New Pagani Imola Roadster launched with 850hp

If you close your eyes and concentrate very hard, you might recall the coupe variant of the Huayra that Pagani dubbed ‘Imola’ and produced in tiny volume a few years ago. It was a downforce-generating monster intended to appeal to track mentalists among the one per cent. But don’t worry if you don’t remember it, because not long after it was announced its maker finally went the whole hog and launched the €2.6m (minus taxes) Huayra R – an 850hp, revs-to-9,000rpm-while-weighing-1050kg-dry track car intended to reinstall Pagani as the supreme purveyor of seven-figure circuit-biased silliness. 

If the Huayra R was your kind of jam, you’re probably going to like the new Imola Roadster. For one thing, it’s essentially a Roadster BC with all the R bits strapped on; for another, it’s ‘homologated for road use throughout the world’ so you can drive it without starting from a pitlane. Unsurprisingly, Pagani reckons it ‘is the best-performing open-top the brand has ever created’ – which you’d imagine it would be with 811lb ft of torque now available on request from 3,600 to 5,600rpm. 

Pagani doesn’t bother itself with anything as tedious as performance figures (except to say that the Imola tops out at a self-limiting 217mph) but it’s safe to assume that with a dry kerbweight of 1,260kg and the seven-speed Xtra sequential ‘box attached, the new Roadster must go from nought to terrifying in little more than a blink of the eye. Indeed, much effort seems to have been expended on a) keeping the uprated twin-turbo 6.0-litre V12 cool – check out the larger intakes at the front alongside the distinctive roof scoop – and b) ensuring that the car generates 600kg of downforce at 174mph (100kg more than the lower-powered BC). 

Accordingly, while the look might be ‘inspired’ by the Huayra R, you can be sure that every one of those new lines is doing its job when it comes to modifying the airflow. This includes active aero courtesy of four moveable flaps, which have been tuned to work in conjunction with the standard double wishbone suspension and electronically-controlled dampers – the latter said to feature ‘the sector’s most powerful microprocessors’. At any rate, and with ginormous P-Zero Trofeo R tyres (355-section at the back, no less) doing their thing, Pagani reckons the Imola will generate 2g of continuous lateral acceleration, peaking at 2.2g. Which ought to trouble the neck of even the most powerfully built owner. 

Elsewhere you get APP-developed lightweight seven-spoke wheels forged from Avional (which we think is duralumin, but might not be) and Pagani’s six-pipe exhaust system crafted from titanium. Past experience with the latter suggests it really is the best way to appreciate the AMG-designed engine, and when its maker says the ‘auditory experience it provides is truly astonishing’ in the open-top Imola, we’re prepared to take that on faith. And even if you’re not partial to the pinch-me quality of the soundtrack, you’ll be sitting in one of the world’s most exclusive interiors, in a carbon fibre seat with a four-point harness, reflecting on whatever trim materials you chose from an ‘infinite range of customisations’. 

That, of course, is very much the business of the Grandi Complicazioni division responsible for the Imola, and its involvement in the project ensures that limited edition status very much applies: there will be just eight examples made available worldwide. Pagani doesn’t indulge us with an asking price, but it’s safe to assume that unless you’re Jeff Bezos reading this, it’ll be something wince-inducing. Probably something to give even an Huayra R owner pause for thought. After all, there were 30 of those and 40 examples of the BC. So best not to expect much change from five million quid.