BACKGROUND

Five-and-a-half years after the Zonda made its world debut, Pagani unveiled a one-off track-focussed version dubbed the Monza at the Paris Motor Show in October 2004.

Commissioned by an existing customer from the USA, the Zonda Monza featured stiffer suspension with manually adjustable dampers and anti-roll bars, bigger brake discs with uprated calipers, centre-lock instead of five-bolt wheels and an FIA fuel cell.

The Monza’s 7.3-litre engine was enhanced with a dry-sump lubrication system, a re-mapped Motec ECU, improved cooling and an un-silenced exhaust. Externally, an array of custom cooling and aero solutions were added while the cockpit was stripped to the bone and furnished with competition-grade equipment to include an aluminium rollcage.

At 1100kg, the Monza was the lightest Zonda yet and tipped the scales at an extraordinary 150kg less than a contemporary 7.3-litre S.

Eight months later in June 2005, Ferrari revealed an even more extreme interpretation of their recently discontinued Enzo flagship: the FXX.

Significantly enhanced in every department, like the Zonda Monza the wild-looking FXX was conceived exclusively for track use, but once again without any specific racing regulations in mind which enabled the designers total freedom when it came to creating the most radical machine possible.