Pagani Huayra Roadster is a 764-hp, $2.4M topless dream machine
It's lighter, stiffer and more powerful than the coupe, which is impressive in its own right.
Ahead of its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, Pagani unveiled its latest creation, the Huayra Roadster. And good golly, it's amazing.
You might be forgiven for thinking the Huayra Roadster is just a Huayra with the top chopped off. But it's not. After spending three years on a design it eventually scrapped, the Huayra Roadster is a bit more complicated and also a bit more capable than the coupe from which it's based.
The front fascia has a stronger taper, and the grille has its own special design, as well. There are also some new wheels and changes to the rear end. Unlike other fancy roadsters, which eschew complicated door designs in favor of a convertible top, the Huayra Roadster retains the coupe's gullwing-style doors.
Every piece of this car is masterfully designed. It's damn near art.
The Huayra Roadster will come with two different types of removable roof. The first is a light carbon hard top with a central glass piece, so when it's attached, it still gives the owner a semblance of a sunroof. The second is a fabric-and-carbon-fiber soft top, which should be much easier to install and remove.
At just 2,821 pounds, the Huayra Roadster is both lighter and more rigid than the coupe. Pagani claims this is because of a new hybrid of carbon fiber and titanium that it calls Carbo-Triax HP52. The least sexy part of this car is that name.
Power comes from a Mercedes-AMG twin-turbocharged V12. It makes 764 horsepower and 737 pound-feet of torque, which comes mated to a seven-speed, single-clutch transmission. There are no official acceleration figures yet, but Pagani promises the Huayra Roadster can corner at 1.8G, which it claims is the highest lateral acceleration of any car equipped with road tires.
It sounds complicated and expensive, right? Well, it is. Pagani's starting price for the Huayra Roadster is a cool 2.28 million euros, which converts to about $2.4 million. While we'll be excited to get up close with one at the Geneva Motor Show, that's about as close as we're going to get, unless one of us wins the Powerball.
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