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Cabin fever
The Zonda was one of the fastest cars in the world. Now there's the stunning Zonda F, and the tarmac's melting
Welcome to the eye of the storm of the storm. Noise meets force, a headlong rush not just of motion itself but of rate of change of motion, threatening to bury you in an ecstasy of bewilderment.
The Zonda F in full cry - or, frankly, even an intermediate percentage cry - rides right along the line where the beauty and power we crave in the sports car experience suddenly flips over into something more sinister.
You can peer down over the edge, feel an electric-shock tang of fear and a flame that draws your fingers towards incineration. The new 7.3-litre, 602bhp V12 is so fast and loud and sharp-edged it almost hurts. In a completely irresistable kind of way.
I mean, the Zonda S wasn't exactly short of drama, but the F version takes it to a whole new level. A quite remarkable 60 per cent of the components are new.
'The new 7.3-litre, 602bhp V12 engine is so fast and loud and sharp-edged it almost hurts'
The body is longer at the nose, and has rethought aerodynamics, spottable by reshaped front and rear views and a new rear wing. Extra ducts sit over each of the wheels, the front ones exhaling to suck the body down, the rear set shoving more air into that greedy engine.
But don't fret, the overall effect is the same as before - a low, flat preying animal with a single glass eye perched right near the front. You sit inside that eye, a bubble that affords remarkable visibility in every direction and more space than most of us need.
OK, climbing in isn't any too dignified, but once you're sat in a Zonda it's a comfortable supercar.
Why's that rear deck so gigantic? Because it has to cover a pair of 335/30 20 tyres.
A six-speed transmission, strengthened in all its cogs and synchros and bearings for the F. Oh and an engine. Behold, through that Plexiglas window, an AMG V12 of a gigantism unmatched in the kingdom of the supercar.

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