Overtaken by a burgundy Citroen Xsara Picasso. The shame.
The brutal cringe-gland-rupturing humiliation of it. This is Horacio Pagani’s actual, personal Zonda: chassis number 006, the very car that graced the 2000 Geneva Motor Show stand—the first supercar ever to have a clear-coated carbon-fiber body. And I’ve just allowed a claret French minibus to overhaul it not five miles from its birthplace. The happiest man in Modena trundles off ahead.
Slouching alongside, Pagani’s factory test driver is aghast. Andrea is one of those soul-crushingly handsome blokes who could’ve made it as a Gucci model or attacking midfielder for Juventus if he hadn’t been so inconveniently handy at driving. He looks up from his bored slump in the Zonda’s passenger seat, where he’s been idly WhatsApping his mates.
He’s a tricky man to read, eyes concealed behind mirrored aviators reflecting my abashed, sweaty mug. “No, no, we not have this,” he spits, gesturing unkindly at the escaping family wagon. “Ees okay, just go fast, ees okay.” The hand not cradling his excitable iPhone nonchalantly points out the windshield, over the Zonda’s mountainous front arches.