Legend..

Pagani Zonda S Roadster - Driving Impressions

Great fun, though don't get too excited about owning a Pagani if you haven't got a spare half-million dollars.

It's difficult to get an exact number, but it seems there are between 750,000,000 and 800,000,000 automobiles being used in the world today.

Fewer than 100 are Paganis.

Many of the drivers of those millions of cars would ask, of course, "What the heck is a Pagani?"

Exotic car fans know it's called the Pagani Zonda, and over the past decade these carbon-fiber wonder cars have been made in the small Italian town of San Cesario sul Panaro about 10 miles east of Modena. Yup, that makes Pagani a close neighbor of Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati.

Horacio Pagani moved to Italy from his native Argentina, became an early expert in the art of automotive carbon-fiber and decided to build his own exotic car.

We applauded his efforts but secretly wondered if he could make it.

Well, he has and his car is now in several forms, one is called the F, as in Juan Manuel Fangio, Pagani's home country hero. The other - seen here - is labeled the S. The basic design has changed only in detail over the years, though it's now sold as GT or spider, but that hasn't kept Pagani from continuing success.

Central to the Pagani is a carbon-fiber tub, which is then covered with body panels of the same material. Front and rear are lightweight metal subframes for the A-arm suspensions and the drivetrain. Mercedes-Benz' AMG supplies the powerplant, a 7.3-liter V-12 with 555 bhp, 553 lb.-ft. of torque at 4000 rpm and a delightfully fierce howl that chases you around when you're at full throttle. The gearbox is a 6-speed manual and the big Brembo brake discs come as steel or carbon ceramic.

Weighing in around 2700 lb. and riding on squat Michelins, a Zonda S is said to squirt to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and able to keep going until it's nigh on to 215 mph.

We also thought the Zonda's dramatic shape might age quickly, but it still looks good a decade down the line. The interior detailing is downright fun, a mix of vintage toggle switches, an instrument panel that could have been found in the 1930s, a Nardi steering wheel and fine leather, the background being the carbon-fiber bones of the Pagani's chassis.

Great fun, though don't get too excited about owning a Pagani if you haven't got a spare half-million dollars. Or live in the U.S., as the Zonda has never been certified for the States. But the next Pagani will be and it's not far off...