference.

Drivetrain

While everyone, myself included, expected Ford to dump a forced induction version of the new flat-plane crank V-8 found in the GT350 Mustang, but it threw all of us for a loop. Sitting behind the seats of the GT is a new 3.5-liter, EcoBoost V-6 that makes use of two turbos. This next-generation EcoBoost motor was based on the engine Ford used in its IMSA Daytona Prototype endurance racer. Ford isn’t giving us an exact number, but says this is the most powerful production EcoBoost ever with more than 600 rampaging ponies. No word on torque, but expect it to be a similar number.

Ford is able to squeeze so much power out of such a small engine thanks to a huge pile of enhancements that include a combination port/direct injection system, low-friction roller-finger-follower valvetrain and of course those two turbochargers. Sending that power to the wheels is a seven-speed, dual-clutch transaxle. Sorry kids, there is no manual transmission GT this time.

Thankfully Ford has forgone using any crazy all-wheel-drive system in favor of sticking to the traditional rear-wheel-drive format. Thanks to its low weight, and its huge 20-inch alloys wrapped in sticky Michelin rubber, the GT should easily break the four-second barrier in the 60-mph sprint, and Top Speed should be in the 200-mph range.

Prices

The Ford GT will have a starting price of around $400,000, according to Ford Performance boss Dave Pericak. At the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, Pericak said the GT’s sticker would be near that of the Lamborghini Aventador, which starts from $397,500 in the U.S. Initial rumors said the GT would retail closer to the $150,000 sticker of the previous model.

Additionally, Pericak revealed that the GT will be low-volume supercar, with Ford to build only about 250 per year.

2016 Nissan GT-R Review

In its base guise, Nissan's GT-R spins out a very healthy 545 horsepower, and a track-oriented NISMO model cranks that up to 600 hp.

The 2016 GT-R ranks as one of the world's top-performing production cars. With a seemingly brutish character that hides a surprising level of capability and accessible performance, it's pretty much a class of one.

New for 2016 is a 45th Anniversary Gold Edition model. It comes with the same "Silica Brass" paint color used on the 2001 Skyline GT-R M-Spec, as well as a gold-toned VIN plate in the engine compartment, and a commemorative plaque on the interior center console. Nissan says fewer than 30 of these cars will make it to the United States.

In addition to the new model, Nissan has dropped last year's Track Edition, which didn't have a rear seat, and outfitted the base car with 20-spoke RAYS aluminum-alloy forged wheels in a near-black finish.

Objectively, few cars come close to the GT-R's 0-60 mph times of less than 3.0 seconds, or its brilliant all-wheel-drive handling. Every model delivers blistering acceleration, hooking up perfectly with awe-inspiring traction from the GT-R's brainy all-wheel-drive system. But this isn't a car just meant to go in a straight line. A rigid body structure, special springs, and custom-developed Bilstein DampTronic dampers in front help balance ride with track-ready handling. The all-wheel-drive system aids handling, too; rear-biased, it can send all the power to the rear wheels, or up to 50 percent of it to the fronts. Nissan also provides several drive modes, including an "R," or Race, mode to tune the driving character to the conditions.

On the road, the GT-R isn't the same raw beast it once was. While Nissan engineers have raised the power on an almost annual basis, they've also dialed in more refinement, improving steering, ride, and interior quality along the way. That makes the current GT-R fairly easy to live with given its supercar capabilities.

Its jagged outline is perhaps the only non-sequitur; it reads more tuner car, more body kit, than instant classic. The components cut interesting swaths across its luxury-coupe outline: a tomahawk cut at the roofline chops into the rear end, and carbon fiber trim gives the plain interior just a dab of intrigue.

The GT-R's looks have indeed always been controversial—part edgy performance car, part exotic, part race-influenced. The 2016 GT-R NISMO adds to the race-influenced theme by using aero components inherited from GT3 racing. Thanks to a new rear spoiler, tapered rear bumper, and various front-end improvements—mostly in carbon fiber—the NISMO has a reduced coefficient of drag and extra downforce for high-speed stability. It rolls on black six-spoke wheels inspired by Nissan's GT500 race car.

With four seats, the Nissan GT-R makes rare concessions to practicality. It's almost impossible to name another supercar with a pair of rear seats, other than the Porsche 911 Turbo—and the GT-R's will actually accommodate a pair of kids. There's great, usable space in the GT-R's front seats, as well as a useful trunk. While engineers have tuned some of the road noise and "mechanical charm" out of the GT-R's cabin in recent years, it's still not optimal for long-distance hauls.

Inside, the 2016 GT-R NISMO gets a number of improvements, including Alcantara trim, carbon-fiber-backed Recaros, and a three-spoke steering wheel with Alcantara inserts. Through a connected services advanced performance telemetry system, drivers can download and see their on-track performance.

Every model in the GT-R lineup comes with a great 3-D navigation system, Bose audio, and Bluetooth. An inexpensive-looking cockpit is the GT-R's most visible flaw, but if you opt for the Premium Interior package, it provides Infiniti-grade luxury in a car with NASA-grade acceleration.

Value is the other rather surprising side of the GT-R's appeal. You'd have to spend a lot more than the Nissan GT-R's $103,365 base price to sling yourself to 60 mph any faster on four wheels.

As it stands, the GT-R commands respect from a cadre of cars straight out of the exotic section—cars like the 911 Turbo, Corvette Z06, and practically the entire AMG and M lineups. Key it to life, and your attention needs to be laser-focused, even though it's one of the most predictable supercars ever. You'll roll up into triple-digits speeds—even in sweeping corners—before you can catch your breath. 

According to the EPA, the GT-R is rated at 16 mpg city, 22 highway, 19 combined. Those figures aren't quite as good as a standard Porsche 911 or Chevrolet Corvette, both of which reach the upper 20s on the highway. But if you can keep your enthusiasm under control, the GT-R's turbo V-6 can be more efficient than V-8 or V-12 engines that make comparable power.

Likes

• Incredible all-wheel-drive grip and composure
• Rapid-fire dual-clutch shifts
• Rocket-ship acceleration

Dislikes

• A supercar, but the look still says 'supertuner'
• Expensive for its brand
• Big price hikes every year

Specs

Engine

Displacement3.8 L/232

Engine Order CodeNA

SAE Net Torque @ RPM463 @ 3200

Fuel SystemSequential MPI

Engine TypeTwin Turbo Premium Unleaded V-6

SAE Net Horsepower @ RPM545 @ 6400

Transmission

Trans Type6

Third Gear Ratio (:1)1.60

Final Drive Axle Ratio (:1)3.70

DrivetrainAll Wheel Drive

First Gear Ratio (:1)4.06

Sixth Gear Ratio (:1)0.80

Trans Description Cont.Auto-Shift Manual w/OD

Fourth Gear Ratio (:1)1.25

Trans Order CodeNA

Second Gear Ratio (:1)2.30

Reverse Ratio (:1)3.38

Trans Description Cont. AgainNA

Fifth Gear Ratio (:1)1.00

BMW M2 Gaining Fans

BMW M’s latest creation, the BMW M2, is gaining fans wherever it goes, with no shortage of praise. It’s been called the best BMW M product to debut since the 1 Series M, and that’s saying something. It even continues to impress people who’ve already driven it before. In this latest CAR Magazine review, they note that they had already driven the M2, but after driving it again are even more impressed with the new baby-M.

What we keep hearing over and over, again and again, from everyone who drives it is how predictable and confidence inspiring it is. While the M4 can bite you if you give it a bit too much throttle in a corner. But the M2 will just progressively break  traction and it’s easy and friendly to wrangle back in. In fact, it encourages that sort of behavior and relishes being sideways. So it’s friendly and exciting at the same time, the way M cars are supposed to be, making it the most fun car with a Roundel.

Another thing we’re hearing a lot about is that the M2 has excellent steering feel. When we drove it, we noticed it had great steering feel, but when we hear it from others, it reaffirms our feelings. Finally, we hear other people claiming that a BMW has great steering feel. But it’s also kind of annoying, because it shows BMW still can make brilliant steering but intentionally doesn’t because customers don’t want it. But it does show that BMW is willing to offer that typical BMW steering feel in cars that are designed only for enthusiasts.

And don’t mistake the BMW M2 for anything other than an enthusiast’s car. This is no mainstream sports car that Donna from work is going to get when her 320i xDrive lease is up. Oh no, the BMW M2 is not for the faint of heart. There’s no adjustability here, it’s just set up the right way, the way enthusiasts like. For instance, there’s no adjustable dampers here and the suspension is just setup perfectly right out of the box, the way the car gods intended. Because of this, the suspension is always firm and always compliant, simultaneously. It’s simply perfect.

The only downfall that I can’t make out from all of the reviews of the M2 is that the manual is geared a bit short for the highway. That short gearing makes the M2 thrilling on normal roads, which is precisely the point, but on the highway in sixth gear the engine can drone and be a bit too loud. Obviously, this isn’t a big deal an the seven-speed DCT variant, with its extra gear, doesn’t have that problem, but it’s the only real downfall I can find with the M2. That and its slightly crooked seats…

Overall, from what we’ve experienced and from what everyone else is seeming to find, the BMW M2 is a sensational car and one that only comes around every decade or so. So if the M2 isn’t already sold out in your country, which it is in some markets, and you can afford it, don’t hesitate. Buy one now and you won’t regret it. Regardless of gearbox, regardless of spec, you’ll love it. So buy it now.

2018 Tesla Model 3

It has the size and stance of another car called the 3 (from Mazda), its single instrument is a billboard-like 15-inch touchscreen glowing in the dash, it accelerates with the nearly silent rush that cheetahs use to get their lunch, and it will start at $35,000 when it first reaches customers, which at this moment is said to be the end of 2017. Welcome to the “affordable” Tesla Model 3 that 115,000 people supposedly put deposits on before the highly secretive car was even shown to the public at a launch party at SpaceX, Tesla’s sister company headquartered in Hawthorne, California.

From the side and back, the sedan Model 3 looks like a Model S with a very tall roof and a bobbed nose and tail. Up front, it has a blunt upturned snout that evokes the original Tesla Roadster as well as the new, sealed-up prow of the Model X. It is genetically linked to all of its ancestors—both in the styling and in the many pounds of lithium-ion batteries packed into the floor (also, all but the Roadster have front and rear trunks). It owes a heavy debt to the other cars in Tesla’s lineup.

“For all of you who bought an S or an X, thank you for helping pay for the Model 3,” Tesla chief Elon Musk told the crowd, referring to the Model 3 as the culmination of Tesla’s “secret master plan” to hasten the arrival of zero-emissions, self-driving transportation by producing a series of increasingly cheaper and more-practical cars. “With any new technology, it takes multiple iterations and economies of scale before you can make it affordable,” Musk said. A mass-market car “was only possible to do . . . after going through the prior steps.”

This is the car that will either save Tesla or kill it. To tool up for the expected volumes, which could be in the range of 75,000 a year the first couple of years, Tesla will risk a lot of capital on ramping up production, retail, and service capacity, making the Model 3 Tesla’s do-or-die moment. Everything will be bigger, from the factory parts inventory to the number of robots in the body shop to the size of the fleet of trucks needed to ship the product to the financial risks of a recall.

Beyond what's written above, we don't have a whole lot more details about the Model 3. Musk says the base model will have a 215-mile range and will accelerate from zero to 60 mph in less than six seconds. There also will be a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive version. He also promises that it will achieve five-star crash-test ratings and that Autopilot hardware will be standard. The company is otherwise being very stingy with the details. For example, it won’t tell us the sizes of the available batteries (thought to be between 40 and 60 kWh) or what the car is made out of. The Model S and Model X are primarily aluminum, but that’s an expensive material and, at the Model 3’s price, a tough cost challenge. Even so, during our brief test ride, we quietly touched a small magnet to various outer panels, the inner doors, and the structural pillar between the doors and got not a single quiver of attraction. A Tesla engineer told us the car is a mix of steel and aluminum but refused to elaborate. Unless the prototypes we sat in were made from nonproduction materials, there’s not much steel in that body.

Musk boasts that the Model 3 has more interior space than any car with its exterior dimensions, but we’re doubtful. The back seat is snug for the knees, mainly because the underfloor battery pack necessitates a high cabin floor and also because the front seats are thick thrones. The tall side glass means there’s plenty of headroom, however, and an enormous panoramic rear glass that curves over the rear passengers’ heads helps give the cabin the feel of airy spaciousness. Up front, the driver faces a dashboard that's completely bare save for the oversize, horizontally oriented touchscreen; the speedometer readout is in the upper left-hand corner.

Musk did let slip that there will be higher-performance variants coming, and prototypes were shown with big, carbon-fiber-accented wheels and with matte paint jobs. Can a Tesla performance sub-brand be too far off? Perhaps they should just call it L, for Ludicrous.

In its short history, Tesla has developed a passionate fan base. Just two weeks ago, the company sent out an email to its owners asking them to hit reply if they wanted to come to Los Angeles at their own expense to see the reveal of the Model 3. The invite included the chance to get a two-minute chauffeured blast up and down Jack Northrop Drive adjacent to the SpaceX plant. By all accounts, thousands responded. The 650 or so who made the cut for a launch party that, by Tesla standards, was a relatively intimate affair, flew in from as far away as Austria to witness Musk introduce the electric car he says he had in mind when he became involved with Tesla 12 years ago.

After negotiating a security net that rivaled the Oscars, as well as girthy goons in tight-fitting suits and studded sunglasses clearly veterans of the Hollywood rope line (another change from past Tesla events that have been rather rowdy and disorganized affairs), Musk’s adoring army of acolytes were treated to an open bar and passed hors d’oeuvres while waiting for the show. The event itself was rather brief, Musk talking extemporaneously for barely 20 minutes and much of the time waiting for cheering to die down.

With the Model 3 revealed, now begins a period very familiar to Tesla owners: the seemingly interminable wait until production begins.

2013 Pagani Huayra

After 14 years as the auto industry’s House of Fabergé, Pagani Automobili has built the paltry sum of 132 cars, just shy of Ferrari’s output every two weeks. Most are the original Zonda, with just 10 of the new, U.S.-bound Huayras yet in existence. Judging from the interrogations we received while stuck behind a massive wreck on the autostrada only 10 minutes from Pagani’s Modena, Italy, headquarters, that’s not enough to sear the brand into the consciousness of the locals, who are accustomed to seeing Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, and Ducati test vehicles tearing up their streets.

Horacio Pagani’s customers—an all-hands meeting wouldn’t make a decent lunch rush at a Denny’s—don’t seem to mind the brand’s obscurity. If you can peel off an easy million for a new Huayra, which starts at 849,000 euros or, when it arrives later this year, the spot-exchange equivalent in dollars, chances are good you own a lot of stuff that Italian truck drivers have never heard of.

Pagani’s first car, the Zonda, is recalled in the headlights (top) and the rear suspension (bottom) with its forged arms and inboard coil-over shocks.

To be sure, Modena is a tough town to make a splash in. But the Huayra (pronounced WHY-ra) has the requisite assets. It’s not just that it’s flagrantly gorgeous even while dragging its belly over an Italian speed hump. Or that it is adorned with fascinating details, from its soybean-sprout mirrors to the four titanium Inconel peashooters in back. Or that the carbon fiber’s clear coat looks deep enough to do 10-meter platform dives into.

And it isn’t just the beguiling movement of the Huayra’s motorized body surfaces that constantly lift and tuck like an F-16’s flaperons with the goal of reducing body roll and stopping distances. Or the  720-hp, 6.0-liter twin-turbo V-12, the old single-cam three-valver from the S65, custom built for Pagani by Mercedes-Benz AMG and anodized to a gilded fare-thee-well to resemble the Ark of the Covenant. Or even the cockpit with its bionic-Bauhaus sculptures in cut aluminum that make the driver feel like Lucky Starr chasing the Pirates of the Asteroids.

What really makes the Huayra startling is that all of its highly cultivated (and, in some cases, efficaciously questionable) flair pulls together to make a stupendous road car. The level of lateral grip, the triple-digit stability, and the braking and steering control give this Beaux-Arts glamour boat the muscle to mix it up with the cars from Brand F and Brand L. Think Le Mans prototype with carpeting and license-plate mounts.

You feel comfortable in the Huayra. You can see out of it. Even if the gauges with their finely etched numerals aren’t easy to read in daylight, you are going fast very quickly, probing the lofty limits of the chassis’ relentless neutrality as the super-boosted Benz V-12 wheeze-bangs through each terrifying, scenery-smearing blast. This is not an exotic that is best hung on a wall—though it would nicely adorn just about any living room.

What the Pagani lacks is the feral mechanical bray that has long been the battle cry of Italy and is still available from the Lamborghini Aventador’s 8000-rpm naturally aspirated V-12. Sure, in a tunnel you’ll scare the pants off any nearby Andean highlanders by sounding like their wind god, Huayra-tata, after stepping on a tack. But for the occupants, with the car’s intake ducts making obscene sucking noises just a few inches behind the cabin, it’s like being two boogers riding in a cheetah’s nostrils.

Still, with very little formal engineering training, and, by his own account, being lousy at computers, Horacio Pagani manages to produce cars that are wholly credible even at their mesospheric price. He is first and foremost an aesthete, a car doodler as a child in Argentina who is still basically just doodling. Leonardo da Vinci is his lodestar, and stacked behind Pagani’s desk are volumes on the Renaissance master’s fusion of engineering and art.

Pagani, 57, who arrived in Italy in 1982 bearing letters of introduction from the great grand prix champion Juan Manuel ­Fangio, made his fortune in carbon fiber, first running Lamborghini’s composites shop, then as an independent contractor to the military and aerospace industries. His primary technology boast has been in reducing the ratio of resin to carbon fiber in finished pieces, taking the binder down to about 30 percent, thereby making components lighter without compromising strength.

Thus, you’d expect the Huayra to be a magnum opus in the black-blanket department, and it is. There are 15 different types of carbon fiber aboard, including $500-per-square-yard carbo-titanium, which has hair-like strands of the silvery metal woven in for extra strength. Five sheets, each only 1 mm (0.04 inch) thick, are molded together to form the walls of the central tub.

Pagani also likes to talk at length about the car’s aerodynamics, said to have been whittled down to a slippery 0.31 (flaps down) drag coefficient in a Mercedes wind tunnel. The movable ailerons at each corner come online at 50 mph, independently rising according to speed, lateral g, and steering input in order to stem lift, increase inside downforce in corners, and counteract body roll. Under braking, they flip up to max to act as air brakes.

From the driver’s seat, you can just see the flaps when they’re at full extension. It’s impossible to know without pulling a fuse whether they or an automatic hydropneumatic front suspension jack, which lifts the nose slightly at speed to vary the car’s angle of attack, fulfill their mission of reducing body pitching and braking distances and sharpening straight-line stability when closing in on the claimed 224-mph top speed. As is, though, the Pagani rolls around its horizontal axis about as much as a square wheel, so maybe the system does work.

Otherwise the circa-3200-pound Huayra makes no grand scientific leaps. The chromoly-steel front and rear subframes bolt to the tub to facilitate crash repair, and the 15-inch brakes are Brembo carbon-ceramic discs. As with the Aventador, the rocker-arm suspensions are fitted with inboard coil-over shocks, here supplied by Öhlins. The magnetic shocks used by Ferrari (but not Pagani) would add a touch of modernity and some low-speed suppleness to the Huayra’s otherwise decent ride.

The Pagani’s seven-speed sequential transmission, nestled transversely behind the differential to allow the engine to be mounted closer to the rear wheels, is of the older-school single-clutch variety. Pagani says the box, built by racing supplier Xtrac, saves about 200 pounds over a dual-clutch, a critical difference considering the transmission’s location. But it does so at the cost of slightly longer upshifts and lagging torque holes at town speeds. Stomp it and you get a downshift with all the subtlety and finesse of a refrigerator tipping over. The company says it’s still tuning the software.

The real reason to buy Mr. Pagani’s Huayra is that it’s the product of a maniacally obsessed perfectionist who plies his craft in aluminum and carbon fiber the way other artists work in watercolor or bronze. Everywhere you look on an unpainted Huayra body, for example, the carbon-fiber weave patterns mate perfectly, whether it’s in a herringbone pattern down the spine or, most impressively, across the air gaps between the doors and the body.

Top: The seven-speed transmission can be set to “comfort” or “sport” mode. Bottom: Six pieces of fitted luggage are included in the purchase price.

The metal pane housing the navigation screen and climate controls is machined from a single 15-pound block of aluminum and fitted with delicate teardrop buttons made to resemble a clarinet’s keys (Pagani is an avid, self-taught musician). The ignition key is an approximately four-inch-long model of the Huayra milled in aluminum that costs the company $3700.

Future restorers take note: The dozens of grade-7 titanium bolts in the rear suspension, which run Pagani $98 each and are part of the $37,000 in bespoke titanium hardware in the car, are indexed with all of their laser-etched Pagani logos facing up.

R&D director Andrea Galletti, who for some years punched a clock on Ferrari’s F1 team, showed me acceleration traces from a test car that indicate 3.3 seconds for 60-mph and lateral acceleration through a constant-radius corner of 1.5 g’s. Of course, it’s not a valid performance number until it’s recorded by our equipment, but from the data, it’s clear that more work is needed in the launch control and the 1-2 upshift, where the acceleration line droops painfully.

Galletti estimates the car is capable of 3.0 seconds to 60. It had better be, considering the Aventador does that, weighs a thousand pounds more, and costs less than half as much. The Huayra should do it with a target-launch rpm of 3500 rpm, says Galletti, possibly in second gear to take advantage of the AMG’s 738 pound-feet of torque and avoid the 1-2 upshift at 58 mph (second gear tops out at 75 mph at the 6000-rpm redline). Pagani’s PR man, the fabulously named Luca Venturi, promises us a testing opportunity in the U.S. this fall.

Specifications

VEHICLE TYPE:mid-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger, 2-door coupe

BASE PRICE:$1,070,500

ENGINE TYPE:twin-turbocharged and intercooled SOHC 36-valve V-12, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection

DISPLACEMENT:365 cu in, 5980 cc
Power: 720 hp @ 5800 rpm
Torque: 738 lb-ft @ 2250 rpm

TRANSMISSION:7-speed automated manual

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 110.0 in
Length: 181.3 in
Width: 80.2 in Height:46.0 in
Curb weight: 3200 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/DEST):
Zero to 60 mph: 3.0 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 6.4 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 10.9 sec
Top speed: 224 mph

PROJECTED FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):
EPA city/highway driving: 10/14 mpg