Pagani Zonda Cinque
June 7, 2008 by Anthony Crawford
Pagani Zonda Cinque
“Pagani create carbon fibre masterpieces with four wheels and huge engines by Mercedes Benz AMG. Now, they are have gone one better. They’re building carbon-titanium cars, which are even lighter than any previous models”
- Anthony Crawford
Car Advice is lucky to have spent time in a Zonda. Very few media outlets in the world can claim so.
They are extremely fast, extremely expensive, extremely exclusive and street legal. At well over $1.6 million Australian dollars for a Zonda F, you can understand why these race cars for the road, are as rare as hen’s teeth.
When ultra supercar manufacturers build a special edition, the word “special” cannot be emphasised enough.
The Zonda Cinque is one of those cars. Just five examples will be built and of course, they are all sold, at a cost of 1million Euro, plus taxes. In Australian dollars, that’s easily two million big ones, and that’s provided, you were lucky enough to find out about the car, and wired your deposit, in time.
I said fast. A Zonda holds the record for the fastest lap for homologated cars at the Nurburgring circuit in Germany, with an extraordinary time of 7:27. To make sense of that time, the new Nissan GT-R, so called supercar killer, posted a time of 7:38.
There must be a tonne of money in Hong Kong, as the Zonda Cinque was created at the request of the carmaker’s dealer up there, “SPS Automotive Performance”.
If you really had that kind of money and you liked your cars, you would surely buy this edition.
All previous Zonda’s have been produced with a conventional gated gear shifter, but the Cinque comes standard with a Cima 6-speed sequential gearbox with paddles, as well as a gear lever on the central tunnel.
Remember, this car is predominately made from a carbon-titanium fibre and is ridiculously light, at 1210kg. So you won’t argue with me, when I say that 678bhp and 780Nm torque, is more than enough. Well, it’s good for a 0-100km/h sprint in 3.4 sec, and flat out, she’ll do over 350 km/h.
But the technology and engineering gains don’t stop there. Suspension is by Ohlins with Pagani specifications and is made with magnesium and titanium. Perhaps there will be yet another assault on the Nurburgring in one of these, as you have a choice of four different settings with 10 adjustments each. That’s a serious suspension system.
Even the exhaust system is fabricated from Inconel (superalloys)/ titanium and coated with ceramic.
And the list of ‘beyond bespoke’ components, goes on.
Carbon fibre steering wheel, Carbon fibre racing seats by Toora and covered in leather, APP monolitic forged wheels from aluminium and magnesium – 335/30/20 down the back and 255/35/19 up front.
Brembo carbon-ceramic, self-ventilated brakes are employed all round. These monsters will pull you up from 200-0 in a staggering 4.3 seconds!
There’s probably no chance in hell, of bringing you a road test of this car but later in the year, we hope to bring you a video and review of our Zonda F drive in Italy.
Print it: 
****** BENCH SEAT FRUGAL ******
Probably the coolest car on the planet.
zonda=$2mill
gtr=$200grand
for 11 sec improvement in laptime, price difference=$1.8mill…….hmmmm.
please stop comparing gtr’s with overpriced garbage.
Overpriced garbage????
If Pagani pumped out a squillion mass-produced hacks to fund their flagship then the car may be cheaper. But you pay for exclusivity that lasts forever. Something that fades very quickly with your Nissan (renault), which I’m sure will be promptly forgotten once the R36 comes out in a few years…dont believe me? R34 anyone…?
Your eyes must truly be painted on.
Sorry guys, I know the cars don’t compete for the same market, but compared with the blue Porsche in the next article the style of this thing is horrible.
This is busy, busy, busy with bits everywhere, whereas the Porsche is pure elegance.
For this to be cooler than the Porsche, it needs to look better.
But I’d still gladly have either one :)
I’ve never been a fan of Zonda’s strange squared-off styling and mirrors on the A-pillar, but this car with it’s smoothed off corners is gorgeous.
About as practical as an ash tray on a motorbike.
Rocket 6
Best you go back and spend some time with the little ones re-visiting your English comprehension.
A “homologated Zonda” is 11 seconds quicker than a GTR.
The Zonda Cinque has not yet run.
Oh and by the way, to de-cry a car as garbage only because you can’t afford it is indesputable evidence of your redneck inbreeding.
Its a work of art you can drive,Fast.
Remember these cars a targeted in different segments, the Zonda has Swank, uniqueness, stature and aimed at people with pockets that take you to the moon and back. GTR aims at good earners who want to feel performance that rips through the supercars.
If you want to compare the Zonda, compare it to a Veryon, Enzo etc see how it stacks up against those, as they are in the similar target market.
I disagree Fenno, R34 is still heavily sought by people in the tuner world, also including the late teens to young adult age group who are interested in tuning. The fact that Skylines are pretty versitile in packing on the power and been a marquee car in tuner world, it will continue to be a cult car.
I’m getting tired of people constantly comparing the GTR to everything.
For f*cks sake, the GTR is a 200k Japanese high performance car. Who do you think you are comparing it to a 2 million dollar exotic? Car Advice compared the times just to make a very good comparison (which is fair enough), and everyone jumps on their high horse “10 times the price for 11 second improvement around the Nurburgring”.
If track times were the only thing that people were wanting, there are plenty of machines that would smash the GTR and even the Zonda for that matter, into oblivion for way less than 2 million (Radical SR8 comes to mind).
The vehicles are in two totally different market segments, totally different machine.
Does a collector of fine art buy a “copy” of a Monet or a Picasso, done by a Japanese-built art robot in high volume, just because it looks the same and costs a tenth of the price? Of course not.
Same goes for synthetic diamonds. They look the same and “perform” the same (people don’t know the difference just looking at them, even some jewellers can’t tell), but its not the same is it?
If you can afford a 2 million dollar car that was as exclusive as hell and will turn people into blubbering wrecks as soon as you burble past them, why wouldn’t you?
If I could and someone tried to tell me that an R35 GTR was “only 11 seconds slower around the Nurburgring”, I’d probably fog up my Dolce and Gabbana Couture sunnies with tears of laughter.
Joe, you’re a man of intellect and wisdom.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
i didn’t compare….. the report did and i further my opinion GTR should be compared with cars in its price bracket not with overpriced showcars… its very very unfair for nissan.
Dear Rocket_6,
Let me be very clear with what I say here and now. I am a huge fan of the R35 GTR. You would have to be certifiably nuts, not to be impressed by this techno express. It’s that good, my daughter on her “L” plates could track that car.
My point about the Zonda’s extraordinary lap time at the “Ring” was more about praise for Nissan’s hero car. Any car, plane or bird, that can beat it’s lap time, is beyond extraordinary.
The Zonda is extraordinary for it’s ability to achieve race car like lap times, and then drive home in traffic to catch the 6.30pm News broadcast, all the while, in relative comfort.
Ok everyone, don’t jump down my throat too because Im not saying the Nissan GTR is comparable to this new Zonda, but how come the Zonda only does 0-100km/h in 3.4 seconds? There are a number of cars including the Nissan GTR which can match that but look at the specs:
Zonda Cinque – 498kW, 780Nm, 1210kg
versus
Nissan GTR – 353kW, 588Nm, 1740kg
I really don’t understand this.
Oh and by the way, the name Cinque is pronounced “cheen-qwe”, not “sink” and it means 5 in Italian.
Good question Chucky,
I’m assuming it’s in the gearing, which will allow the Zonda to reach 350km/h on a decent straight.
Yep, im with Anthony, must be the gearing, aimed for top speed, to me silly, i would opt for acceleration for crazy top speed anyday.
Just out of interest… Topgear website, quoted the V-SPec did a 7.25 around the nurb, thats a unofficial though, but hella fast!.
I tell you what, if i was a millionaire I would buy both cars, one for the sw@nker in me (porche) and the GTR for pure performance…
with the recent video post… its only 2 seconds faster than base model GTR now