Remember the Zonda Tricolore? Unveiled in 2010, the 1.3 million euro roadster was built to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the “Frecce Tricolori” in Italy – the aerobatic team of the Italian Air Force. Their arrows red, practically. Now, a decade later, Pagani has prepared a special Huayra to score 60 Squadron. Welcome to the 829 hp Pagani Huayra Tricolore.
Initially Pagani was going to build only the Zonda Tricolore, but, feeling an opportunity to make large sums of money, he eventually built three. The Huayra Tricolore will also be limited to three cars, each costing a staggering 5.5 million euros, or about 5,074,000 pounds at today’s exchange rate. And they will not simply be numbered one, two and three, but zero, one and ten after the key members of Frecce Tricolori. Plane one “leads the patrol during all acrobatic maneuvers”, while number ten “separates from the group in the most spectacular sequences” to “show the high performance of the aircraft in flight”. Zero refers to the commander, who “directs the ground display” and handles “all stages of mission planning and training.”
The incredibly complicated design and details pay homage to Frecce Tricolori’s Aermacchi MB-339A PAN. First, the new aero package. In front there is a more pronounced front separator for increased force and a new shaped front bumper to make the intercooler more efficient. Meanwhile, the central airscoop has been equipped with “an innovative air transport system that allows an even greater flow of cold air directly to the engine”, the splitter has been redesigned and the new wing (with supports designed to look like MB-339A tail) provides “perfect aerodynamic balance” and compensates for the extra force in the front splitter.
The most striking approval of the MB-339A is the Pitot tube – a small metal tube, mounted here centrally in front, used to measure the air speed of an aircraft. It is connected to an inner dial that gives you air speed in nodes. Of little use in a car, where what you want is ground speed, but quite fun nonetheless. All three cars carry the same delivery – with a red / green / white graphic on the side, lots of small Tricolore logos and carbon body exposed in shades of blue, which is certainly not cheap. The wheels (20s in front, 21s in rear are designed to look like a turbine.
As for the technical specifications of the Tricolore – look at the 829 hp and 811 lb ft from the familiar 6.0-liter V12 engine built by AMG with two turbochargers. That is 38 hp and 37 GBP more than you can get in a Huayra BC, which is not slow. Drive the rear wheels through a sequential gearbox with a single seven-speed clutch and electromechanical differential. Pagani claims that the “whole transmission system” is 35% lighter than a DCT. The chassis is made of “state-of-the-art composite materials, such as Carbo-Titanium HP62 G2 and Carbo-Triax HP62”. The dry weight is 1,270 kg.
Kindness.