Using a considerable measure of design talent and a small measure of witchcraft, a group of students have resurrected the most unkillable of all modern hypercars: rise, as thine V12 entity hath once more been summon’d, Pagani Zonda.

Except it’s not called the Pagani Zonda. This, ladies and gentlemen, is a wonderful reimagining of Horacio’s first ever creation by students of the [deep breath] ‘master course in transportation design’ at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin. Meet the concept ‘Alisea’: a 1:1 real-life study of a ‘modern’ Zonda.

The first and most pertinent question of course, is ‘why’. Simple: the Zonda turns 25 this year, and 24 bright young things spent an entire year working tirelessly to try and recapture and reimagine what Horacio first unleashed just before the turn of the century.

“We search a lot, then we iterate a lot, then we do several proposals, see what works best, scrap very fast what doesn’t work well,” they explained. “Everything is designed for the pure pleasure, even visually, of those who look at the object.”

And it’s some object. The students worked hand-in-hand with Pagani itself, from freehand sketching to working in 3D to building up a proper life-size car. “Its surface has no decorative elements or interruptions,” said IED. “Alisea is a single, clean and legible shape, with no hollows in any part of the body – a rare feature in this car category.” Punchy.

There’s a glorious, uninterrupted sweep to the silhouette that successfully exaggerates the Zonda’s cab-forward design, while underneath sits an actual, real-life AMG V12. There are a set of full-LED lights, there's some active aero and of course, there's Pagani’s famous quad-pipes-in-a-circle exhaust setup.

“It’s the closest translation of a Le Mans car for the road,” the students said.

There’s an interior, too – we’ve only seen renders, but there are analogue gauges, a manual gearstick, a digital dash and much leather.

“We got the chance to lead young talents, tapping into the consolidated knowledge and everyday practices that we, as designers and automotive engineers, apply to the industry,” said Alberto Piccolo, advanced design lead at Pagani. “At the same time, we have benefited from their fresh and uncontaminated approach."

“This is how we foster the professional growth of young designers, looking at the future with a broad and open perspective,” added Paola Zini, IED Torino director.

Does this break the seal and allow a new horde of special edition Aliseas that’ll keep the Zonda alive for another 25 years? We’re not complaining.

Content published on 26th June 2022

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