Pagani Zonda Fantasma Evo – 760 hp, manual gearbox

For lovers of free-breathing engines, there is no replacement for displacement, and in the case of some very well-heeled enthusiasts, there isn’t for the Pagani Zonda either. The Zonda has soldiered on remarkably well, considering that it made its debut shortly after the turn of the century with the C12 and was succeeded only recently by the Huayra, which now comes in both hardtop and Roadster forms.

As for the Zonda Fantasma Evo pictured here, it began life as a right-hand-drive Zonda F with manual transmission when it rolled out of the factory in 2005, and the first of its makeovers took place after it had been involved in a crash, necessitating extensive repair work.

Taking the opportunity to apply upgrades, the owner commissioned the rebuild to Zonda 760 specification, with exposed carbon-fibre bodywork from the Zonda Cinque and Zonda R. The car was renamed the 760 SH after its owner’s initials, and later on again renamed Fantasma – Italian for ghost.

Come 2017, and the Fantasma has been given another round of updates. From the specifications of the Cinque and R, the Fantasma has since been installed with a manual transmission, instead of the sequential unit as specified in the former two iterations. The beating heart of the Zonda Fantasma is the similarly long-serving AMG-sourced 7.3 litre, naturally-aspirated V12 engine driving the rear wheels exclusively.

The Zonda has survived long after the advent of the 6.0 litre, turbocharged V12 Huayra which was supposed to succeed it, albeit in a string of one-off editions commissioned for specific customers. Will there be further reincarnations of the long-running Zonda? Given that it has carried on after the Huayra made its debut six years ago, the Zonda’s continued longevity isn’t to be ruled out just yet.

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