Italian supercar company Pagani only makes about 30 cars a year, each with a price tag in the millions, so when it goes to the trouble of designing a new model, like the Huayra in 2011, it juices it for everything it's worth using a seemingly endless procession of variants and special editions.
Thus, we've got a Huayra, a Huayra BC, A Huayra Roadster, A Huayra Roadster BC, and a Huayra R rounding out the standard range, and dozens of special editions from the company's Grandi Complicazioni special projects division, including last year's Huayra Tricolore and this latest effort, the Huayra Codalunga.
As the name suggests, this is the long-tail version. And yes, the extended back end with its elegant taper does look like it'd help fill in a low pressure pocket and add some aerodynamic efficiency, but Pagani knows where its bread is buttered – this is more about making a car that feels "at home on the roads as well as on display at international Concours events."
As such, Pagani isn't presenting this thing as a performance monster, despite its 6-liter, 840-horsepower, 1,100 Nm (811 lb-ft) V12 engine and its presumably excellent handling. Indeed, the climax of the promotional video, which we'll embed below, isn't a savage drift or a nailed apex, it's a bunch of paparazzi flash bulbs going off as the car pulls to a stop.
Still, the Codalunga's elongated composite body shape has resulted in "extremely high aerodynamic efficiency" to go with its four active aero flaps, and the company's decision to "take away rather than add" has resulted in a decent 70 kg (154 lb) drop in weight from the standard Huayra, to 1,280 kg (2,822 lb).
Design-wise, the tail is a definite highlight, and the way the bodywork scrolls up around the taillights, then drops down to a thin sandwich around a starkly naked four-exit titanium exhaust ... It's all rather tasty and probably justifies this model, if only for artistic reasons.
Stepping inside, Pagani says it's used neutral colors and semi-matte and matte paints as a throwback to the longtail racers of the 60s, but also to "bring out the simplicity of the car's design." Many words come to mind when looking at the interior of a Huayra, but "simplicity" is certainly not among them. Indeed, Pagani makes some of the most aggressively foofy and ornamental cabins in the supercar world. We furnish a photo of the Codalunga interior above, and invite you, dear readers, to point out any "simplicity" that's somehow snuck in there.
Whatever you may think of the Codalunga, you can't have one. Five will be built, and all have been sold at a starting price of €7 million (US$7.37 million). Cartoon-only video below.
Source: Pagani
