In the flesh, parked at Pagani’s low-key booth, the Zonda R is every bit the demented racing car you’d expect it to be. This is the last in a great line of super cars, the logical conclusion to Pagani’s original car: the 1999 Zonda C12. Let’s go look inside its mid-mounted guts.

The headless person at the bar, resting behind a Zonda Cinque, can plop his ass in a Barcelona chair if he so desires, which is just as comfortable as it looks. At least in the short term. For long-term stays, you need thousands of dollars or the company of bankers and Zonda-owners.

The famous Gatling exhausts are back and they have never looked this great.

A key element of the car’s supposedly supple suspension.

The valve cover, until recently marked only with its donor AMG’s emblem, has gained some Zonda branding.

Not your mother’s tires.

The carbon fiber rim of a cooling duct exposed by removal of the carapace.

The Zonda is not light on carbon fiber by any means.

The periscope-shaped air ducts inside the cabin are made of, you guessed it, carbon fiber.

Hood scoop to feed all 7.7 liters of the AMG V12. It has a peculiar resemblance to the exhaust pipes of the just-announced Bentley Mulsanne.

Undoubtedly the world’s greatest looking rearview mirror. The shape was introduced in 2005 for the Zonda F to replace the earlier Zonda C12’s snail eye mirrors.

It is a gorgeous mirror. You have to wonder though what function the LED’s which look like turn indicators serve: the Zonda R is a track car. Although, as you’ve seen with the similarly track-only Maserati MC12 Corsa, Horatio Pagani is perhaps anticipating the gentle and high-speed bending of rules.

Gone are the triple headlights of the Zonda F for these elongated dual units. Surrounding them are a material made by curing cloth and resin in an autoclave commonly known as carbon fiber.

If you're like us, then you know. If not, then we'll have to point it out loud and clear. Roofless exotics are for rich poseurs. Or are they? With the same Mercedes-Benz AMG-sourced V12 as the equally limited edition Pagani Zonda Cinque hardtop pumping out 678 horsepower and a tire shredding 578 lb-ft of torque, this is no poseur ride. To clarify even further; any car with full carbon fibered bodywork, carbon-titanium monocoque chassis (engineered specifically for the Cinque), Cima six-speed sequential gearbox and a titanium and magnesium adjustable suspension means business.

Sitting pretty at a dry weight of 2,667 lbs, the Zonda Cinque slingshots to 60 mph in 3.4 seconds, 125 mph in 9.6 seconds and fights the wind until it reaches its 217 mph top speed. Massive lateral grip in the Zonda Cinque allows it to maintain 1.45g with its massive Pirelli PZero tires (front 255/35/19, rear 335/30/20) wrapped around aluminum and magnesium, APP monolithic wheels (front 9x19, rear 12,5x20).

Sounds to us like there's plenty of fun wrapped up in this $1.8 million non-poseur mobile, but regardless of all the awesome, you just know that all five of these beauties will end up in some collection, never to be seen or heard from again.

Buried deep in a non-descript Italian industrial park, the Pagani factory doesn't appear to be the birthplace of carbon fibered devils, but once you make it past the wrought-iron security fence that semblance of reality changes in an instant. The lucky guys at Speedhunters were given exclusive photographic access and a four hour personal tour of the factory including the assembly areas and managed to squeeze off some very delicious looking photos. Head on over to Speedhunters to check out their in-depth three-part article of their experience. Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Photo Credit: Dino Dalle Carbonare [via SpeedHunters]

Here's how it happened:

Hi Murilee,
unfortunately I only had my iPhone with me...
I'm usually pretty spoiled when it comes to expensive vehicles parked outside, as the part of Frankfurt I live in combines expensive flats with not enough garages. 911s are the Golfs here, and every other evening you can watch a RR Phantom-driver circling for half an hour, desperately looking for a parking space for his ocean liner.

This however, caught me completely off-guard. I left my building to take the trash out and was greeted by the sound of 12 cylinders. Mr. Hedgefund and his trophy girl got out and left this monster standing down on the street. Between early 20th centruy houses and the usual E-classes and 5-series BMWs it looked like an imperial X wing crashed parking in front of a medieval castle. Amazing.

When you say McQueen in a car magazine, it’s usually Steve. Time for an exception: Alexander McQueen is a Savile Row-trained British designer who has been making outrageous clothes for over a decade now. His latest collection, shown at the Paris Fashion Week in front of an automotive scrapheap, features an outfit with a proper black chrome car wheel as a hat.

It may not be immediately obvious, given the Marilyn Manson makeup, the equally weird hats and the parachute-sized skirts, but the clothes in the English designer’s fall/winter collection are ready to wear.

Damned European libertines, you may be thinking, but it’s these exact same libertines, shaping carbon fiber and titanium instead of silk and feathers, who supply the car nerds of the world with our regular hits of supercar. A Pagani Zonda with a racing engine and a quilted leather interior is no less decadent than a bony woman with an umbrella on her head.

And just imagine the baroque visuals on city streets if supercar owners started wearing stuff like McQueen’s prêt-à-porter. Women emerging from Murciélagos with whole flocks of birds on their shoulders.

Hat tip to gearhead fashion designer Anna Péter.

Photo Credit: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images, FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images

In addition to sucking up the world’s excess supplies of carbon fiber and titanium, supercars are also excellent devices for taking ungodly sums of cash and turning it into, well, nothing. While Albert Einstein might point to a factual error or two in that argument, supercars definitely depreciate in ways very familiar to the Dan Osman types who tie themselves on climbing ropes and plunge into ravines.

Spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a two-seat vehicle is usually reserved for people who couldn’t care less about their money, but these are not usual times. And if you had money to burn, would you store it in a bank? Surely not. Why not buy a Pagani Zonda Cinque instead?

Five will be made of these street legal versions of the Zonda R track special. On sale at ES Elite Style GmbH is chassis #1 for a cool 1.6 million Euros—two million bucks at the current exchange rate. For your monetary equivalent of a Presidential fleet of Maserati Quattroportes, you will get a sequential gearbox, 678 very useful horsepower, and a large athletic shoe with a sinister red-white-black color scheme to zip around in.

One word of warning to the potential buyer: this is an extremely low car best suited for well-maintained tarmac. Please do not drive it on the French island of Kerguelen, which is a glaciated volcano in the Southern Ocean and has no paved roads. Presented here for your warning is the painting The Incompatibility of Zondas with the Subantarctic Environment from the Pagani Zonda Field Guide:

You know it’s bad luck when albatrosses eye your vehicle with suspicion. Jusk ask a sailor intimate with the Roaring Forties.

This dark knight, just unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, brings the heat with a 739 HP 6.0-liter V12, weight chopped down to 2,360 pounds and a 0-to-60 time of three seconds.

Photo Credit: autoblog.nl

In case you forgot, the Zonda R is Pagani's supposed fair-thee well gift to the Zonda name to the tune of 739 HP from its 6.0 liter V12, good for a 0-60 time in three second and top speed of 233 mph. Start liquidating your assets now because the $1.8 million super car will go fast, both literally and figuratively.

[via WCF]

The Pagani Zonda F Cinque is something of a bridge between the Zonda F chassis and the next one, the Zonda Cinque (pictured above) gets chassis, aerodynamic, and power upgrades compared to the old car. The Zonda F Cinque is based on the Zonda R and borrows styling and aero elements from the Cinque like the hood scoop, and rear diffuser. Five Pagani Zonda F Cinque cars will be built in the year between the end of Zonda F chassis production and the start of Zonda Cinque production.

So if we want to put this in simpler terms and liken the Zonda F Cinque to Corvette history, this car would be the the 1961-62 model years, borrowing elements of two cars to make one rare and still cool car. Look for actual images and details on the car as it debuts next week at the Geneva Motor Show. [GTSpirit]

Must. Suppress. Dragons.

Photos via Carplatform

Highlights are at 30 seconds, 2:30 and pretty much everywhere in between. Make sure you have a sturdy book ready to um ... just get it ready.

We totally want to make dragon-love with those four exhaust pipes — Is that wrong?

[via Evo]

It's been a good run, the Pagani Zonda has stoked many a supercar fantasy and plasters the walls of garages and bedrooms everywhere, but all good things must come to an end. The Zonda R is that end and the Zonda is not fading quietly into history. Everything gets turned up to eleven with this final model, 739 HP 6.0-liter V12, 0-to-60 times of three seconds, and a blistering top speed of 233 MPH.

The car also spares no expense, wearing top shelf parts made of titanium and carbon fiber, and the price shows. Only 15 Zonda R's will be available to the public for a mind-blowing $1.8 million, and they're building one extra to keep at the factory. Guess if you're going to go out, you go out big.

[iMotorMag]

Sorry PCH'ers, with the engine and the outer shell lost in this smash-up, we're not so sure there's much left to reconstruct, Eddie Griffin Enzo-style. But, that said, anyone want to try? [via WreckedExotics]

Why Cinque? According to the person who posted this news, and the picture above, only five of the beasts is to be made. We'll assume it's going to carry the same 7.3-Liter Mercedes V12 and will perform best at the track, though we'd still try and drive it down Lake Shore if given the chance. If the photo above entices you like it entices us we recommend buying lottery tickets. Now! (h/t to Joe) [TeamSpeed]

Technical specs are still unconfirmed, but the speculators suggest the new engine will be the thumping 680 HP dry-sump V8 lump from the McLaren Mercedes SLR 722 GT. We're not sure how much sense that makes, what with SLR production winding down, but then the Zonda isn't exactly the sort of car you justify with the left side of your brain. With 0-60 runs likely in the sub-three second range, your right foot will likely be the decision-maker. [AutoExpress]

As a stereo system, it is pretty average. The towers contain 350W speakers and a bass speaker that outputs through the Zonda-style exhaust pipes. It includes a dedicated amplifier. Those confusing platters are actually turntables, because Pagani is still living in the 1980s. No word on price, but if you can afford a Zonda, then this purchase shouldn't be too hard on the old pocketbook. [Uncrate]