The Pagani Huayra BC Up Close

The front brakes are pretty amazing, they are these skeletonized Brembo six pistons in the front. Super light, cool running just dripping with trickness.  As you can see the air can circulate all around the bores all the way through to the pads.  That’s a good thing because carbon-ceramic rotors can run pretty hot.

The front carbon-ceramic rotors are 398mm x 36mm.  Here our Project GT-R one-ups the Pagani with bigger brakes.   However, the Pagani is 1000 lbs lighter so it probably doesn’t need as huge of a brake!

The rear brakes have a cored-out 4-piston Brembo caliper and a 380mm x 34mm carbon-ceramic rotor.  The brakes are smaller than our Project GT3RS and R35 GT-R but then again the Pagani is super light.

The aerodynamics on the Pagani are pretty mild, cars like the Ford GT have more sophisticated aero. The car has a flat bottom but so do cars like the GT-R and GT3. There are front diffusers that reduce the drag of the front tires and also create front downforce, the GT3 and GT-R have similar sized ones.  What is cool is the diffusers are stepped with a long and steeper inner section to take advantage of the additional room and better exit airflow to be more effective.  The fenders are vented on the top and back to keep the pressure differential higher between the wheelwells and bodywork and to activate the flow in the front diffusers.  Flow directors at the rear of the wheelwells help vent the wheelwell air.  That flow mixes with the flow from the turning vanes inboard of the front suspension to help keep the airflow along the sides of the car from curling under it.  This helps make the rear diffuser more effective.

8 comments

  1. I liked this change of pace! I wouldn’t mind seeing more car analysis or review, hypercar or track build. Keep it up guys!

  2. This was an awesome article, and a cool change of pace from the usual MotoIQ build spot lights.

    I would absolutely enjoy seeing more of these close looks at the hypercars – the detail helps us mere mortals see which ones are legit and which ones are not worth the hype.

  3. I consider the Pagani to be a hyper-styled hyper car that focuses on form over function. It’s not my cup of tea in terms of performance objectives, but it’s absolutely a work of art in every aspect. I honestly think that most billionaires can’t even drive these machines to the levels that they are meant to be driven at, and considering that, why bother spending all your ‘hard earned’ money on a bunch of performance metrics that you will never take advantage of?

    You are ALWAYS going to appreciate the craftsmanship, and you certainly won’t get any competition in that department from the other hypercars.

    The Pagani makes the Bugatti look cheap.

    1. The workmanship is one thing you notice, no kit car cheapness here like some other hypercars. I was surprised by the aero though didn’t seem very sophisticated and I was also surprised by the mere chrome-moly subframes.

    2. Yeah, it’s too much form over function for my taste. But there’s the crowd that likes to have something different and more rare just because it’s more rare. I think I’ve maybe seen one Pagani? I’ve seen at least a handful of P1s actually driven on the road. I saw a Senna on the 405 a couple weeks ago.

  4. Hey Mike, would you say the movable flaps/ailerons would make up for the aero deficiencies you noted? I was hoping to see you mention them, and your thoughts on their pros and cons.

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