This Beautiful Pagani Concept Is a Tribute to the Zonda

The Alisea concept honors the original icon.

By: Adrian Padeanu

Updated: Apr 11, 2024 at 5:00am ET

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It's hard to believe the original Zonda debuted at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show. Pagani was still working on Zondas as late as 2022. In 2024, there's another one. Well, not quite. The Alisea marks the 25^th anniversary of the epic supercar, and while Pagani was involved in the project, the Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) did the heavy lifting.

The 1:1 scale model was penned by students of the Master Course at IED in Torino who came up with the gorgeous, clean design. The smooth surfaces were maximized by doing away with the large vents and scoops typically found on high-performance vehicles. Bulging wheel arches enhance the curvaceous silhouette of a one-off that's precisely as wide as the Zonda, at 80.9 inches.

At 178.0 inches, the Pagani Alisea is slightly longer than its source of inspiration and sits lower to the ground. It's only 42.1 inches tall and features a canopy inspired by Group C endurance race cars from the 1980s. Compared to a Zonda, the familiar high-mounted mirrors are slimmed down to achieve a sleeker profile without resorting to cameras. The signature quad headlights have a more modern look, while the curved taillights remind us of the track-only Zonda R.

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Overall, the Alisea looks more tamed than the Zonda by eschewing the complicated aerodynamic package found on countless versions of the AMG V-12-powered machine. The Huayra that came after with its own multiple spinoffs adopted similar styling. The Italian exotic marque's third model, Utopia, isn't a vast departure in terms of styling even though it's touted as an all-new car.

The Alisea is sadly a one-of-a-kind affair. That said, we won't be too surprised if Pagani adopts some design cues should a wealthy buyer be willing to pay an obscene amount of money for a unique car. If you can buy it, Pagani can probably build it, as evidenced by countless Zonda specials we've seen over the last couple of decades.