It was about 35 degrees when we entered the industrial area in Modena. We immediately recognised the street of the well known movie with the Zonda F which is racing through this street. We walk onto the Pagani premises, it just couldn’t start any better....
A Zonda F Roadster just left for its final testdrive, this is why the car is covered in plastic and has a bonnetprotector. This is to prevent it from any rubble that might damage the car. You can hear the typical Pagani sound now and then screaming into the quit street. Afterwards the car will be check once more by Mister Pagani himself, after this last check the car will be delivered by the new, proud, owner. Horacio Pagani will check every single car that leaves his factory. If he thinks something isn’t just perfect this will be repaired until the car is spotless.
We walk into the showroom and are welcomed by Luciano, today he will give us a guided tour. In the showroom you can find some wonderful object which will tell the interesting history off Pagani. For example you can find some models that Horacio Pagani designed when he was just eight years old. A small moped he developed to cruise around the neighbourhood and his first developed racing car. On the wall you can see some original letters and sketches which Horacio took to Enzo Ferrari and Juan Manuel Fangio. Horacio took these letters and sketches from Argentina when he left to Italy at the age of 26. He thought that he had more possibilities in Italy to make his dreams come true.
When he reached Modena he started to work at Lamborghini SpA. He worked a total of eight years at Lamborghini, in this time he learned quite a lot about composite materials. In 1988 he started his own company which he called Pagani Composite Research. This company aimed at making parts for the bike and car industry. Beside that the company also meant a lot for cars like the Countach Anniversary, Diablo, Lamborghini P140, L30 and the Diablo Anniversary.
The experience he got working at Lamborghini he tried to realize the dream he had as a little boy, building an own sportscar! He realised the first sketches of the “Fangio F1” in 1988. The car was named to a guy that meant a lot to him, like getting him his first job at Lamborghini, making sure he could use the AMG engines from Mercedes since 1994 and probably most imported supporting him whilst realising his dream! Unfortunately Juan Manuel Fangio died in 1995. This is why Horaccio Pagani stoped using the name Fangio F1 out of respect for the man who meant so much to him.
After a lot of development and even more testing the Pagani Zonda C12 was revealed during the Geneva car show in 1999. This Pagani had to work with 408 pk and could reach 100 km/h in just 4.3 seconds. Eventually they only produced five models. This was due to the faster successor, the Pagani Zonda C12-S. This car had a 7 litre V12 with 550 bhp, it reached 100 km/h in just 3.7 seconds. Quite an improvement compared to the C12.
We walk further into the showroom and look at two Zonda F’s. Everything is just perfect, even the luggage compartment is wonderful, you get the same leather that is also used in the interior. When you buy a Pagani you also get a matching pair of leather shoes. The question rises what those strange buttons in the middle of the seat are for. As usual it is designed for style, it’s just the seat adjustment.
After we’ve seen the showroom we walk into the productionroom. On the right side of the building the carbon fibre bodyparts are handmade. In these climate controlled room the people with the smallest hands are working. They can fold the carbon fibre mats in the right shape into the moulds, just to realise a perfect result. When they are satisfied the carbon body is placed into a huge oven where the body is “baked” for some time. When the body is hardened this is sanded down and a bit later also painted.
A few meters away we see three Zonda’s, two times a Zonda S and one Zonda F. Both S’ses are here for a repaint and an upgrade to a Zonda F. This is possible if the customers ask for it. But the most distinctive must be the pink bodypanels bolted onto a Zonda. Not quite our taste, but this does show how for Pagani will go to please their customers. This used to be a Pearl Yellow Zonda S but the owner did prefer a pink Zonda. We have a suspicion that this is the Zonda S from London, but this has to be confirmed by spotters who go their. The production area looks clean and organised, every car has his own workstation. This makes clear what parts belong to each car.
When we turned around we saw some artist impressions of a new building. Of course we asked what kind of building that would be, this way we found out that this will be the new building of Pagani. This building is build at approximately 300 meters from the old factory. They hope to enter this new studio next year, you must agree they make pieces of art in their. In this new factory Pagani can probably build around 60 to 70 cars each year. A lot of new rich guys love to own a Pagani. Just think about the millionaires in China and Russia. But to keep the brand exclusive only a handful of cars are delivered to each continent each year.
The end of the tour is approaching, but of course we had to see the office of Mr. Pagani. We have to climb a small stair and their it is, a wonderful office with a centered table on which numerous prices can be seen, for example, best design and the well known Ring-record. A bit further on the sketch table we see a wonderful drawing of the Pagani Zonda.
This was really the end of the tour. We get back to the showroom where we see a special radioset and a motorbike. This radio is still a concept, when it is completely finished it’ll probably be priced around 100,000.- euro! Quite a bit of money but it is an exclusive radio. The motorbike is a custom build bike, build by a happy Pagani driver! He was so pleased with his exclusive car filled with all these nice details he decided to build a bike using some of the Zonda details. More owners are please with the quality of their car, this can be concluded from a small letter that can be found on the wall off the showroom, signed by a carcollector from New York. This owner was so surprised about all the details in his Pagani that he added a 1000 dollar cheque so that the entire Pagani team could have a bit to eat!
This was truly the end of this wonderful tour. We recommend everybody to visit Pagani in Modena. We will definitely visit them again when they opened their new studio!
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