In an era when electrification is passing from exception to rule, advertisements like the one made by Horacio Pagani in statements to Quattroruote about the next hypercar of the brand founded by him end up having an additional impact.
After all, the man who once worked at Lamborghini and who later created its brand “didn't just reveal that his next hypercar will not only remain faithful to the combustion engines, but will also have a manual gearbox.
Already with a name assigned, the new model is for now designated by the code C10 and, truth be told, what we already know about it promises, and a lot.
"Old-Fashioned" Engine
According to Horacio Pagani, the C10 will be offered with a 6.0 twin-turbo V12, supplied by Mercedes-AMG (as happened with the Huayra) and will be available with both a sequential gearbox and a traditional manual gearbox.
The decision to offer a model with a manual transmission again is due, according to Horacio Pagani, to the fact that “there are customers who didn't buy the Huayra because it didn't have a manual transmission (…) my customers want to feel the emotion of driving, they don't they only care about pure performance”.
Still about this new model, Horacio Pagani stated that the focus is on reducing weight and not increasing power. Therefore, the C10 should only have 30 to 40 hp more than the Huayra, and should not exceed 900 hp.
When asked if he doesn't “fear” that these values are scarce compared to those offered by electric hypercars, Pagani gave the example of Gordon Murray and his T.50: “it only has 650 hp and it's already sold out (…) it's very light, it's boxy manual and a V12 capable of doing a lot of rotation. It doesn't take 2000 hp to make a car exciting.”
Electrify? Not yet
But there is more. When asked about electric hypercars, Horacio Pagani reveals some reservations: “a 'normal' person driving an electric hypercar can accelerate in the middle of the city to monstrous speeds.
Furthermore, Pagani added that “even with torque vectoring and the like, when a car weighs over 1500 kg, managing the grip limit is difficult, no matter how much electronics we have, it is not possible to go against the laws of physics".
Despite these reservations, Horacio Pagani does not close the door on electrification, claiming that if it is necessary to start producing hybrid models, he will do so. However, Pagani has already stated that the twin-turbo V12 will be able to meet the standards without any kind of electrification by 2026, hoping that it will remain so later.
As for a 100% electric model, according to Horacio Pagani, the brand has been working on a project in this field since 2018, but there is still no scheduled date for the launch of this model.