L'ULTIMA EXOTICA ITALIANA

[mrm]

I've had this kit for quite some time and the main reason I never started on it was that I never really had a clear plan what I want to do with it. It is one of my all time favorite exotic cars for a variety of reasons, not the least of which  the shock wave it caused when it was first introduced. The kit is notorious for being difficult to make fit proprly and I have never seen one built on here or at a show. Not even in a magazine. All of this poses a challenge that I more than welcome. Also it is made in a strange way, where the doors and the hoods are separate as in an opening model, but there are no parts or suggestions for making these components actually functional. No hinges or anything of the sort is provided in it. So I always wanted to make it work. Also, due to recent comments on and off the forum, about what should and shouldn't be used on a model car, I think I will have a lot of fun with this one. 

Stay tuned...

[bisc63]

Interesting look, I have to admit to never having heard of or seen this car or kit. That being said, I look forward to seeing what you make of it!

[mrm]

On 6/16/2023 at 7:34 PM, bisc63 said:

Interesting look, I have to admit to never having heard of or seen this car or kit. That being said, I look forward to seeing what you make of it!

It's interesting that so many people, especially in the model kit community, are not familiar with these cars. Pagani has achieved somewhat of a cult status in the automotive industry and is the wet dream of any car spotter. 

Horacio Pagani is with Argentinian descent and later immigrates in Italy. His story is truly remarkable. He was one of the pioneers in carbon fiber application in the production automotive industry, not only as a high performance material, but also as an aesthetic element. He was the supplier of carbon parts to the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. He also worked for Lamborghini and is accredited with the design update of the Countach for Lamborghini's 25th anniversary.

He always dreamt of making his own car and started working on sketches and ideas since the late '80s. When Lamborghini was ready to replace the Countach with what eventually became the Diablo, Horacio was asked to design it. His proposal was designed around a V12 rear engined chassis, but was turned down. Marcello Gandini from the Bertone Group's design was chosen instead. This put Horacio Pagani on a crossroads of a sort, where he had to chose, to continue working for Lamborghini or put everything he had on the line and persue his dream of making his own car. With advice from his wife, he chose the latter. And in 1999, he shocked the world, when he introduced the Pagani Zonda. It was built almost entirely from carbon fiber, with aluminum tube subframes front and aft of the composite monocoque. Because his original design was created around Lamborghini's V12, Pagani decided to put in it a Mercedes Benz handbuilt AMG V12, as it had identical dimensions, but was also less expensive, more reliable and much easier serviceable in any Mercedes Benz dealership. Only 3 of these cars were built and only one of them remains all original - a car ordered by a mysterious lady from Belgium, in the national yellow color, which is seen driving the Zonda regularly over the years (mostly in Switzerland) and refuses to sell it at any price, including some very lucrative offers from Horacio Pagani himself. 

The front was pretty flat and on the rear it had some oversized tail lights topped by a big awkward wing. It carries serial number 2.

Then in 2000, Pagani Showed the Pagani Zonda S at the Geneva Auto Salon. And everyone in the industry started taking note, as he raised some eyebrows. The new car had AMG's latest 7.0L (427ci) V12 with 550hp, accelerated from 0-60 in 3.7 sec and had a top speed of 220mph. All for $350K. To put things in perspective, that is 3 years before Ferrari's Enzo, for half the price with better performance and far more exclusive, as only 16 were made. 

 

Tracking these cars and getting reference material is extremely difficult. Many of them are very rarely seen and quite few had been crashed and rebuilt by Pagani to different specs. Also, most of them have been updated by their owners numerous times with body and aero parts from the newer Zonda F model, including changing colors and interiors. To add to it, Zondas were never legal in USA, just like the original McLaren F1 or Koenigsegg. However, there are few of them in US. There is a collection in Miamy, that is rumored to have no less than 7 different Zondas in it. The car from the Geneva auto salon is definitely in that collection, but it is an ongoing argument if it is serial number 10 or 14. There are two more yellow Zondas in that collection. The mystery car is a red Zonda, which was shown at SEMA in 2001. That car started life as a silver car, was repainted red and was illegally imported by rapper Wycleff Jean from the Black Eyed Peas. It has been on US soil ever since and it is now yellow. It spend a good portion of its time in some really elite company in a garage/museum in Malibu, without an engine in it. It is in the aforementioned collection in Miami now. 

There is another yellowZonda S in the Czech Republic, which gets driven hard and often and has over 60K miles on it. It is owned by a big name GT racer, who is also a car importer there. It was crashed a couple years back, but I believe it's back to spec.

I am writing all this, because it is related to my project. I wanted to build a model of an existing Zonda S. Pictures of these cars are scarce and there is never 100% guarantee which picture is of which serial number Zonda.  But one thing is for sure. There is more than one yellow metallic Zonda S and Pagani did make Zondas with both his signature Blue/tan interior and black and yellow, which in at least one occasion was yellow ostrich. 

[mrm]

I started from the AMG V12 that the car is built around. The genius of Pagani was that this was an amazing powerplant, which was available in quite few different Mercedes Benz Models. Where it gets tricky when building a model, trying to replicate one of the 16 Zonda S cars made is that some of them started with the regular 7.0 motor, but quite few were constantly been upgraded, some receiving the 7.3L AMG V12 and some pretty much being completely transformed to the next generation Zonda F. 

Anyway...The kit comes with a 7.0L motor, which visually is identical with the 7.3L. These are the parts of the engine. The main part of the engine has been already assembled. Those silver pieces on each side are actually one piece on the real car and represent the aluminum plenum, that sits on top of the heads, leaving the sprak plug cables visible between the runners. The exhaust manifolds actually do look this way on the real thing. It is not just a generic shape that thrown in the kit. 

 

The main engine assembly consist of eight parts and in a typical japanese kit style, has no visible seams once assembled. The transmission was painted with a mix of Tamiya's champagne gold and bare airframe silver. The block got just bare airframe silver and the valve covers received buffing aluminum plate metallizer. 

 

I did not pick out the spark plug "dots" on the heads or attempt to make the little square parts that go on top of them. Not going to wire them either, as it would be totally in vain. Pagani went to great lengths to hide as much of the wiring and plumbing of the car. On the real thing you have a light aluminum plenum with 12 runners, sitting rather flat on top of the motor, with a throttle body on each side. 

 

In a regular MB car the fit was tight, to say the least. Which is why the plenum sits so low. Perfect for use in a low to the ground supercar. 

 

In the kit, there is a cover going over the whole motor, which hides everything underneath. This is accurate, except on the real thing, Pagani actually had carbon fiber covers for each side, which hid the wires and closed the space between the runners and a separate cover in the middle, which actually hid a lot of the plumbing of the motor. 

 

Very early production cars had air intakes sucking air from under the car, going to the throttle bodies via some ducts.

 

The kit includes the carbon fiber air box, that all cars were updated with later on. This airbox has become one of the signature features on any Pagani car to this day.

 

And this is where I am at...

Edited June 21, 2023 by mrm

[SpikeSchumacher]

Looks great so far! I will be following this one...😉

[clipper57]

really interested in how this turns out

[mrm]

8 hours ago, SpikeSchumacher said:

Looks great so far! I will be following this one...😉

 

6 hours ago, clipper57 said:

really interested in how this turns out

Thanks guys. I will take it easy on this one, without rushing. one step at a time. I have given myself a deadline of my birthday, which is in November. Also made a promise of no new projects, before the ones started on here have been completed. 

[89AKurt]

I have this kit, and of course Aoshima has come out with another version, but I'm hoping they do the Z.  Why I think I'll ever built it is a mystery.  Will be watching!

[mrm]

I couldn't (or rather I didn't want to) go much further with the engine before painting the cover. That part has been seen on cars in different variations. From all silver to all carbon fiber. Most often it is either silver with carbon on each side...

...or all carbon:

 

in some rare occasions however, customers asked for the center section to be color matched to the body color of their car. 

 

This last option is what I would've been going for, had I the means to order one of these exotic beasts. I would love me some color on my engine. So I had some painting to do, before I could move forward. A lot more work that what it sounds. Here I will open the can of worms labeled "What Should or Should NOT Be Used on Plastic Model Kits", just a little bit. I love using automotive paint, which is definitely NOT meant for plastic model kits. Being designed for real cars it has properties that would give it qualities necessary for both the scale of projects and the necessary durability. In this case It is even more complicated, because it is an original Ferrari tri-coat. It is called Giallo Modena Triplo Strati Pearl. When I got it some years ago, it was impossible to get the code for it and even my local Ferrari dealership could not get it. It happened so, that the owner of my local PPG Automotive store had a very close relationship with some big wig, who made a call and got him the formulae, so he could mix me half a pint from each of the two colors necessary to achieve the finish. On the real Ferraris this was sometimes a $90 000 option. I got mine for $50. Not bad for a full pint of special paint. Our days I see this color offered by some companies (I'm not gonna mention names) who made a business of selling "exact match" colors, which are nothing more than the paint any reputable automotive paint store can mix for you, then thinned down and repackaged in 2oz bottles. Anywhooo...

For the PPG paint not to eat the plastic of the kit, I had to prime it first. Just like you would have to do with any of those cottage industry "model" paints. I have watched countless videos and debates on how this paint or that paint interacted with the plastic of this manufacturer or that manufacturer. And I am tired of listening how when it worked out, I just "got lucky" or whatever. The solution is more time consuming and a little bit more labor intensive, but works without an issue. Every single time, 100% success rate. I use automotive 2K grey primer. It mixes 4:1 with the exact same fast activator I use for the 2K clear coat I buy. For $40 you get pretty much a lifetime supply of primer that would seal against anything. But about all that, maybe later on, when I paint the body.

So: a coat of 2K primer (not fun to clean your airbrush afterwords) > base coat of white > first stage of the yellow > second stage of the yellow, which is like an opaque pearl > clear coat (not done that yet).

 

While the engine had to have some primer on it, I figured out "why not put some primer on most of the body parts too?" Here I went completely against the grain in many different ways. First, I assembled a lot of parts completely out of order. I glued the interior tub to the chassis plate, then the side lower body panels to the interior tub, because on the real car that is all a one piece monocoque. I did not want the seams between the parts visible on the finished model and I wanted everything to line up properly and be very well secured, without the potential to make a mess. This kit is notorious (according to some it goes for most if not all Aoshima kits) with fitment issues and people complain that it is impossible to assemble it with a good fit where everything lines up properly. That is strange, because when first dryfitting the kit, everything lines up perfect. 

  So I glued the rear bumper assembly, the rear grille and monocoque to the chassis plate to assure that everything aligns the way it should.

Then I did another crazy thing. I sprayed some of the interior color on, before anything else. Main reason is that I love using another great automotive product, not meant for model cars. SEM interior paint. This stuff is amazing. It comes in an endless assortment of colors and it is designed to spray over your interior panels to change their color. So it will stick and hold to pretty much anything. And it will have the perfect leather/vinyl finish and shine. Here is the tricky part. It does not like other paint. This is the only paint I have ever seen attack 2K clear coat! Funny enough, it does not attack or craze plastic. But it will handle pretty much any paint over it. So, I spray it straight on the plastic, before any other primer or paint. This is why some of the areas I needed tan leather, were painted very first thing. I would not recommend doing it this way, unless you are very confident in your masking skills. After my tan parts were masked off, my chassis base was sprayed with the 2K primer. It was sandable in two hours. 

Edited June 22, 2023 by mrm

[mrm]

4 minutes ago, 89AKurt said:

I have this kit, and of course Aoshima has come out with another version, but I'm hoping they do the Z.  Why I think I'll ever built it is a mystery.  Will be watching!

Well, first of all, let me say that I hope by posting my progress on here I could motivate more people to built this kit. Because I know there are quite few people out there that have one, but for one reason or another never build them. 

The other "version" of the kit is the Zonda F, which is by all means is a completely different car. Other than the monocoque, I believe every other part on the real car and on that kit is different from the Zonda S (which I'm building). Then came the Huayra, which I finished just a couple of weeks back. Then there is the Huayra Pachetto Tempesta, which is just Aoshima milking their Huayra kit, as it has just different wheels, front spliter and two additional pieces for the diffuser. 

 

[mrm]

My biggest gripe with this kit, which is more like puzzlement, are the doors. They are pretty much a simple two part deal - inner and outer skins. They are molded as separate pieces, but there is not even a mention how to attach them. Even if you would like to glue them open, which I guess is the option the kit is giving you, there is no mention on how to do that. No attachment points, no locator pins or marks of any sort. I have always been a firm believer that sometimes even the most complicated problems can have a simple solution. So I set to make the doors functional while my engine cover paint is curing. After some research, I noticed how the Zondas door rotates in a cool way into the wheel opening and a light went on in my head. A simple pivot hinge just like on the pivot doors in those multimillion dollar homes they show on TV. 

   So I drilled into the floor plate, right where I thought my pivot point should be.

 

A piece of music wire (available in any Hobby Lobby) was treaded in a piece of aluminum tubing (also from HL). 

 

Now, because the hole I drilled to locate the music wire was right at the corner of the monocoque, it had to be enlarged for the aluminum tubing with a bead reamer from the same store. 

 

Then the "hinge" bottom half was inserted in the hole and into position.

 

Once happy with its angles it was superglued in place...

 

...and trimmed to length.

 

Next, another piece of tubing was cut to size...

 

...and inserted over the wire, effectively becoming the "upper hinge". 

 

In order for the upper tubing to make better contact with the door, some material had to be grind off to make the surface less curved on the inside of the door.

 

In order to make sure that everything would line up perfectly when assembled, I had to line up all the body pieces and hold everything together in place with masking tape, before I could glue the door.

 

Then, when I made sure everything works together as it should, I taped the door and glued it to the upper tubing with superglue.

 

So far everything works together perfect. It still needs a little bit of sanding and finagling here and there to make it 100%, but I am more than happy with the initial result.

 

Here you can kinda see how the door opens on the real thing. It kinda swivels into the wheel well.

 

I think I replicated that effect pretty well.

 

Both doors are now functional.

 

And line up pretty darn good. I'm happy.

 

Tomorrow back to the engine. I did not clear coat it, because I want to do all the carbon fiber on the cover, apply the emblems and then I'll clear it and seal everything all together. 

 

Also i have to figure how to hinge the rear hood, so I can actually start prepping for paint. 

hanks for looking and stay tuned...

[jaymcminn]

Great job on engineering those doors. I've been thinking about picking up the Zonda kit but I've always had some trepidation about building a kit that has been out for a few years and yet somehow you never see built up. If your Huayra is any indication this will turn out great!

[mrm]

1 hour ago, jaymcminn said:

Great job on engineering those doors. I've been thinking about picking up the Zonda kit but I've always had some trepidation about building a kit that has been out for a few years and yet somehow you never see built up. If your Huayra is any indication this will turn out great!

Thank you Jason.

My Huayra was the very first Aoshima kit I built. A lot learned from that experience. 

Some of their kits can be quite intimidating and the Huayra is the perfect example. In the particular case of Pagani cars, this feeling is even stronger, since a lot of people don't even know what these cars are. 

But these are some great kits, with great detail, which can be turned into jewels with some effort. I say get yourself one of these and build along. 🤠

[mrm]

A little update here. My Huayra project is long finished. I found out that when taken to shows, people simply have no idea what are they looking at and have no idea if such car exists in real life. Most don't even know how to pronounce Pagani, let alone Huayra. Lesson learned...

The Zonda seems a little more down to earth (which is why I like it better), but if displayed it would definitely have to come with some kind of presentation. Anyway...

I am kinda on a crossroad with this model as I am not sure how do I want to proceed with it. I know I want it yellow. Fo many different reasons. Altho I hate painting yellow with a passion. But... The only original Zonda left in existence that still wears its original paint and body is yellow. The first Zonda in Eastern Europe (Czech Republic) was yellow. The only Zonda S Roadster in US is yellow and the only Zonda Cinque Roadster in US is yellow. Mainly, the Zonda S Roadster was introduced in yellow metallic with cool black and yellow interior. And here comes the dilemma. Should I save myself the headache and build it like the Czech car that got crashed or should I roll my sleeves and convert it into the Zonda S Roadster show car that introduced the convertible model? 

 As usual I would like to hear your opinions. 

[dietgilroy]

do you have any more pictures of your progress?

[mrm]

3 hours ago, dietgilroy said:

do you have any more pictures of your progress?

I need to process them. 

[catpack68]

My vote would be to see it built as a roadster. I would definitely love to see more pictures of it. By the way, Wycleff Jean was in a group called the Fugees not the Black Eyed Peas. I remember seeing a show(not sure where I saw it?) a few years ago showing his collection of exotic cars including a McLaren F1

Edited May 27 by catpack68

[mrm]

On 5/27/2024 at 3:22 PM, catpack68 said:

My vote would be to see it built as a roadster. I would definitely love to see more pictures of it. By the way, Wycleff Jean was in a group called the Fugees not the Black Eyed Peas. I remember seeing a show(not sure where I saw it?) a few years ago showing his collection of exotic cars including a McLaren F1

So, it was decided that the car would stay in coupe configuration for this build. Maybe, at a later time I may buy and build one more as a Roadster. Main reason is time limitation, as I have a lot of projects going on and I would like to see this one done by the end year if possible. 

[mrm]

The progress so far...

I am most happy (and releaved) that the rear clam shell was finally sorted out. The solution was quite simple, but still, not as simple as the hinges on the real thing. I have quite few really, really nice and well done high-end diecast Paganis in 1/18. After studying their hinges for the rear hood and researching the real thing, I have achieved probably the best solution. Making prototypically correct hinges for this model is pretty much restricted to impossible due to scale. 

Grooves were cut into the backing of the tail light panel and brass wire was glued. This gnarly looking crude pivot will be completely hidden later on, when I fabricate the covers for these panels, which are non existent on the kit. 

 

Next, some new panels were formed from styrene behind the rear fenders on the hood and little slots were cut out.

 

Now the hood fits perfect and operates flowlessly in the same fashion, if not better than on my $500 diecast models and almost identically as the 1:1. The main reason for choosing this way of hinging it was the ease of removal and reinstalling it without being a major PITA. 

 

The exhaust system on this car is really cool in 1:1 ending with a now iconic four pipe cluster in a circle. The kit's parts are total pain and they have very vague mounting tabs making the balancing act of aligning everything properly an extremely testing matter. I don't like the chrome finish on the muffler and I would like to paint the pipes with the cats together with the muffler. The only way to do this was to drill all corresponding parts and to insert brass rod in them so they could be mounted and aligned without glue. Then the pipes were glued to the muffler part. Now I can put on and take off the exhaust as many times as I want and it is always perfectly aligned. 

 

At the front there is a part which integrates into one some of the carbon chassis elements and the cover panel that goes over the front suspension. The model has some pretty cool details under there which are completely lost once everything is together. I thought it would be cool to make that panel removable, just like on the real car. So I cut is apart from the structural parts on each side.

 

Now it could be removed to show the front suspension and closed again.

 

 

This will open a big can of worms, because now I would have to scratch build most of what resides behind that panel. The hardest part would be to actually find good pictures of what everything looks like. 

For now some of the chassis components received some paint.

 

And so did some of the interior pieces.

 

Next I have to tackle the front clam shell and figure a way to make it open realistically. Latest mockup makes me excited.

 

Thanks for looking and stay tuned...

Edited Sunday at 01:01 AM by mrm

[mrm]

First big news. I managed to figure out the front hinge. It turns out that the hinge on the real car is the simplest thing ever and it is just cleverly hidden. 

 

So I grabbed some of the last super thin tubing I had left, with some nickel silver wire in it (springy stuff) and made the simplest of pivots.

 

I made a groove right at the front edge of the center pillar of the hood and glued my tiny hinge in it. Next I ground off the oval space right under where the pillar stays and drilled two corresponding holes for my hinge. As long as the hinge itself is not all the way down, but has about 0.5mm space (it might be even less) the front flips over just fine. I got the photo from someone who actually worked on the cars. He was saying that the front clam shell is super light, because it is all just carbon. He is saying that if that shell was any heavier, like even made out of aluminum, there is no way the two tiny hinges on the real thing would be able to handle it. 

 

Something new I learned is that cool center of the front lip is not just a cool design that came from Horacio Pagani's genius. It is actually a separate piece. It is a functional cover that hides the hinges as it creates like a curtain around the necessary gap on the bottom, but it is also removable when the tow hook behind it needs to be used.

 

Remember that front cover that I cut because somehow I thought it would be a good idea? 

 

Well, that turned out to be a can of worms that has so far set me back a day and probably few more coming. Because when I cut it out to make it removable, my idea was to show off the cool inboard shocks and their remote reservoirs. The problem is there is absolutely nothing else on the model. Unlike their Huayra, which had a very detailed front suspension and frame, this Zonda doesn't have anything but empty space. So I decided that it can't be that much in there. It's just a frame. "Famous last words"...

The worst thing is that there are absolutely no reference pictures of what's behind that cover. let me tell you, it took me days and countless hours and contacts, until I found some info. So, the amount of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH behind there is no joke and it would have to be all scratch build. So I rolled my sleeves and started. 

First the frame is made from some tubes that are oval on top, but flat on the bottom. So those I had to actually make from square styrene rod, which I filed and sanded two of the edges on just to get the stock I needed. 

 

And then I started building the front subframe assembly tube by tube like the real thing. 

 

I had to make a central shock tower, a support bracket for the insane brake system, and build the support legs under the upper A-arms.

 

Before I went too far down this rabbit hole, I checked to see if anything is visible once the radiator is on. From the front it hides most of the stuff, but when viewed from top mostly everything is visible. So I had carry on. 

 

The ABS valve was scratch build from a variety of styrene stock and rods that were filed into shape. The whole piece started on the tip of thinned sown flat rod and was cut off, once all the other shapes on it were made. Then it went on its bracket. It still needs to be drilled for the brake lines plus the in and out lines. 

 

On top of it, on its own bracket sits another distribution valve for the power brakes. This piece was made from different size square rod pieces, which were connected with brass wire. The finished piece was drilled three times on each side, as it will have six braided lines coming out of it on each side. 

 

This is what it looks like in its place.

 

Next I am doing the brake and clutch pedal cylinders in their bracket.

 

Then I'll have to make the master cylinder, which actually seats on the other side of the car and it is connected by some hoses. Then there is freon tank for the AC, which is attached to the cross member next to the ABS and some fluids bottles on the other side. Then paint everything. Its coming up...

Thanks for looking and stay tuned...

Edited 11 hours ago by mrm