Under the Pen: Pagani Zonda Cinque

The Cinque's engine bay

Pagani is a relatively new company in the world of supercars. Argentine turned Italian Horatio Pagani styled it after being inspired from working with Lamborghini [he was a janitor btw]. He was eventually promoted to a consultant but soon after left the company to start his own company. To help with development he consulted fellow Argentine and 5 time F1 champ Juan Manuel Fangio. Fangio suggested the use of the Mercedes engine and to honot him Pagani wanted to name it the Fangio F1, unfortunately, Fangio died long before the vehicle was put on sale. To not look like a scapegoat, Pagani chose to rename it the Zonda after an Argentine wind current, he eventually dedicated the F model to Fangio.

It entered the supercar race in 1999, just as the McLaren F1 was packing up. It's mission wasn't to be the fastest, but to bring a unique and bold look to the supercar market. Upon release it was the most outlandish looking car since the Lamborghini Diablo. It quickly escalated to being one of the "elite" "must have" supercars. But it's 11 years old and despite going through 4 different engines and a massive re-engineering in 2005, It's design has not changed much. The design has stood the test of time longer than most cars [in comparison Ferrari has pushed out 3 successors for the F355; the 360, F430 & 458 in the Zonda's timeline]. There have been numerous models, each as unique as the last. The C12, C12 S, 7.3, GR, Monza, R, F and Clubsport round up the list, but seeing that the Zonda is on its last breath, Pagani decided to release one final model. The Cinque.

The cinque would be the final car to enter a group called the elite four [this list shall grow to 5 soon] Other members include the Aston Martin One-77, Bugatti Veyron and Lamborghini Reventon [Koenigsegg Agera should be next]. These vehicles represent the pinnacle of automobile design blurring the line between race car and street car. They all cost over 1 million pounds and are to be sold only to an elite few. These are no longer sportcars, supercars or hyper cars but a new class of vehicle representing the best of the best. Most of these will never see roads and will end up being museum pieces. The Cinque is no different as only 5 will be made and it will bring the Zonda line to an end.

Under the Pen: Tata Nano

Nearly every auto-manufacturing country has donated to a unique class of cars called "The people's car." This class of vehicle is built with the sole purpose of helping everyone attain a car. It's focus is to achieve a low cost through clever engineering. The select few vehicles to contribute to this class is the Mini, Ford Model T, VW Beetle, Fiat 500, Honda 50 [its a bike btw] and Citroen 2CV all of which have [except the T] survived at least 20-40 years of constant uninterrupted production. Unfortunately since the introduction of the Mini 50 years ago, no vehicle has really stepped up to be apart of this elite group, until 2008 when the Indians enter the ring.

The Tata Nano was Ratan Tata's dream come to life. It's mission is to be the cheapest car in production. Numerous efforts are taken to keep its price down all of which will be highlighted in this issue of Under the Pen.

Under the Pen: Lexus LF-A

The LF-A's digital dashboard.

The LF-A is the newest addition to the ridiculously small Japanese supercar shortlist. This is the 3rd Japanese supercar of all time [5th if your conservative] which is tiny considering Ferrari is pushing out 4 models this year alone. The fact is Japanese laws restrict hp to go above 276hp, which has limited Japan to only making sports cars [which they are doing well at]. The Honda NSX is the only super car to be built within this 276hp rule and has managed to hold off big dogs due to its light weight and good aero. It was such a good car that Gordon Murray used it as a template in the design of the McLaren F1, which reigned as the king of the supercar for 14 years. The second Japanese supercar I feel is the Nissan GTR which became famous by using technology to improve its performance to supercar levels while keeping the price at Nissan levels.

So enough about the past.... on to the present. The LF-A has been in development for 10 years. Each new concept was a new design, with a new layout, like Toyota was scanning every possible inch to perfect their automobile. Unfortunately there are flaws, but these are the flaws that all supercars live by. However I do like this car as it and the GT-R represent what true Japanese design is [the NSX looks like a Lotus Esprit still aka the cliche supercar shape] Curves and shapes formed by the wind [tunnel] and not inspired by some Italian supercar of the 80s.

At first seeing it, the LF-A is a unique step away from the Lexus [or Toyota] way of thinking. Lexus is the beige-est of the beige cars and has been known for illicitly copying Mercedes-Benz's designs [LS430 vs Benz S430 for starters] But when you look down into it, this is as Lexusy as any other vehicle in it's line-up. It is a proper Halo car.

Top Gear's view on it.

My Design Review, complete with grammatical errors :D!

Under the Pen: Porsche 918 Spyder Concept

If you've been looking at my you can have your caek and eat it series, there has been many attempts to make fuel efficient sports car in the past and so far the ones in production are really the anorexic cars that barely lug around any weight. What the world has been waiting for is a responsible supercar, the biggest oxymoron in automotive history. Jeremy Clarkson famously stated that:

"supercars are designed to melt ice caps, kill the poor, poison the water table, destroy the ozone layer, decimate indigenous wildlife, recapture the Falkland Islands and turn the entire third world into a huge uninhabitable desert, all that before they nicked all the oil in the world. "

This statement is not entirely true as most supercars are never driven hence they are nothing more than sculptures, but due to increasing emission laws, car have to meet a benchmark mpg rating or pay fines. Lamborghini has already said they're going to pay the fines, but Porsche are fighting it, aiming to please the green people.

Porsche isn't the first to attempt the greenpeace hypercar special, Audi's R8 V12 TDi teased fans with its racecar derived engine transplant. The R8 V12 was only a concept and Audi decided it wasn't worth building as it needed extreme structural redesigning to digest the big engine, and they couldn't find a transmission to hold the reported 700lbft of torque.

Now to put this in perspective, the first hybrid was created by Porsche, 110 years ago! The design was heavily based on the racing 917s which dominated the 24hrs of Le Mans [hence the name]. Its chassis is based on its predecessor the Carrera GT but it swaps out the Carrera's V10 motor for a smaller, lighter, more economic and less powerful 500hp V8 but to make up for the power drop, the electric motors produce an astounding 200hp, combined that is 700hp! There are 3 electric motors in total, one going to the front wheels and two mounted on the rear. These motors get electricity from batteries that can also be charged via plugs! But the reason I decided to highlight this is because a) it works, no half working transmission or plastic brake pads and b) Porsche plans to race it at next year's Nurburgring 24hrs, which means that there is a high chance that this might reach production. The Carrera GT was also born from similar methods.

Funny enough earlier this year Porsche blatantly stated that they would not build a hybrid sports car. Were the playing us all along? Or is this saying that the 918 is just a joke? We will only know if the car reaches production.

An introduction vid of the 918

Another vid just incase you're curious

Under the Pen: Ferrari F40

inspired by Mr. Turpentine's Paths to Design entry. I decided to resurrect something I always wanted to do. Back when I just started this whole car craze, there was an article in Automobile Magazine that I adored. In each issue they would analyse a vehicle inch by inch and highlight specific features of its design. In this issue I will analyse the Ferrari F40, fastest production automobile [1987-1990], first production vehicle to break the 200mph barrier [201mph] and the last Ferrari to hold a top speed record. The F40 was the last vehicle commissioned by Enzo Ferrari himself. It also served as a celebration of Ferrari's [the company] 40th birthday. Despite being eclipsed by faster and more technologically advanced cars, the F40 serves as the last "manual" supercar. It was a raw as suchi, bare as bones, focused race car for the road. Hopefully my analysis will help to show up the reason certain parts are in certain areas. Feel free to ask questions. Hopefully my next edition of this will have a better layout.

The Ferrari F40's design mission was to reduce weight and increase top speed via better aerodynamics. Another implementation into the design was the need to cool the big nuclear reactor of an engine behind the passenger's compartment.

By removing everything except for the seats, the weight was kept to an amazing 1100kg [which is about one laptop lighter than a new Mini] Aerodynamics brought it to its 201mph top speed with only 478hp [in comparison most vehicles with 500hp struggle to scrape 200mph]. And the fact that I haven't heard any horror stories means that the beast was cooled.

Together it did 3.8s 0-60 times and 11.6s 1/4mile times [Mc Merc SLR does roughly the same times with 150hp more the SLR however is 20mph faster at the top]