Outrageously cool custom cars

Horacio Pagani, a designer and composite expert, has devoted the past 15 years to building the Zonda, a supercar that is a carbon-fiber and aluminum homage to the late, great five-time Formula 1 champion Juan Manuel Fangio. Fangio, who particularly admired Mercedes-Benz, consulted on the prototype closely, sharing his ideas about aerodynamics, powertrain, and handling (he also helped persuade Mercedes to lend its AMG V-12 engine to the project).

From that bulletlike core to its slippery-fast shape, the Zonda F Roadster is one powerful machine: 650 horsepower and 575 foot-pounds of torque at 4,000 rpm (woof!) fed through a six-speed manual gearbox. Fangio had wanted Pagani to call the car the Fangio F1, but when the racing legend died in 1995, Pagani decided to honor the Argentinean by calling it Zonda--"the wind of the Andes."

Price: $1,095,000

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