IMOLA TAKES THE PODIUM! The Rarest Pagani Gets Crowned Best Model, and the Huayra Goes Back to the Squat Rack

WHISTLE! IT'S OVER! The Best Pagani fight is done and the Imola is standing on the podium! Zonda, Huayra, Utopia, everyone came to lift today. Only one car got the gold, and it's the one hardly anybody has ever seen out on the road. Talk about training in the shadows!

Here's the gym history. According to Wikipedia, Pagani Automobili was founded in 1992 by Horacio Pagani. The lineup went from the Zonda to the Huayra and then to the Utopia, which the company calls its latest model. The Zonda made its debut at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show, and Wikipedia's Zonda page says only around a hundred and forty were built, development mules included. Only one hundred Huayra coupés were made, with bodies of carbotanium, a mix of carbon fibre and titanium. Then there's the Imola, the power-lifter of the family. It isn't a successor, it's a Huayra-based special. Wikipedia's Huayra entry says its Mercedes-AMG V12 was tuned past eight hundred metric horsepower, it was billed as the most powerful street-legal Pagani at launch, and only six were built. SIX!

Now the scoreboard. On Morfi's opinion markets, where people put real money behind what they think, the Imola finished with 35% consensus. The Huayra came in at 25%, which is close enough to feel it but still second. Also on the ballot: 2 other sides. Over 1 day, 293 traders backed their picks with $1,789,817. That's a full workout, not a warm-up set. Notice something, people: the two leaders are the same family. The Imola is built on the Huayra, so the parent got beaten by its own souped-up kid!

My take, and it's opinion, so stretch before you argue with me: the crowd voted for the extreme version. Six cars, a record power claim, the hardcore spec. Enthusiasts don't hand out medals for being sensible, they hand them to whoever lifts heaviest. Huayra fans, I hear you, your car is the base the winner is built on. But second is second! And Zonda fans? The original got the brand started back in 1999 and still couldn't make the top two. That stings. Get back in the gym and ask yourselves whether nostalgia is enough to win a fight.

What to watch next? The Utopia is the new kid on the bench, and if Pagani keeps tuning it, this leaderboard could get shaken up in the next debate. Think the crowd got it wrong? Don't just shout at your screen. Go to Morfi, join the market, and put your conviction where your mouth is. NOW MOVE!