2017 Pagani Huayra Roadster to blast into Geneva

Pagani will reveal its Huayra Roadster at this year’s Geneva motor show after a two-year wait since the hypercar's first announcement, offering serious thrust from a mid-mounted Mercedes-AMG V12 and an open-air theatre to enjoy it with.

Whilst the €850,000 ($A1,198,325) Huayra coupe will be its donor vehicle, the Roadster variant will feature traditional entry points for the cabin, doing without the coupe's trademark gull-wing doors to help cope with the absence of a roof.

Pagani founder and CEO Horacio Pagani described the Roadster as “the most complicated project we have ever undertaken”, suggesting other possible visual changes are also in the pipeline.

“As we moved forward with the Roadster, we decided to give her a bit more of an edge in order to create a slightly more aggressive shape than the Huayra coupe,” he said.

The Huayra Roadster is likely to be an exclusive model.

Thankfully, the fear-inducing 6.0-litre twin-turbo Mercedes-AMG V12 engine is carried over to the Roadster, which produces an unbridled 537kW of power and 1000Nm of torque in its coupe cousin.

The Huayra coupe launches from zero to 100km/h in a scant 3.3 seconds and boasts an official top speed of about 360km/h thanks to its 1350kg dry weight, seven-speed single-clutch sequential gearbox, active aerodynamics and widow-making engine.

Official details on the Roadster variant are currently minimal, but Pagani is likely to include new technologies and product improvements made since the 2012 arrival of the Huayra coupe.

Other topless hypercars include the Hennessey Venom GT Spyder which is universally acknowledged as the quickest drop-top, with a verified 427km/h top speed thanks to its twin-turbocharged 7.0-litre V8, while the Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, and its 736kW/1250Nm quad-turbo 8.0-litre W16 engine, tops out at 407km/h and can accelerate to triple figures in just 2.7s.

Pagani debuted a limited-edition Huayra BC at last year's Geneva motor show featuring a 15kW power gain, and a lighter chassis thanks to a titanium exhaust system, bare-bones interior, pure-aluminium wheels and applications of an improved form of carbon-fibre.

The Huayra Roadster is likely to be an exclusive model, akin to its coupe cousin which only saw 100 examples produced with an additional 20 units made for the even more limited Huayra BC.

Where would the Pagani Huayra Roadster sit in your list of lust-worthy hypercars? Let us know in the comments below.