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Autos & Motorcycles | July 6, 2010

Hot Car News: Pagani planning super light weight supercar to compete with Ferrari and Lambo?

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Exotic Car Examiner

Hot Car News!

According to the rumor mill, Pagani is planning to build an ultra light weight supercar by or before 2015.

Is the exotic car company planning to challenge Ferrari Enzo as the new world leader in automotive design features?

The news is big, as smaller exotic car companies who produce big ticket cars as unique as their clients are beginning to be seen as leaders (rather than followers) in the exotic car industry.

What do we mean? The answer is simple -- and we hope the Ferrari gods won't smite us for breathing a word of it.

As production volume for car models produced by Ferrari and now Lamborghini soar into the hundreds and even thousands, their focus is on creating more production unit models that have an ultra-luxe sports car appeal rather than on creating visionary car models designed for only a half a dozen car enthusiast billionaire owners in the McWorld market.

Regarding the car guy gossip about the potentially forthcoming Pagani, Autoblog writes:

Horacio Pagani isn't accustomed to sitting still. The Argentine-Italian supercar-maker has been tweaking successive versions of the Zonda since its creation, and recently took the Nürburgring lap record with the track-focused Zonda R. But that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to things to come for Pagani.

Next on the horizon is the tentatively dubbed C9. The successor to the current Zonda is expected to get a twin-turbo V12 made specifically for the Modenese firm by Mercedes AMG, not the decommissioned supercharged V8 from the SLR as previously speculated. But don't discount the idea of an eight-cylinder Pagani just yet, as fresh reports from Europe suggest that a second model could be in the works to slot in below the C9/Zonda and give the niche automaker a two-car lineup.

As is often the case with such reports, details are scarce at the moment, but the formula calls for a smaller, lighter-weight package than either the current Zonda or the upcoming C9. Sources don't expect the sprightlier Pagani to arrive before 2015, but as the sayings go, good things come in small packages...and to those who wait.

While Ferrari likes to think they are in the lead with all their designs, what is slowly happening is they seem to be reverting to classic design ideas infused with high tech tweaks to improve their cars design and function.

While cool, the cars are more like modern classic sports cars than the are cutting edge and defining future cars.

That's why news that car companies like Pagani are aggressively redesigning concept cars with the expectation that the auto world will be changing in the next 100-200 years is so exciting.

While history and heritage related to the auto is fascinating and inspired brand loyalty and confidence, there is a wider intellectual market appeal for the next greatest thing than there is for a new and improved model of the last greatest thing.

That's the strength in numbers theory of why Ferrari will remain competitive for at least the next 50 years, while future potential coming of age owners by the cars that inspired their fathers, and why Pagani and other future thinking exotic car manufacturers have a chance to gain a larger foothold in the minds of future exotic owners.

Think about little boys rooms and wall posters.

[Or little girls rooms if you were lucky enough to raise a car girl.]

Remember when the hottest cars you could hand a picture of an the wall were the Porsche with a whale tail, any Lamborghini, and those smooth clean lines of the most up to date Ferrari because you never saw any of them on the road in person due to their scarcity?

Now that Ferraris and even Lamborghinis are everywhere (and many capable of being used as daily drivers), children and young car collectors need something to daydream about and aspire to own one day that is not only functional but more rare.

Exotic cars like Pagani make the hot cars list for the fantasy version of an ultimate garage absolutely.

[Source: autovisie]

[Source: autoblog]

 

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