The Pagani Zonda has F1 driver Lewis Hamilton in two minds.
Lewis Hamilton is regarded as one of the greatest drivers in history of motor racing. He is second all-time in World championships with 6 titles under his belt. The British driver is also a popular personality off the track with his charming disposition that has won over not only racing enthusiasts, but the general public.
Hamilton has accumulated more than just titles and affection over the years, unsurprisingly he has made a lot of money which he has invested into cars that he call’s, “his babies.” The affable driver knows his wealth won’t last forever, so that’s why he has chosen to invest them in the only thing he knows, “I don’t know anything about wine. I don’t know a huge amount about art. But what I do know is cars, and I’m very particular about them.”
Hamilton owns 15 very special cars that are close to his heart but he is also aware that some of them are flawed cars but that’s why he loves them, his 1966 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500, “beautiful, but a heap of junk,” he says. Flaws though are sometimes part of the charm, it is the imperfection and history that create character in such vehicles. Hamilton also owns an extremely rare 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 which he contacted Carrol Shelby himself to check over before he bought it, “He said it was one of the best he’d seen in a long time, all original. Carroll died a month after I bought it.”
Pagani Zonda 760 LH
The Pagani Zonda 760 LH though is another beautiful car that he owns which has inspired this article because he seems to be in two hearts about it, “The Zonda is terrible to drive! It’s the best-sounding car I own, but handling-wise it’s the worst. I got it in manual because I didn’t like the Tiptronic version,” he said. Lets dig deeper about this car and explore what it’s all about.
Firstly, this Pagani is special, very special indeed. It was designed especially for Hamilton which of course explains the discernible ‘LH’ in the name. It is essentially identical to the 2012 760 RS which was a car designed for a close friend of Horacio Pagani. The LH though, has an exception of one notable detail, the automatic transmission, Hamilton was adamant on having a fun car to drive and opted for the manual.
Assumably, he also wanted to a machine that reminded him of the track machines he drives for a living as this car is about as close to a F1 car as you can get. It was the most powerful Pagani road production car released at that time.
If the ‘LH’ in the model name wasn’t obvious enough, surely the 760 part is. Yes, it stand’s for 760 horsepower and it is generated by a 7.3 litre, Mercedes-AMG V12 mid-engine which powers the car to a top speed of 350 km/h. The 760 has a bare carbon-fibre body and the profile is 100% designed with aerodynamics in mind.
Not much else is known about this car as Pagani’s Zonda series is notoriously mysterious, and that is just the way they like it. The 760 line are literally one-off cars designed especially for customers who order them, they do not make numerous cars, just one! This 760 LH is no exception, the information surrounding it is limited though which creates plenty of speculation in the air.
Hamilton seems to be disappointed somewhat in the fact that his custom built supercar didn’t turn out the way he wanted but then again, he wanted a road-going F1 car, what did he expect, a cruiser?
