PASADENA, Calif. — Horacio Pagani, the Argentine maker of exotic Italian sports cars, officially unveiled his newest creation, the $1.2 million Huayra, to a North American audience of journalists and prospective customers here Thursday evening.

Mr. Pagani, 55, who started making bicycles and balsa-wood replicas of racing cars in his youth before moving to Italy to work for Lamborghini, said he was seeking a wider clientele for his latest hypercar, a successor to Pagani Automobili’s only model to date, the Zonda.

Since entering production in 1999, only a few dozen Zondas have been built at the company’s base in Modena, Italy, at sale prices ranging from the low $300,000s to the low seven figures. But Mr. Pagani, in an interview here, said the Huayra would be built in quantities of 40 or so per year.

“We already have many orders from China, Singapore and the Middle East,” he said. “But for the first time, we will also be accepting orders from the United States.”

The Zonda was never cleared for street-legal operation in America, but the Huayra, heavily based on the final Zonda R — the most performance-oriented Zonda variant produced — achieved certification. Its Mercedes-Benz AMG-sourced 6-liter V-12 engine meets California’s LEV II emissions standards, impressive in view of its 700-horsepower output.

Docket No. NHTSA-2008-0181, Notice 2

Pagani Automobili SpA; Denial of Application for Temporary Exemption from Advanced Air Bag Requirements of FMVSS No. 208

AGENCY: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Department of Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of denial of petition for temporary exemption from certain provisions of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 208, Occupant Crash Protection.

SUMMARY: This notice denies the petition of Pagani Automobili SpA (Pagani)1 for exemption from certain advanced air bag requirements of FMVSS No. 208, for the Huayra model.2 The basis for the application is that the petitioner avers compliance would cause substantial economic hardship and that it has tried in good faith to comply with the standard.3 The agency has determined that Pagani has failed to demonstrate that compliance would cause substantial economic hardship. Furthermore, the agency is unable to find that an exemption would be consistent with the public interest or the objectives of the Safety Act. This action follows our publication in the Federal Register of a document announcing receipt of Pagani’s petition and soliciting public comments.


V. Agency Analysis and Decision

In this section, we provide our analysis and decision regarding Pagani’s temporary exemption request concerning advanced air bag requirements of FMVSS No. 208. As discussed below, we are denying Pagani’s petition because Pagani has failed to demonstrate that compliance would cause substantial economic hardship and because we are unable to conclude that an exemption would be in the public interest and consistent with the objectives of the Safety.