Pagani doesn’t do model years, doesn’t do facelifts, and apparently doesn’t do funerals either. The Huayra was superseded by the Utopia and the company has been quietly resurrecting it ever since through Grandi Complicazioni, its bespoke division. The latest reason: Horacio Pagani turned 70, and the Atelier decided that warranted three cars.
Two of them are on the record. When Pagani announced its Goodwood Festival of Speed appearance in July, the release described the Huayra 70 Derecho as a “few-off creation” and, more usefully for anyone counting, as the second of the three Huayra 70s built for the birthday. The first appeared in January. As of this writing, Pagani’s press room carries no release for the third.
So the car exists on Pagani’s own arithmetic. The company just hasn’t shown it yet. What Pagani has published is a technical specification sheet, and that document is more interesting than any spy photo.
The numbers, and the footnote nobody reads
The official spec sheet lists 864 HP (635 kW) at 6,000 rpm and 1,100 Nm from 2,800 to 5,900 rpm, from a 60-degree, 5,980cc twin-turbo V12 developed for Pagani by Mercedes-AMG.
Two things buried in that line are worth pulling out.
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First, the power figure carries a qualifier: at 18° C. Almost nobody publishes an ambient reference temperature with a horsepower claim, and turbocharged engines are exactly where it matters most. Intake charge density falls as ambient temperature climbs, and a boosted engine with fixed wastegate targets makes measurably less at 35°C than at 18°C. Pagani stating the condition is either unusual honesty or unusual precision. Either way, it’s the sort of detail that tells you the number came off a dyno rather than a marketing meeting.
Second, “864 HP (635 kW)” is metric. 635 kW converts to roughly 852 SAE brake horsepower and 864 PS. That single discrepancy is why you’ll see this engine quoted at two different figures depending on who did the conversion. Both are correct; only one is in the units most American readers assume.
For context, Pagani quotes the same 864 HP and 1,100 Nm for the Utopia Roadster. The Huayra 70 is, in output terms, current Utopia hardware wearing Huayra bodywork.
The gearbox is the actual story
The spec sheet lists a “Pagani by Xtrac manual transverse seven-speed gearbox.”
Read that carefully, because the production Huayra never had one. Pagani’s own material describes the Huayra Roadster BC as using a Pagani by Xtrac seven-speed transverse sequential unit — an automated manual, paddle-shifted, no third pedal. Swapping in a true H-pattern manual isn’t a shift-lever change. It means a new selector mechanism, a clutch pedal and hydraulic circuit, a different bellhousing interface, revised driveline calibration, and re-homologation of the whole powertrain.
The transverse layout is the part enthusiasts tend to skip past. Most mid-engine cars run the gearbox in line behind the engine, which pushes mass rearward and stretches the wheelbase. Mounting it across the car tucks that mass inboard, shortening rear overhang and reducing polar moment of inertia — the car’s resistance to rotating about its vertical axis. Lower polar moment means quicker turn-in and a more willing rotation on the way out. The trade is packaging hell and a shift linkage that has to travel around a corner, which is precisely the kind of problem that makes a gated manual feel special when someone gets it right.
Power reaches the rear axle through an electromechanical self-locking differential. Not a viscous unit, not a passive Torsen — an electronically controlled clutch pack that can vary lock on demand, which is what lets 811 lb-ft of torque and a manual gearbox coexist without the car trying to reverse its direction of travel every time you get greedy at corner exit.
Chassis, brakes, and what a body shop would care about
The monocoque is Carbon-Titanium HP62 G2 and Carbo-Triax HP62, with front and rear subframes in chrome-molybdenum steel and carbon-fiber body panels.
That chrome-moly subframe choice is quietly significant. Plenty of rivals use cast or extruded aluminum front and rear structures. Steel subframes are heavier, but they’re weldable, repairable, and predictable in how they deform and absorb energy — and crucially, a bolt-on steel subframe can be replaced without touching the tub. For a car where the composite center section is effectively irreplaceable, keeping the crushable structure separate and serviceable is sound engineering and sound long-term ownership.
Suspension is independent double wishbones with upper rocker arms, helical springs, and — the interesting bit — electronically adjustable and interconnected shock absorbers. Hydraulic interconnection between corners lets a chassis decouple roll stiffness from heave stiffness: firm resistance to body roll without the harsh vertical response that normally comes with it. It’s the same principle that has appeared in various forms in top-tier motorsport, and it’s the reason a car with this much mechanical grip can still be tolerable on a broken B-road.
Brakes are four ventilated Brembo CCM discs, 398mm front and 380mm rear. Worth noting what they aren’t: Pagani specifies Brembo CCM-R for the track-only Huayra R. CCM-R uses longer carbon fibers and dramatically higher thermal conductivity for repeated abuse, but wants heat to work properly. Standard CCM is the correct call for a road car that will spend most of its life cold. It’s also, at 398/380mm, smaller than the 410/390mm setup Pagani lists for the Codalunga Speedster — a reminder that these cars are individually specified, not built off a common parts bin.
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Tires are Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R, 265/30 R20 front and a genuinely absurd 355/25 R21 rear. Trofeo R is a road-legal semi-slick with a shallow tread void, which means owners should treat standing water and sub-50°F ambient temperatures with real caution. Top speed is limited electronically to 350 km/h (217.5 mph) — a number set by tire rating and homologation, not by where the aerodynamics run out.
Historical symmetry, and a warning from Pagani itself
There’s a pattern here. For Horacio’s 60th, Pagani built the Zonda HP Barchetta — also three units, also a Grandi Complicazioni project, also with Horacio as both client and creator. That car paired a naturally aspirated AMG V12 with a six-speed manual. A decade on, the formula repeats with a twin-turbo and a seventh gear.
The practical takeaway isn’t about spec, though. It’s a piece of paper Pagani published in December 2025 that got almost no coverage: an official statement warning that unauthorized parties have been using the Pagani name to offer and sell vehicles. The company reaffirmed that only its official dealer network, Pagani S.p.A., and Pagani Automobili America Inc. are authorized to sell Pagani products or provide after-sales service, and asked buyers to verify against the official dealer list before transacting.
For cars built in threes, provenance isn’t a nice-to-have. If you are ever in a position to be offered one of these, the first call is to San Cesario sul Panaro, not to a broker’s Instagram DMs.
As for the third Huayra 70: Pagani has confirmed the count, published the mechanical package, and said nothing else. Given the Atelier’s habit of saving reveals for a stage, expect the announcement to arrive with a concours lawn under it.
Images Via: varryz_ on Instagram
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