A Pagani Huayra R Is Arriving In November With An All-New N/A Engine

Pagani seems keen to tease its latest car in an incredibly low key way. No press releases, no outlandish social media campaigns - instead, company founder Horacio Pagani used a preview video for the 2020 Autstyle Design Competition to confirm the existence of something very exciting indeed.
He 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 [naturally] aspirated engine, made especially for this purpose. So on November 12, we will tell you the genesis of Huayra R.”

The only correct reaction to this is hell to the yes.

The car will be a departure for Pagani for two reasons - all versions of the Huayra have used Mercedes-AMG’s M158 twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12, and no Pagani model in the history of the company has used a bespoke engine. Earlier versions of the Zonda used Merc’s M120 naturally-aspirated V12, before switching to the bigger M297.

Neither displacement nor cylinder count was mentioned, but this will surely be a V12. We should imagine outside help will be needed to develop the powertrain, which we’re expecting big things from in the noise department. As the Huayra R will no doubt be - as was also the case with the Zonda R - for the track only, it should have a rather unrestrictive exhaust system.

To be worthy of the -R designation, the track monster will need to go beyond the still-road-legal, Huayra-based Imola in terms of both aerodynamics and perhaps power too - no mean feat when that car develops 818bhp with the help of forced induction.

Production is set to be extremely limited - only 15 examples of the Zonda R were ever built. As far as price goes, we can expect a multi-million euro figure. To give some sort of guide, it’s worth point out the Imola was a cool €5 million.