Pagani Huayra Codalunga v Huayra Roadster BC – £10m of hypercar siblings go head-to-head

All Paganis are fabulous things, but some have a special kind of magic. Witness the Huayra Roadster BC and Huayra Codalunga: two elite Huayra-based specials that go to remarkable lengths to explore contrasting extremes.

The former is an overt and aggressive contemporary expression of road and track performance, the latter an elegant but no less potent throwback to the glory days of sportscar racing, when Le Mans was contested by wildly powerful cars clad in extraordinary low-drag bodywork. Madly exotic, incredibly rare and eye-wateringly valuable, they sit at the top of the Pagani pecking order. And today we get to drive both.

I haven’t driven a Huayra since 2012, when the first media drives took place. It was a huge departure from the Zonda – a car with which evo (and I) had formed a special bond – so it was perhaps inevitable there would be a degree of resistance to its successor. 

The gullwing doors and active aero brought a different visual vibe, while the Huayra’s thicker-set physique lacked the arrowhead sharpness and cab-forward design that defined the Zonda. Gone too was the naturally aspirated Mercedes-AMG M120 V12 and manual transmission. The former was replaced by a smaller-capacity twin-turbo V12 with more torque but less whoop-whoop. 

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Meanwhile, the single-clutch ASM gearbox further contemporised the Huayra’s powertrain, and though it lacked the seamless shift quality of an equivalent DCT, it was up to 40kg lighter. Turbos and paddles might have removed desirable layers of mechanical interaction, but the driving experience was fresh and extremely impressive, Horacio Pagani wanting a car that mimicked the relentless sensation of a jet airliner accelerating down the runway. The Huayra nailed that brief squarely on the head.

I didn’t drive many Paganis after that first Huayra. Looking back, this is partly due to us having rather overdosed on the Zonda, but it’s also because new Paganis just don’t come along very often. It’s also fair to say that as the company evolved and its customer base grew with the Huayra’s successful homologation in the US, Pagani could quietly go about its business secure in the knowledge that demand was comfortably exceeding supply. 

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The nature of the cars also moved on. There had always been special commissions, but where successive evolutions of Zonda seemed to follow a steady trajectory, the Huayra’s metamorphosis was rapid and radical. The biggest single step came in 2016 with the Huayra BC, followed by the Roadster BC in 2019.

Named as a tribute to the late Benny Caiola – Horacio’s close friend and one of Pagani’s earliest customers – the BC was an edgier and more hardcore interpretation of the Huayra, one with a clear track focus but still rooted in road use. Approached with zealous attention to weight savings, it was Pagani’s most hardcore road car to date. Taking learnings from the track-only Zonda R, the Huayra BC incorporated cutting-edge advances in composites and extensive use of exotic alloys in its build. Engine output was boosted, chassis dynamics sharpened and the aero cranked up to generate serious downforce.

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The Huayra Roadster BC goes even further. The tub is constructed from even more advanced composites – Carbo-Titanium HP62 G2 and Carbo-Triax HP62, to be precise. In losing the roof it also lost the gullwing doors, but that suits the mission brief. The front bodywork sports new aero, as does the tail, and there’s a cool-air intake snorkel that rises from the engine cover and sits just above the roof-line. 

The dampers are retuned and there’s a new, full-titanium exhaust that exhales via the usual quartet of tailpipes, plus another pair that discreetly exit into the rear diffuser. The biturbo V12 engine gains power and torque, with peaks of 791bhp and 774lb ft, up from the standard Huayra’s 720bhp and 737lb ft. And the weight? Down 100kg to just 1250kg before fluids.

Pagani doesn’t go racing but its cars have achieved some significant milestones so far as road-car lap records are concerned. Back in 2007, the Zonda F Clubsport set a new record at the Nordschleife, eclipsing the Carrera GT’s benchmark by four seconds with a best of 7:27.82. Then in 2010 the track-only Zonda R set a new production-derived record of 6:47. However, the Roadster BC’s lap record around Spa-Francorchamps is arguably the most impressive, because it set a new benchmark for globally homologated road cars. Indeed it was this very car that did it, lapping the 4.35-mile circuit in 2:23.81 on street tyres and hitting a peak speed of 187mph.

The exquisite Huayra Codalunga is a different beast altogether. Built as a response to a very special customer request, just five of these extraordinary longtail designs were made, making it one of Pagani’s rarest cars. With an asking price of €7million, it was also one of the most expensive. Where the Huayra Roadster BC was conceived and built as a limited production model, Codalunga called upon Pagani’s Grandi Complicazioni department, formerly known as Special Operations. Working closely with the commissioning client, it took two years to finalise the styling concept, with quarter-scale and full-scale models produced to help make crucial final refinements.

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Mechanically, the Huayra Codalunga took the Pagani V12 to even greater extremes, with power and torque increased to 829bhp and 811lb ft. Weight is a little more than the RBC’s at 1280kg dry, but the rear bodywork is 360mm longer than the regular Huayra’s and covers an area of more than 3.7 square metres! You get the sense locals don’t tend to take too much notice of Paganis making their way through San Cesario, but once out onto the Via Emilia heading towards Modena it’s a different matter. With Pagani development driver Alberto Scilla on point in the RBC and Aston Parrott following behind in the camera car, I’ve got a bit of breathing space to get to know the Codalunga.

Paganis have always been surprisingly civilised and even-tempered cars to drive slowly, so it’s easy to relax into things. The single-clutch semi-auto isn’t as smooth as a modern DCT but it’s no hardship. Visibility is much better than you’d think and it’s easy – if rather stressful – to guide this precious machine through busy traffic. Onto the autostrada, we must make a spectacular sight. It’s amusing to watch other drivers dive out of the way of the RBC, less so when they cut straight back in behind it without checking their mirrors. Then they spot the Codalunga and dive out of the way again before following in our wake like ambulance-chasers.

We find our sanctuary in the Apennine Mountains, not far from where we enjoyed the Utopia a few months before. The weather has turned decidedly autumnal, with rain and low cloud threatening to put a dampener on proceedings. Given we had to abort our first attempt to drive this pair a few weeks previously due to monsoon conditions that flooded the region, it’s a relief when the drizzle abates and the cloud lifts sufficiently to enjoy the cars and get some photos.

It’s weird how differently you approach the Huayra Codalunga. Because it lacks the exposed carbon, racy livery and spiky aero addenda of the Roadster BC it presents as a softer, milder-mannered machine. Swing up the huge gullwing door and the impression continues, the BC’s black upholstery and dark anodised alloy, red contrast stitching and red instrument markings replaced by luxurious tan leather and nubuck upholstery, bright alloy fittings and icy blue painted sections to match the exterior bodywork.

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It’s an illusion, of course. Beneath the elongated bodywork is that ultra-potent evolution of the RBC’s twin-turbo Pagani V12 mated to the same transversely mounted seven-speed Xtrac automated sequential manual gearbox. The chassis employs the same double wishbones and adaptive TracTive dampers, and the same Pirelli Trofeo R tyres. And though the cockpit ambience is wildly different, your points of contact are very much the same. The tall, tactile shifter and exposed linkage mechanism is beautiful and deceiving. Looking for all the world like a manual gearlever, it actually controls the single-clutch transmission via a simple fore and aft push-pull motion.

It’s specially uprated in the Huayra Roadster BC, with new carbonfibre synchros for a faster, cleaner shift, and times halved from 150ms in the regular Huayra to 75ms in the BC. The wood and carbonfibre-topped lever has a deliciously weighty and mechanical feel thanks to hefty spring bias and an open gate. To select drive you pull the lever across to the right and back, enjoying the positive click-clack as you overcome the spring’s resistance in the final few centimetres of the lever’s travel. Then you can elect to let it shift automatically or shift yourself using the paddles, or indeed the lever if you prefer.

You definitely attack the road more in the BC. Not because the Codalunga is any less capable, but because the BC is somehow urging you on that little bit more. The gearbox gets better the harder you accelerate and the higher the rpm when you pull for an upshift. As you might imagine this takes considerable commitment when you’re extending a near-800bhp, 1250kg hypercar. Wind up to the red line and it’s an explosive, borderline violent process, but one that gives you a huge adrenaline rush.

The way it slices into turns is fabulous, clean, precise and consistent, with endless front-end grip supported by tremendous rear-end stability. Tight turns require you to look around the steeply raked A-pillars, but you know exactly where the centres of the front wheels are thanks to the vents on the tops of the wheelarches. It all helps you in placing the car just where you want it, which means you can really commit to a line and brake deep into the hairpins.

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The gearbox is better on downshifts. It feels punchier somehow, though I’m sure that’s because you don’t get the same sense of torque interruption as you do on the way up. Paddleshift ’boxes always lead you to drive in a certain way; hard and late on the sensational brakes, compressing the downshifts into a concentrated burst before you need to balance the car on the throttle. More of a track approach, if you will, even if you ultimately still leave road-appropriate margins.

I spend the remainder of the day in the enviable position of swapping from one Huayra to the other. I wouldn’t say I get blasé about jumping into either, but you’d be surprised how quickly you can get comfortable with them and enjoy them as you would any other fast car. Best not to think about the value, though.

At one stage we arrange both cars nose-to-nose with doors and both front and rear clams open. It’s a classic supercar/hypercar pose, but there’s something extra-special about these two. Like Imperial Fabergé eggs, they open to reveal their dazzling secrets; opulent interiors and technical engine bays glimmering with beautifully finished components made from all kinds of exotic materials. No other manufacturer pays so much attention to the areas that for the most part are never seen.

Eventually the weather finally delivers on what it’s been threatening to do all day, with rain and low cloud rolling in as the light begins to fade. We stop for a final confab at Chalet Raticosa to decide on our route back. It’s almost dark and dense fog is shrouding the summit. Both cars look sensational, head and tail-lights creating an unearthly glow in the murk. With one door raised and its cockpit bathed in the soft glow of the interior light, the Codalunga looks like an alien craft ready for take-off. Despite spending all day with it, I’m completely star-struck. Again.

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I love the BC’s wild side but cannot resist the Codalunga for one last drive. Partly because it’s pretty much the daddy when it comes to ultimate Paganis, but also because even though it has every bit of the BC’s raw performance, it’s somehow easier to relax into a different way of driving. It’s been a long day, and while it’s not exactly a cosseting GT, I know the Codalunga’s more nuanced delivery won’t egg me into wringing its neck at all times. I must be getting old.

The next few hours deliver a drive I’ll never forget. We’re going at a brisk pace. Fast enough to be fun, but chilled enough to savour every moment. Not least the surreal experience of being behind the wheel of the Codalunga and enjoying the spectacle of the Roadster BC chasing its own daggers of light through the twists and turns. 

It’s like being the star in your ultimate road movie. Tree-lined sections turn into blurry tunnels of light and shadow. When Alberto brakes, the BC’s tail-lights burn with increased intensity and its exhaust rumbles and pops with each downshift. After a brief pause, the engine note hardens as he gets back on the power then fades as he straightens up and begins to pulls away.

As for the Codalunga, darkness has cast a spell over its interior, which has come alive with the warm glow of backlit instrument faces. Reflections dance off the glazed roof sections and spark across the milled surfaces of the dashboard, steering wheel and switchgear. It’s truly evocative and strangely soothing. Every now and again the road opens out and we instinctively up our pace in unison, flexing the ridiculous reserves of torque and surging into the darkness. It’s a fabulous sensation, a mix of sensory isolation due to the lack of peripheral distraction mixed with accentuated speed and intense focus. All fast cars do this to some degree, but few in my experience could top this.

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It wasn’t my intention to get separated from the BC as we head onto the autostrada, but the barrier refuses to lift until I’ve rummaged around for the pre-paid Telepass widget. Unsure of where we’re headed and having heard the BC howl off in the general direction of Modena, when the barrier finally lifts I have some serious catching up to do.

These days I’m a bit too sensible for full abandonment of sense and speed limits, but if the Codalunga was born for anything it’s chasing big velocities on long inviting straights. I won’t commit a speed to print, but I think the biturbo Pagani V12 is beginning to get on top of fifth gear by the time I spot the BC in the middle distance and ease out of the throttle.

Both BC and Codalunga have speedos marked all the way to 415kph. That’s 256mph in old money. In truth both are electronically limited to a piffling 217mph – Pagani has never got drawn into the V-max battle – but I’d wager that with the electronic leash unclipped the slippery Codalunga would gradually drop the BC given a long enough straight. Pagani has no data on where that speedo needle might stop. If I were to find a few hundred Bitcoin down the back of my sofa I’d be sorely tempted to make one of the five Codalunga owners an offer they couldn’t refuse, take it somewhere appropriate (ahem) and find out. A man can dream.

As it stands, guiding the longtail Huayra through an apparently endless autostrada curve reveals rock-solid poise at serious speed. It’s one last vivid reminder that Paganis have always possessed a depth of engineering that not only far exceeds what you’d expect from a small, low-volume independent car maker, but is the product of a perfectionist ethos instilled by the company founder.

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Safely back at Pagani HQ, we wait for the automated gate to slide open, then drive down the side of the museum, along the flank of the factory and into the brightly lit assembly hall. It’s like all your wildest dreams come true: numerous Zondas in various states of disassembly or rebuild in the Rinascimento department; assorted Huayras undergoing transformations by Unico or Grandi Complicazioni teams; Utopias in-build, undergoing final inspections or awaiting shipping to their new owners.

And there, in the midst of this immaculate scene, are the Huayra Roadster BC and Codalunga. Covered in grime, grit and fallen leaves, they radiate heat and a faintly musty smell – part petrichor, part petroleum – as steam rises from hot brakes and trapped water drips from their undersides onto the pristine floor. I doubt this pair of unicorns has ever looked more magnificent.

Much is made of Paganis being more akin to works of art than automobiles. Likewise, their apparently ever-increasing values has turned them into ultra-performing asset class investments. Both these things fuel the awe and fascination for the smallest yet most alluring Italian hypercar marque, but as our day of days has reminded us, nothing beats the thrill of driving them.

Pagani Huayra Codalunga v Huayra Roadster BC specs

This story was first featured in evo issue 330