The automotive landscape is woven with stories and human experiences, of dreams sometimes realized, of professional paths and even indirect encounters that mark indelible moments. In 1993, I was a car design student in Modena, in love with automobiles and drawn to the Emilian powerhouses: Ferrari, Lamborghini, De Tomaso, Maserati… It was also the era of Bugatti in Campogalliano and Cizeta. During a car show with other students, we stumbled upon a small stand with a sign that read “Modena Design,” literally plastered with car sketches, and vertically displayed was a carbon sulky.
At the booth was a young Horacio Pagani with whom we exchanged a few words, but what struck us was his talk of the future as if it were already written that he would build a supercar, his supercar. We were captivated by his enthusiasm, so much so that to satisfy our curiosity, we went to see where “Modena Design” headquarters was located a few weeks later. Truth be told, we all thought that gentleman was a dreamer, but above all, he would struggle to emerge among the sports brands so full of history.
A few years later, precisely in 1999, I found myself at the Geneva Motor Show for work where the Zonda was unveiled at the Pagani stand, of which I still keep the press kit; it was just the beginning of what would become one of the most beautiful dreams I have witnessed as a spectator. Life flows between unveiled projects and those in progress, and Horacio Pagani, with his Pagani Automobili, celebrates 25 years of history, asserting himself at international levels, consecrating his talent, his precision, and attention to every detail, even the most hidden, strong in his incredible drive to succeed.
The Zonda, the Huayra and the Utopia are three chapters of this incredible human and personal story, the result of the determination of a man who started from afar, a child raised with the scent of bread in his father’s workshop and with the creative stimuli of his artist mother. Some time ago, I listened to his story where he spoke of himself as a boy waiting for the wealthy man’s Jaguar E Type, a car that, along with others, fueled his fantasies, to come out of the garage.
And then all the dreams that followed, from friendship with Fangio, the move to Italy with the promise to his friends that he would build his car, the experience at Lamborghini, to the purchase (with a significant loan) of his “famous” autoclave for carbon that would shape his ideas and his hypercars. In 2017, I visited the Pagani factory for the first time: WOW. Inside, I found the same sensations as that small stand I saw in Modena in 1993; pure passion was breathed, a desire to give one’s all; it was the dream realized, one without a finish line, not a point of arrival but a continuous restart towards new challenges.
During the visit to the assembly workshop, I saw Horacio Pagani personally checking a green carbon Huayra BC, which I believe was being delivered. My mind returned to that man full of dreams. Today, at the Automobile Museum in Turin, the first quarter of a century is told of someone who believed in it wholeheartedly, that boy who managed to emerge, who fought for his ideals and values. My heartfelt thanks go to him for making me a spectator of a truly incredible story.
Somewhere in the world, I am sure a boy is waiting for hours for the passage of a supercar, perhaps a Pagani, with his yellow bicycle stopped by the roadside, his head full of dreams, the foundation of beautiful stories that take you far… just as Horacio Pagani has done.
Enjoy even more @ Pagani Automobili
Article edited by Antonio Erario
Photo Credit: Celebre Magazine World