The Pagani C9 Mule with the new 6.0 litre AMG bi-turbo
Pagani sources are telling Cars UK that problems with handling on the Pagani C9 – and delays with the production facility – will delay the C9 until 2012.
We love the Pagani Zonda and we love pretty much all that Horacio Pagani has achieved in the last decade. He’s gone from a wannabe hypercar maker to the point where the car world considers him a real player, and producing cars that really do stack up against the best there is.
The next step for Pagani is to release the Pagani C9 in to the wild (and give it a name) which Horacio Pagani told us in January would happen in September. And it still looks as if we may get a look at the C9 in September – but with a big caveat.
Pagani sources are telling us that things are nowhere near as far advanced as Horacio expected when he told us that the C9 would get its unveiling in September. In fact so far behind where they want to be are Pagani that insiders are telling us they can’t see the first cars being ready before the end of 2011 – and not in customer’s hands until 2012.
So what’s the problem? It seems there are two – the car itself and the new production facility Pagani are building to increase current Zonda production to up to sixty C9s a year. Finance is the bane of every small car maker’s life, and even one as successful as Pagani is not immune from the problem of a lack of funds. And that lack of funding is a big issue.
The tightness of cash flow at Pagani has slowed down work on the new C9 and the new facility is not expected to be capable of producing cars until at least the middle of 2011. That’s not the end of the world – Pagani could still produce the C9 in limited numbers in the existing Zonda facility – but the car is still not right.
We’re told that the new Mercedes lump is an absolute gem, producing more power and torque than Pagani could have hoped for. The problem seems to be with the car itself. The feedback we’re getting is that at the moment the C9 can’t handle the power of the new Mercedes lump and is not a patch on the Zonda on the handling front.
The suspension and handling problems are completely resolvable, but they take time – and money. Which is why the C9 is very unlikely to see anything much beyond a token unveiling until 2012.
Hopefully, it will be worth the wait.
Have your say - leave a comment