Collectors & Aficionados
Unforgettable Car Geniuses: Horacio Pagani
Horacio Pagani turned his dream into reality, blending Italian art and tech to create the iconic Zonda and revolutionize the supercar world.
It took an Argentinian of Italian extraction, driven by the force of the Zonda (the powerful wind that blows through the Andes), to combine, in a motor car, two quintessentially Italian traditions: art and technology. As a youngster growing up in Argentina, in the town of Casilda near San Fe, Horacio Pagani dreamed of Italian cars. Fangio was his idol.
At the age of 24, he built his own Formula 2 single-seater to use in Argentine races. Fangio, then 68 and still on great terms with Mercedes, with which he had won two world titles, willingly accepted Pagani’s request to help him find a way of moving to Italy, specifically to Modena (where else?), in order to realize his passion. Pagani was ready to do any job at all, providing it was in the world of magnificent red sports cars. It was Lamborghini, at the time a growing company, that opened its door to him, and he tiptoed in. The year was 1982.
