Pagani, for so long the new kid on the supercar block, isn’t so new anymore. The Modena-based brand turns 25 this year and to celebrate that milestone Pagani has joined forces with a team of trainee designers to create a concept hypercar, the Alisea. The full-scale prototype is the work of students on the Master Course in Transportation Design at IED Torino in Italy, who worked together with Pagani at every stage of the project from sketching the car to working up digital 3D models and finally creating the 1:1 concept.
Occupying the same kind of road space as
the original Zonda, the 4,520 mm-long Alisea rides on a 2,795 mm wheelbase, but the roofline sits more than 75 mm closer
to the ground. The visual connection to the Zonda – and to a lesser extent, the
Huayra that replaced it – is clear, but the IED team says it paid special
attention to the surfacing to make the bodywork as clean as possible.
Unlike most combustion supercars, which
are always trying to funnel huge volumes of air into their mid-mounted engines
and cooling radiators, Alisea has no side scoops. That was a look Horacio
Pagani achieved back in the original Zonda by placing the intakes both above
and below the main quarter panels where they didn’t draw your attention. IED
assures us the lack of vents and intakes is not down to a switch to electric
power: there’s still an AMG V12 behind the seats, the students say, or at least
there would be if this was more than a design study.
The bubble canopy draws inspiration from
1980s Group C endurance racers, just like the Zonda did, but the curves are
softer and more organic, and the IED crew has updated Pagani’s trademark quad
headlight look and also slimmed down its famous A-pillar mirrors.
Giant fender peaks at each corner exaggerate
the low height of the rear deck and the rear end is dominated by the
space-rocket-style exhaust setup, which exits through the middle of the tail,
another Pagani design staple.
