Drakarys! One man’s attempt to tame the most ferocious Pagani yet.

The 2022 Pagani Huayra R is the spiritual successor to the legendary track-only Zonda R. It's almost an entirely new vehicle, too, but structurally and mechanically it shares more with the Zonda R than it does with any Huayra. Specifically, the Huayra R shares just three things with the "regular" Huayra: the side mirrors, the Pagani-stamped titanium bolts, and the name. That's it. The Zonda R's engine was an evolution of AMG's 6.0-liter V-12 found in the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, as Pagani has a long history with AMG engines dating back to the founder's friendship with fellow Argentine, Mercedes ambassador, and racing legend Juan Manual Fangio. However, the Huayra R's naturally aspirated 6.0-liter V-12 is a clean sheet, or carta bianca, design, built by Germany's HWA, builder of Mercedes DTM race cars.

HWA was founded by Hans-Werner Aufrecht, whose surname contributed the letter A to AMG, and HWA today is just down the road from AMG headquarters in Affalterbach, Germany. HWA also built the Huayra R's six-speed, three-disc, non-synchronizing dog-ring sequential-manual transmission, which like the engine contributes to the chassis' overall rigidity by being hard-mounted to it. Gorgeous equal-length headers and exhaust pipes made from Inconal 625/718 are coated in heat-resistant ceramic and snake their way out of the car's open rump. The Zonda R's screamer was good for 750 hp and 524 lb-ft of torque. The Pagani Huayra R's screamier V-12 pumps out an astonishing 850 naturally aspirated hp along with 553 lb-ft of twisting force between 5,500 and 8,300 rpm, the latter of which is absurd. Redline is 9,000 rpm, and there are no turbos, no hybrid assist—just 12 angry cylinders breathing fire through 48-valves. Gulp.

The shape is outlandish. The 2022 Pagani Huayra R is made mostly from Pagani's proprietary Carbo-Titanium HP62 G2 and Carbo-Triax HP62 (the "HP" stands for Horacio Pagani). Carbo-Titanium is used in places like the passenger cell where energy absorption is key, whereas Carbo-Triax is used where stiffness is paramount (the drivetrain is mounted to Carbo-Triax). The bodywork is vented everywhere, with scoops, scallops, and slashes wherever your eyes fall. The dual, deep aero channels that begin just aft of the A-pillars and run flat down the top of the body, all the way down to moveable wings flanking the signature encircled quad exhaust pipes, are particularly intriguing. Sorry, I should say the first set of moveable wings, as a second pair made from aluminum are mounted atop the massive, fixed carbon-fiber rear wing.