Nine years ago, Pagani stormed the Nürburgring Nordschleife with the Zonda F, chassis #58, and proceeded to set the 12.9-mile lap record with a time of 7:27.82. The Zonda F’s record has since been broken a number of times, but after close to a decade of slumber, Pagani appears to be preparing for another run at the track’s lap record. The Italian automaker didn’t specifically say its intentions, but a post on its official Facebook account seems to indicate that a return to the ‘Ring for a crack at that record is imminent. Naturally, we’re all losing our minds because of what that could mean.
Pagan concluded its post with the always annoying “to be continued” disclaimer so there’s not much to go by on what the automaker’s intentions are. If it does end up vying for the lap record, the natural candidate to make that attempt is the Huayra BC, the ultra exclusive, 20-unit special edition version of the Huayra that Pagani only offered to existing owners of the Huayra.
For the record, the Huayra will likely aim for the record set by the Marc Lieb and the Porsche 918 Spyder when it blitzed the track in just six minutes and 57 seconds back on September 4, 2013. The 918 Spyder’s lap time is regarded as a the fastest lap for a road legal car, but if the Huayra BC really wants to earn that undisputed label that has eluded the 918 Spyder, it should in fact shoot for the six-minute and 48-second lap time set by Michael Vergers and the Radical SR8 LM back on August 2009. The SR8 LM’s status as a non-road-legal car in some parts of the world has prevented it from staking the claim as the fastest road-legal car around the ‘Ring.
The Huayra BC can render all the debate irrelevant if it does cross the line faster than the SR8 LM. Or it could really break the Internet if it eclipses the all-time record set in May 1983 by Stefan Bellof in a Porsche 956 race car. He clocked in a time of six minutes and 11 seconds, which remains the fastest lap anyone has ever gone around the 12.9-mile track.
Expect Pagani to reveal more details about what that Facebook message means, but from the way the company phrased the whole thing – it even added a video of the Zonda F’s lap record back in 2007 – I’m willing to call the automaker’s shot and say it’s gunning for road-legal lap record around the ‘Ring.
That, or it's done it already and Pagani's just teasing us about it. The Huayra BCA, after all, was spotted in the Nürburgring doing some test laps recently. The drama is building up already.
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To be clear, Pagani has not confirmed any of this yet, so this could be all for nothing. But I think it’s happening because the post clearly is all about the Nürburgring lap time record for a road-legal production car. The attached video of the Zonda F’s run in 2007 even adds weight to that. All the signs point to that direction so it’d be surprising if Pagani went through all the publicity of that post, only to come out and do something totally different in the end.
So, can the Huayra BC stake its claim to the record? Based on sheer numbers, it has the legs to get it done. It’s powered by the same 6.0-liter V-12 engine as the standard Huayra, but the BC badge does come with an extra shot of power, amounting to a total of 789 horsepower and a more robust 811 pound-feet of torque. Granted, no performance numbers have been released, but when you combine the Huayra BC’s output with its 1,218-kg (2,685 pounds) weight – that’s almost 300 pounds lighter than the standard Huayra, by the way – it should be able to sprint from 0 to 60 mph in less than 2.7 seconds while hitting a top speed that can approach the 220-mph mark.
The numbers are all there and if Pagani makes more tweaks to the car in preparation for its Nürburgring run, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that we could be looking at the new king of the ‘Ring as far as road legal production cars are concerned. So cross your fingers that the Pagani Huayra BC’s date with destiny happens. If for nothing else, it should be a spectacle worthy of major headlines.
Read our full review on the Pagani Huayra BC here.