RIDING DRAGONS SHOULDN'T BE SO EASY

DRACARYS! ONE MAN'S ATTEMPT TO TAME THE MOST FEROCIOUS PAGANI YET

- JONNY LIEBERMAN

It took me a bit more than one lap in the 2022 Pagani Huayra R to forget founder and CEO Horacio Pagani's plea from the night before: “Please, don't crash it."

We were at the Four Seasons hotel in Austin, Texas, having a nightcap after the penultimate day of the 2021 Pagani Raduno, an event for the brand's owners, which this time culminated at Circuit of the Americas (COTA), the big, Texas-sized Formula 1 track. I was there to drive the latest and perhaps most epic of Pagani's creations to date, the all-new 2022 Huayra R. As of this writing, the bare carbon-titanium Huayra R with gold and white stripes is not just a prototype; it's the only Rin existence, though 30 customer examples will soon join it. All 30 of the $3.5 million hypercars are sold, with 14 coming to the U.S. Want one? The waiting list is 24 deep. Two future owners who plunked down hefty deposits for the track-only macchina-as Pagani calls his latest creation-received hot laps with hot shoe Jamie Morrow. I also got a few laps with Morrow, but now I get to drive. Motor Trend is the only media outlet afforded this opportunity; don't crash it, indeed. But let's back up a bit.

Conceived, almost unbelievably, just 18 months ago, the 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 previous Huayra.