Setting up supercar for the Anzacs

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

The Italian-built Pagani Zonder, a $1million supercar rival to the best from Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche, will be available in Australia and New Zealand from next year.

New Zealander Roger Phillips, a director with longtime Lotus specialist Ken Woodburn in Auckland-based Lotus Cars NZ Ltd, has been appointed distributor on both sides of the Tasman.

The first mid-engined Pagani roadster and coupe will be available next year.

The carmaker, Pagani Automobili Modena, in northern Italy, will build a maximum of 18 cars this year and 25 in 2004.

Each is powered by a 7.3-litre Mercedes-Benz 12-cylinder engine from the luxury marque's high-performance specialist AMG.

It produces 408kW (555bhp) at 5900rpm and 750Nm of torque at 4050rpm and drives the rear wheels through a six-speed gearbox.

The Zonder is a space-frame design with carbon-fibre chassis and body panels borrowed from Formula One technology. It weighs 1250kg and sprints from zero to 100km/h in 3.7-sec.

It is named after a wind that whips down from the South American Andes mountain range into Argentina.

Why? Because of the admiration the car's designer Horatio Pagani had for Argentinian Juan Manuel Fangio, the great race driver of the 1950s.

Phillips, who until a couple of years ago was director of operations for Italian coachbuilder LaForza International Spa, says he was asked by the Pagani factory earlier this year if he was interested in distributing Zonder cars down under.

"I got a call from Dr Franco Ferraris, an associate during my time in Italy," says Phillips. "He was chief financial officer of Chrysler Lamborghini, one of (legendary Chrysler chief) Lee Iacocca's Italian executives back in the 1980s.

"Dr Ferraris helped me at LaForza. He had been recommended to me by former Lotus/Lamborghini chief executive Mike Kimberley. Dr Ferraris and I worked together for two years before he retired.

"The Pagani factory was looking at the Australian and New Zealand markets and Dr Ferraris asked whether I would be willing to comply and distribute the Zonder in both countries."

Phillips looked at compliance requirements here and in Australia and put together a business plan. The factory liked what it saw.

Now he is off to Italy to formally seal the deal and to oversee production planning for the custom-built right-hand-drive Pagani Zonder. The factory has already built three right-hookers, one for South Africa and two for Britain.

The Anzac models are expected to arrive in about 12 months. The coupe will cost an estimated $940,000, the open-top roadster about $1.1 million. Phillips doesn't expect to sell more than one or two a year.

The Zonder was styled by Horatio Pagani, an Argentinian car designer who moved to Italy to further his career.

Later, he established his own company, Modena Design, working with carmakers like Ferrari and Renault.

Pagani's idol was Fangio. As a young man Pagani promised himself he would one day design and name a car after the race driver.

The opportunity came when Pagani turned up at the Lamborghini plant in 1983 looking for a design job.

He told Lamborghini director Ing Alfieri: "Even if you make me clean the floor, I am here to build the most beautiful car in the world."

Alfieri gave Pagani a job in charge of the composite materials department. Pagani eventually helped develop the Countach Evoluzione, the first Lamborghini with a composite chassis.

Pagani later carried out design work for the Diablo and Countach 25th anniversary model.

In 1988, Pagani told the aging Fangio that he wanted to build a car in his honour. Fangio okayed the idea, with one condition: it had to have a Mercedes-Benz engine. The request was Fangio's way of honouring his days in the early 1950s with Mercedes-Benz' Silver Arrows race car team. "The design had to be original, inspired by the Silver Arrows cars," said Pagani. "The style had to express new and old concepts.

"The car was born in a few days, then we analysed it for over a year without making major changes."

Pagani spent more than 25,000 hours developing the car. But Fangio died before it was completed and Pagani changed the name to Zonder.

"It is the name of a wind from the Andes," he says. "I chose it out of respect for Fangio and for his great modesty."