These Two Pagani Huayra Engine Start Ups Make For a Hard Choice

The Huayra - like the Zonda before it - is one of the best-sounding vehicles in the world. Hell, it's one of the best-anything cars we can think of: it has the looks, it has the grunt, it has a ludicrously fancy interior, and, thanks to its €850,000 base price (over one million dollars), it's safe to say it's pretty exclusive.

But not everything about the Huayra is Italian - actually, not even the name is since it refers to a wind god of the Quechua. But while the name might have a little bearing on the vehicle's success, the engine definitely has a lot more weight.

As most small-volume manufacturers do, Pagani also outsourced the engine production. In this case, it is a hand-built AMG twin-turbo unit that develops 730 hp and 738 lb-ft (1,000 Nm) of torque, forgoing the beauty of naturally-aspirated high displacement engines for the sheer power and flexibility of turbocharging.

Despite the switch, the Huayra didn't lose its character, and while it may not have that high-pitch note of the Zonda, it more than makes up for it with a low and menacing gurgling at idle, and a machine gun salvo at full throttle.

In the video below we have two different Huayras with two different exhaust systems starting their engines. Despite having the same engine, the sounds they make could not be more apart. Well, they could if one had a 1.0-liter three-cylinder diesel unit instead, but you get what we mean.

People's opinions will be split, but we feel the second one has a more raw and metallic growl to it. The first burbles too similar to a V8, so it's essentially hiding away four of its cylinders, which is a shame. Let us know in the comments which one strikes your fancy, or indeed if you thought they were all that different.