What happens when you combine obsession, talent and outright genius with the soul of a car fanatic? You get the Zonda from Pagani. This car is everything you hoped it would be. The Zonda F succeeds in making meticulous engineering beautiful. Its skeleton and heart are one: While every advanced material and technique is used in its construction they were neither hidden nor overshadowed when Pagani’s aeronautical passion came out in its design. Every detail of the car has a function and it is that exposed engineering that makes this car pure, transparent and addicting.

Somehow the Zonda feels comfortable, but it shouldn’t, right? It makes me doubt what I know about cars, fast ones are rough; comfortable ones are slow. The Zonda is solid on every bump yet compliant enough so that you actually stop trying to miss them. And yet, when asked, it is as taut and composed as any of the deceptively fast supercars in its “class.” It’s an easy car to drive with a very positive transmission feel and great visibility.

The throttle response at first seems a bit off. It smoothly responds to your right foot as if helping you drive the car in a more comfortable way. However, once you press the go-pedal the F1 sounding 7.3 liter V12 comes to life with authority and the car is violently quick. Flames bursts out of the centrally mounted exhaust cluster at each shift. In the hands of the right driver the Zonda can lap the Nurburgring faster than the all conquering Carrera GT. Combine this smooth mapping of the throttle with 750 NM of Torque and you get a car that can put and enormous amount of power to the ground with amazingly little drama

The steering is race-car quick as antithesis of the progressive throttle. Turn-in is deliberate, not sudden; steering kick-back on the bumpy Italian twisties is sharp, not harsh; oversteer correction is community volunteerish, not heroic.

Put the binders on in the heat of the moment and more records are broken. The Zonda can stop from 62 mph in 2.1 seconds, quicker than any other production car. Although they’re carbon rotors, the brakes can be modulated effectively when the desire is to keep your supermodel girlfriend’s head off the dash. This is not the case with several other carbon brake endowed cars on the road. And, no, the supermodel girlfriend isn’t included with the car; but, if you buy it, they will come.