Pagani Huayra - La Monza Lisa

The Autodromo Nazionale di "Monza", the legendary Formula-1 circuit, famous for its flat straights and numerous tight chicanes. The flat straights make Monza an apt metaphor for 'speed'.

The Mona Lisa, a highly mysterious, debated masterpiece made by an Italian genius, artist and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci.

The amalgamation of characteristics of these highly disconnected objects discussed above, is the Pagani Huayra "La Monza Lisa".

The Pagani Huayra is the second hypercar produced by Pagani Automobili, after ending the production of its hyper-successful hypercar, the Zonda. The Zonda was sold in no less than eleven editions and avatars apart from over a dozen custom one-off models for its uber-elite clientele.

The first one-off Huayra, aptly christianed "La Monza Lisa" was commissioned by Kris Singh in early 2014. Kris Singh, who is a self proclaimed Lamborghini fanatic, is an Indian-born American investor, shot to fame in 2013, when he purchased the 1-of-3 Lamborghini Veneno LP 750-4 at an eye watering price tag of US$4 million. Unlike other special editions, which are only seen gracing auto shows and events around the world, Mr. Singh's Veneno is regularly seen zipping across the streets of Florida, where he resides. So it is safe to say that Mr. Singh's cars aren't "Garage Queens" like most cars of the segment.

Stunning interior and exterior bodywork coupled with the engineering prowess of Italian automotive genius, Mr. Horacio Pagani and a V12 BiTurbo engine, customized and tuned for instant power delivery and speed, it is hard not to draw parallels between the "La Monza Lisa" and those of Monza, the Mona Lisa and Leonardo da Vinci.

From the moment it was commissioned upto its delivery, Kris Singh kept his 100k+ followers on Instagram updated by putting up snapshots of the unfinished product yet never actually revealing the exact specifications of the car.

Kris Singh's "La Monza Lisa" features extremely bright red seats, a special mixture of red which is created in such a way that the color looks exactly the same in pictures as it looks to the human eye, while the stitching and piping on the seats is done up in white. The wheels, which are finished off in polished silver, are taken from the mighty Zonda R and it is said that the owner has a separate set finished in black to complete the cars sinister look. The exterior borrows a lot of design cues from the various editions of the Zonda produced over the years. The exposed carbon fibre bodywork has a thin clear coat over it, which accentuates the beauty of the weave of the carbon fibre while lending a beautiful shiny glossy finish to the whole exterior. The Italian TriColore stripe in the centre is inspired from the Zonda Revolucion and the customary tramline along the side is done up in Italian TriColore as well.

The engine in the La Monza Lisa is the same Mercedes-AMG sourced V12 Bi-Turbo as seen on other Huayras, however, in a different state of tune. The details on the exact power output of this custom built engine aren't known, but it is most certainly producing more than 730hp and the 1100Nm that the 'regular' Huayras are known the produce. The engine is built by Michael Kubler, who incindentally happens to be the owners good friend and the only one of two people in the world trained to build this mighty powertrain.

Other interesting custom features on the La Monza Lisa include missing sound dampners between the cabin and the engine, so as to enjoy the symphony produced by the V12 orchestra. The engine bay also has signatures done by the whole Pagani team including those of Horacio Pagani and his family, which were done at the special request of Kris Singh.

La Monza Lisa is not a car, but an expression, a work of art which only shows that passion and right ideas can create something which can only be bettered, not replaced.

We, at Automobili Ardent, feel proud that two of the worlds rarest ,costliest and powerful machines are owned by an Indian. We, on behalf of the entire Indian petrolhead community, would like to congratulate Mr. Kris Singh on the "La Monza Lisa" and hope that he continues to make us Indians and the ever growing automotive scene in the country reach new heights.