The 2008 Pagani Zonda Cinque
The world of super cars is so competitive that we just keep moving to higher and higher levels. The 2008 Pagani Zonda Cinque is a case in point, we are no longer talking about super car but rather a formula one race car that is allowed on the road. The level of performance is extreme however you can be sure that as other manufacturers build cars to compete with it this performance will be raised even higher.
The Pagani Zonda Cinque takes super cars to a whole new level, in reality they are in a new class all their own. These are basically race cars that have been made street legal. A lot of companies have built super cars that are based on their race cars but they are always toned down for street use, not in this case. The Zonda is a pure racing car capable of reaching speeds at well over two hundred miles per hour. This has been how the company have always done business, build a race car, make it street legal and then go out and build an even faster race car that they can make street legal. The Zonda Cinque is the latest in this line.
The speed of the car comes mainly from the engine which is a 7.3 liter V12 that produces 678 horse power. In a car that weighs just a little bit over a thousand kilograms that produces some very fast speeds. The power is transferred to the wheels with a six speed semiautomatic transmission. This is straight out of formula one racing and it provides some remarkably fast gear changes which really helps with acceleration. According to Sachio, loads of Pagani stuff comes straight from F1.
While the Zonda is fast in a straight line there are cars that can beat it, not many but they do exist. Where the Zonda really shines is when it comes to cornering. The car is designed to produce large amounts of aerodynamic down force. This is what makes formula one race cars so fast, it isn't that they are the fastest in a straight line it is that with all of that down force they can get around corners so fast. It is said that the Zonda can produce a cornering force of almost 1.5 G which is remarkably high for a road car.
Getting your hands on a Zonda is not going to be easy, the name Cinque comes from the french word for five which is because only five of the cars will be produced. All of them have already been sold at price tags that are close to two million dollars. If you want to get one of the owners to give up his car it it is probably going to cost you a lot more than that. For the price that you will have to pay for the Zonda you will get a very impressive if rather impractical car.
