In memory of a great friend.
Its not easy to start a car company and its even harder to keep it alive. Over the years many newcomers have the dream only to fall short and falter with a few handful manage to still be around. No one knows that better than Horacio Pagani.
It was difficult for Pagani to sell his car that no one heard of not to mention in a segment only for the extreme wealthy which been taken over by fierce competitions from the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. That is until Benny Caiola came around; an Italian immigrant who came with barely anything across the ocean worked hard and created an empire who owned thousands of apartment properties in New York. As an Italian, his main passion was Ferraris and had one of the greatest Ferrari collections in the world until in the late 90’s when he stumbled across the then new supercar company in Modena, Italy by the Argentinian engineer. Despite having little history or motorsport credibility, Benny has faith in Pagani and ordered the first Zonda to add to his ever growing exotic collection. The result, Benny was totally in love with the car, Benny loved the craftsmanship of the Zonda. He described the way the car drives is “something that Ferrari collectors been searching for.” He loved it so much that he personally wrote a letter to Horacio to thank him and all the technicians that built the car and enclosed a $1,000 check for Horacio to treat the technicians a fancy dinner for a job well done.
Benny continued ordering the latest Pagani models as time went by and always happy with the finished masterpieces until 2010, when he passed away at the age of 79.
Such a loyal customer and friend deserves a proper tribute. So Horacio went to work on a more exclusive, more hardcore Huayra with no stone left unturned. The chassis uses new carbon fiber weave that is 20 percent stronger and half the weight of the “regular” Huayra. Suspension too uses new material ditching aluminum for aerospace alloy called Avional. The transmission was reworked to make it lighter and shift 150 milliseconds quicker and so was the engine. Every body panels (apart from the roof ) has been re-sculpted with help from racing chassis developer Dallara. The amount of work was so extensive that Pagani cancelled the Huayra Roadster in mid-development to concentrate all effort on the new car.
The result was a limited run of 20 cars bearing the name of the man. The Huayra BC.
At first, I wished this Grani & Partners’ 1/64 would be in a different color combination but I discovered this red specification actually have significant meanings. They represent colors of past Paganis Benny ordered.
The red body color is a special color which pays homage to Benny’s Zonda Roadster and took Horacio a year to develop. The two pearlescent white stripes running along each side of the main middle stripe was a Zonda F which Benny requested to match his hair. Lastly, the giant silver stripe down the middle is the most special, it reminisce not just Benny’s first Zonda but the first customer Zonda ever, the one that jump started the company and a long-lasting friendship.
