Pagani Huayra R screams into FOS

There’s something else of the old school about the Huayra R beyond its engine, too. Where the Zonda R sort of resembled an after-era GT1 car, the Huayra takes its influences from further back in time. That swooping tail and wing look very 917 Langheck to us.

The lines are smoother, the coachwork is more subtle. Of course, not a bit of subtlety can be found in the exposed carbon, or the ceramic-coated exhausts, or the butterfly doors. This is a Pagani after all – it’s every bit the outlandish supercar, just not in the slightly garish modern faux-motorsport sense. It’s genuinely quite pretty.

That V12 engine is something entirely special too, being developed by HWA, the company behind the Mercedes CLK GTR GT1 racer of the 1990s. Power is 850PS (625kW), with a 9,000rpm redline. Anyone who knows Huayras or even Zondas, knows they’re not cars that necessarily rev, even if they sound great. Not so with the screaming Huayra R. This thing will peel the skin off your ears. It’s a beautiful thing to see in action and in the paddocks here at the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard.

Photography by Phil Hay.