We’ve always described Paganis as ‘Art on Wheels,’ and you won’t find many in the automotive community who would disagree. Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este is one of the most revered automotive events on the planet, where art and the combustion engine come together.
It's right up there with Monterey Car Week, Salon Prive, and The Bridge. But it does have something that gives it an edge over the others. Put the marque and the event together, and you'll have a treat on your hands.
The car show is held at Villa d'Este, the prestigious luxury hotel on the western shores of Lake Como. That environment gives it that extra touch of elegance with the lake and Alps serving as a sublime backdrop (not that Monterey, Oxford, or Bridgehampton are weak locations).
Pagani brought a significant piece of its history to the 2026 event: the Zonda C12S 7.0L. The appearance marked the first time in Pagani Atelier's history that this model took center stage at the event. It placed one of the brand’s formative creations in one of the world’s most prestigious automotive events.
The car was more than an early chapter in the Zonda story. According to Pagani, this specific chassis was the first one-off in the history of the Atelier. Built in 2000 at a customer’s request, the car's exclusive removable glass roof is a detail that gave it a singular place in the marque’s evolving dialogue between engineering, art, and expression.
The Zonda C12S 7.0L represents the birth of a legend in Pagani’s history. The company described the model as the car that helped redefine the hypercar landscape, shaped by the philosophy that art and science should go hand in hand. Its presentation at Villa d’Este placed that idea in a fitting context: an event where beauty, rarity, craftsmanship, and history are always on display.
The Villa d’Este presence also put the Pagani Rinascimento program in the spotlight. The Rinascimento restoration project goes beyond just that. Each component is inspected by Pagani Officina artisans and restored using original materials when there's a need for it.
That attention to detail was central to the car’s appearance at Villa d’Este. Rather than presenting the Zonda C12S 7.0L as a relic, Pagani framed it as a living expression of the brand’s earliest ideals: mechanical purity, aesthetic brilliance, and a pioneering spirit that helped establish the Zonda as one of the defining hypercars of its era.
A dedicated book accompanied the car, documenting the restoration with original drawings and technical data from the company’s archives in San Cesario sul Panaro. (If you haven’t visited the small town not too far from Ferrari’s home in Italy’s motor valley, it’s time to change that.)
The one-off Zonda didn't come alone though. It brought a 'friend', the Pagani Zonda Cervino, which made an appearance at Fuori Concorso (the more accessible sister show to Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este). While the C12S 7.0L reflected historical preservation through the Rinascimento, the Cervino represented Pagani’s Unico program, in which an existing chassis served as the foundation for a technical and stylistic reimagining.
We’ve mentioned Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este a few times, but we haven’t added it to our priority list of annual events as we did with Monterey Car Week and the Bridge. It’s time for that to change. After all, it’s not like we need an excuse to visit Lake Como annually.
