Horacio Pagani revealed this week that his company’s next car will feature an AMG-sourced V12 as well as a manual transmission.
Speaking to Quattroruote, Pagani revealed that although a name has been chosen for the upcoming hypercar, the company is not ready to reveal it yet. In the meantime, they are using the codename C10.
Pagani said that the new hypercar will be offered with Mercedes’ 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 and with either a new sequential gearbox or a manual transmission. “There are customers who didn’t buy the Huayra because we didn’t offer [a manual],” he said. “My audience wants to feel emotions when driving: they don’t care about pure performance.”
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That was a theme throughout Pagani’s conversation, who said that development was more focused on dropping weight than adding horsepower. The C10 won’t add more than 30-40 PS (29-39 hp) over the Huayra and certainly won’t go over 900 PS (888 hp/662 kW).
Although that’s certainly plenty of power, it’s less than electric hypercars offer. Pagani is aware of that, but not particularly concerned about it.
“Look at Gordon Murray’s T.50: it sold out even though it only has 650 hp,” he said. “It is very light, has a manual gearbox and a V12 that runs very high. You don’t need 2,000 hp to excite the driver.”
Indeed, he says that the weight of EVs concerns him, especially as someone who puts his own name on his cars.
“An ordinary person driving an electric car can accelerate in the middle of the city from one traffic light to another and reach monstrous speeds,” says Pagani. “And even if we talk about torque vectoring and the like, when a car weighs more than 1,500 kilograms, the management of the grip limit becomes very dangerous: no matter how much electronics you can have, you can not go against the laws of physics.”
Although Pagani has an interest in electrified powertrains, he’s not sure he can make a business case for one yet. For now, he’s satisfied with internal combustion and said the twin-turbo V12 powering the C10 will meet regulatory requirements without any form of electrification until 2026: “For the time being, we have not asked for concessions and we hope to continue like this. But if one day we have to switch to hybrid, we will,”
We’ll have to wait a bit more before learning the new car’s official name, never mind seeing how it looks, as Pagani says he plans to unveil his latest creation, of which between 280 and 300 examples will be made, in 2022.
