Pagani Automobili has revealed the latest iteration of its Huayra supercar, dubbed Huayra BC, somehow managing to find a new extreme out there on the bleeding edge. Like the standard car, the BC gets a twin-turbocharged V12 powerplant sourced from AMG, with output climbing to 789 horsepower (an 8 percent bump) and 811 pound-feet of torque. But the real story here is the weight saving measures throughout the car.
Background: That “BC” tag is for Benny Caiola, a longtime friend of Horatio Pagani and the company’s first customer. Caiola, a property magnate who owned thousands of apartments in New York, sounds like a real paisan; immigrating as a 17-year-old plasterer, he grew a real-estate empire from essentially nothing. He was known to cut deals over a simple lunch of spaghetti with tomato sauce, jotting down numbers on a paper napkin, needing no more contract than his reputation and his word.
You’d have to think this shrieking monster would appeal to such pointed simplicity. The carbon-infused gearbox is 40 percent lighter than the standard model. The aircraft-grade aluminum alloy suspension parts are 25 percent lighter. Even the quad-exit exhaust through which the Huayra BC utters its barbaric yawp is lighter, now down to under seven pounds.
The total weight loss is nearly 300 lbs, bringing Pagani’s latest creation under the 2,700-lb mark, lighter than a Scion FR-S. Despite a new Bosch-supplied stability and traction control, and a full new aggressive aerodynamics package, the BC’s 355-series rear tires have got their work cut out for them. Performance specs aren’t out, but expect the BC to eclipse the Huayra’s 230 mph top speed, and return a 0-60 mph time of less than three seconds.
Devoid of any hybrid systems, the Huayra BC finds itself operating in new boutique supercar space as a blend of the ultra-modern and perhaps a little old-school lunacy. Consider the Zonda R to have a new heir worthy of the composite-material throne.