Yet another car-full of camera phones waits for the Starship Enterprise to pull alongside. And as their owners secure their pub talk for that night, the driver slowly, unwittingly, steers toward a crash with our 540,000 chariot. It wouldn't be the first time. Near misses, a constantly adoring public and explanations at every fuel stop about the origin of this mighty creation are just part of life with a Pagani Zonda Roadster F.
With just 25 Fs in the world (and around 90 Zondas in total), they make Ferraris or Lamborghinis look as common as cow dung. Even though the basic design is nine years old and we're due a new model this year, the car can still stop traffic. It's strange to be penning an obituary to the car that, from a small industrial unit just down the road from Lamborghini and Ferrari, rocked the hypercar establishment and retains its sledgehammer impact today. But with the R version only going to select, existing clients, this is the last Zonda there will ever be. Luckily, it's also the best.
That Gatling-gun exhaust is the signature tune of the Zonda family and the F's single-plane rear wing, carbon diffuser, intricate wire meshwork, ornate quilted leather and pearlescent paint could all form the start of a thesis. Without the bubble-style canopy, the Roadster looks even better than the coupe too-lower-slung, more chiseled and menacing. It's pure theater from every angle.
You could lose days in the details, the way the carbon fiber weave matches perfectly throughout the bottom box section, the pillars and the interior, the way the glovebox comes with a clasp that could adorn a woman's purse and the machined switchgear sitting so elegantly on the center console plate that catches the light just so. Then there's the otherworldly instrument panel with dials like Rolex bezels.
Five-time F1 world champion Juan Manuel Fangio was involved in the design process and the F is a tribute to the great man himself. Having changed the carbon's weave and 60 components underneath, Horacio Pagani finally believes he has found perfection, a car worthy of his friend's name. Like Fangio, it's peerless and dramatic, captivating the imagination like nothing else on the road. And even though it would be a pig to live with, like a super-high-maintenance girlfriend, it would come with those inherent rewards on each and every drive.
Whenever the road opens out, a tickle on the throttle draws a slug of fuel and the car takes off down the road like a stabbed rat. Raw, animal speed comes from almost no revs, the engine forging an irresistible surge of torque. A violent spasm is sent through to the 20-inch magnesium alloy wheels, the Pirelli P Zeros digging into the tarmac and sending the car clawing at the horizon as the metallic roar hardens to a detuned F1 yowl. It's low-pitched and visceral, like an old-school fighter plane. Everyone loves it.
The 60-mph mark collapses inwardly at 3.6 seconds and the world melts outside the window as this arrow-shaped rocket of a car gathers pace and breaches 100 mph. Despite the increased resistance of the chopped roof, it will still do 214 mph flat out. It should do it all day too, thanks to the unstressed engine, plus the aerospace- and F1-inspired touches that abound throughout.