Pagani
When it comes to super cars there are few car makers better than Pagani. While most people have probably never heard of the company they are well known amongst car enthusiasts. They build very expensive, very high performance cars in small numbers. This has allowed them to build a reputation for building some of the fastest and best performing cars available. Getting your hands on a Pagani isn't easy but if you are able to do so you will be driving one of the finest cars in the world.
The Pagani company was initially founded by Horacio Pagani during the nineties to build carbon fiber structures. Pagani had been head of the composites department at Lamborghini when he decided to go out on his own. He realized that carbon fiber would play an increasingly important role in the car industry so he set up his own company to take advantage. The result was that he ended up working with a number of sports car manufacturers and race car builders helping them to incorporate carbon fiber into their designs. In fact for many years his biggest customer was his former employer Lamborghini.
Pagani had always dreamed of building his own cars and eventually he did this with the Zonda. The car was always intended to be a limited production super car; in fact only five copies of the original model were ever made available for sale. Later versions of the Zonda where produced in slightly larger numbers but they were always very limited. The result was a car that was not only very exclusive but also very expensive. For a brief time the Zonda held the record as the world's fastest street car although that record has since been broken.
Since Pagani was primarily set up to build the body and chassis of the car it was necessary for them to find a partner to supply the other parts like the drive train. Ultimately this lead to them partnering with Mercedes who have supplied the engines and a number of other parts over the years. In fact in a lot of ways Mercedes have used Pagani as a test platform since they don't generally need engines that powerful for their own cars. This arrangement has actually worked both ways with Pagani helping to do some of the design work on various sports car models in Daimler family of cars.
Production of the Zonda is scheduled to come to an end soon with a new model to be introduced. Again production will be strictly limited; it is believed that only forty of the new cars will be built and that they will come with a price tag of more than a million dollars. Just like with previous Pagani designs this version will be powered by a Mercedes engine. In this case a seven liter engine that will produce more than seven hundred horsepower. Undoubtedly making the new car one of the fastest on the road.