Horacio Pagani is adamant that you understand that everything he has created — his Modena Design company that invented carbotanium (carbon fibre and titanium filaments weaved together), his hand-built, and incredibly powerful, Pagani supercars, even the little mini-bike he cobbled together from scratch when he was 14 — are not the result of inspiration, but perspiration.
“Many describe me as if I were an exceptional individual, because they see my business and think that it is the result of super powers,” says Pagani, “It is the result of method, obstinacy and rigour” always diminishing the import of talent in favour of hard work and dedication.
That dedication had a young Pagani carving balsa wood supercars (some that bear a striking similarity to the modern-day Zonda) armed with nothing more than a Gillette razor and a few sheets of sandpaper. It had him, at the tender age of 20, fabricating his own open-wheeler (to this day, the only pure race car Pagani has ever designed) to compete in Argentine F2 races. And, it sent him emigrating to Italy, armed with only two bicycles and a tent (he and his new wife, Cristina, camped out), even if he knew that his promised job at Lamborghini had been rescinded.
Of course, no man is an island and Pagani’s passion enlisted countless others willing to fulfill all the dreams his father (who would have much preferred he went into the family bakery business) found “fanciful.” Gustavito Marani, whose competition with a young Horacio to build mini-bikes propelled both to make surprisingly sophisticated motorcycles (considering all the parts were blagged for free). Tito Ispani whose workshop became an unofficial workshop for the two young inventors. The countless mechanics who put up with the pestering little teenager, donating their cast-off engines, wheels and more.
Driving’s David Booth (right) meets Horacio Pagani.
Darren Begg, Driving
But most of all, there was Juan Manuel Fangio, fellow Argentinian and five-time Formula One champion, who befriended the young Pagani when supercars were just a gleam in the designer’s eye and a few balsa wood models on his mother’s bakery shelf. Telling Fangio that he wanted to “become a GT automobile designer and I’d like to take my career to the next level in Italy, which is much more suitable than Argentina for such projects,” Pagani hoped for an introduction to one automaker.
Instead, impressed with Pagani’s portfolio, Fangio wrote to five manufacturers — Osella, Ferrari, Lamborghini, De Tomaso and Alfa Romeo. Such was Fangio’s influence that all the CEOs, save Enzo Ferrari, granted him an audience. Fangio would later reveal, “I had written many letters of presentation in my life, but only one letter of recommendation, and it did not fall on deaf ears. This was the second.”
Said introductions led to a job (though delayed thanks to a slowdown in supercar sales) with Lamborghini, which, though short lived, led to Pagani becoming an expert in composite materials. Which led, in turn, to Modena Design, the aforementioned carbotanium and eventually his first supercar, the Zonda (which, by the way, had Lamborghini trying to rehire the designer and have his prototype become the new Diablo when seeing the end result of the talent that they had let slip through their fingers).
The rest, as they say, is history. The little factory on Via dell’Artigianato, where every single bit of the Huayra is built by hand, is about to give way to a larger shop as demand for the 320+ kilometres an hour supercar has skyrocketed despite its US$1.4-million price tag. Inside you’ll see the fastidiousness for which Mr. Pagani is famous, every bit either designed by himself or emblazoned in some way with his name. Even the carriages that wheel the big turbocharged Mercedes V12s around for placement in the hand-laid carbon fibre tubs are designed and manufactured (in lightweight aluminum, no less) by Mr. Pagani himself. Leather is laid onto interior panels by meticulous hands, body parts are test-fitted time and time again and the paint booth is so very meticulous that Rolls-Royce would be jealous.
It is proof, in one beautiful, brilliant piece of automotive passion that dreams really do indeed become reality.
Horacio Pagani’s signature is on everything he makes.
Darren Begg, Driving
