It’s not often that we hear much from the Italian supercar maker Pagani, mostly because their cars are often so bespoke and tailored to each owner that additional volume would only muddy their exclusivity. So the release of a new car is something a bit special. Case in point: the Huayra BC Roadster.
Just by its name, we already know 90 percent of what the car is - a roof-optional version of the track-focused Huayra BC, arriving fashionably late at approximately 3 years since the reveal of its fixed roof counterpart.
Pagani, however, insists that plenty of innovative engineering and design work has gone into the car. They have not detailed much about what has been done to surpass the original BC as such, so we’ll have to take their word for it. To the layman, it’s hard not to see this as ‘just’ a new variant. And that’s fine.
The one obvious upgrade the BC Roadster can indeed boast about is its revised powerplant. Where the twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre Mercedes-AMG V12 that debuted in the standard Huayra featured a staggeringly powerful 537kW and 1000Nm, the BC coupe notched at up to 555kW.
For the Roadster, Pagani went further by again collaborating with their Affalterbach-based buddies to extract even more fury from the M158 they built specifically for the Huayra. The result is 596kW and 1,050Nm.
None of that extra power is wasted on a heavier reinforced body to compensate for its lack of roof either as its carbon fibre and titanium construction mean structural rigidity is completely unaffected. Kerb weight is, therefore, a stunningly light (for a car of this size) 1,250kg. Drive reaches the fat rear wheels and tyres via an Xtrac 7-speed single-clutch automated sequential transmission.
Pagani has also worked with Pirelli to design a specific set of P Zero Trofeo R tyres for the Huayra BC Roadster’s to best take advantage of the car’s geometry and suspension setup. Given that the BC coupe can sprint to 100km/h in around 2.5 seconds. The Roadster’s weight advantage and extra power should improve on that, though perhaps only marginally.
Performance numbers are scant at the moment, but Pagani is due to show the finished car at the upcoming Monterey Car Week in September where no doubt more information will emerge. The company, interestingly, has committed to making 40 examples of the Huayra BC Roadster; double the production run of the hard top variant.
We won’t be surprised that, even by the car’s public unveiling in California next month, that all of those forty cars would have been sold out. To those lucky owners, each would have had to fork out approximately $3.5 million US Dollars (or AU$5.12M) for the privilege.
