It feels wrong to be asking this question after another inspiring visit to Pagani Automobili in San Cesario sul Panaro, Italy: Where on Earth do they get the money to do all this at such a high level? The answer to this question is most certainly really long and, I would like to believe, swathed in at least a little dark intrigue. I'm also certain that it's none of my damned business.

For some reason, I never seem to find myself asking the same question after visiting Koenigsegg on the southwest coast of Sweden or Morgan in westernmost England. Even though Christian von Koenigsegg's operation comes closest in kind to what Horacio Pagani is doing, the Swedes do it with a very different attitude, and up north there is always that sense of a close-to-the-bone shop pushing to build the next pair of amazing $1.5-million Agera supercars. As for Morgan, when I go there I am made so drunken by the artisanal works involved in building a $40,000 3-Wheeler that I just forget to even imagine anything as sobering as the company's finances.

Maybe my inquiring mind regarding Pagani is due to the fact that they plan on building 40 units of the Huayra each year starting on January 1, 2013. That's veritable mass production for the Italians, and they've sold over 3.5 years' worth already. This, for a model whose base version starts north of $1.2 million...