Good news – more than a year after it was announced, Pagani is almost ready to start delivering Huayra Roadster BCs to customers.

The company says development cars have covered more than 350,000kms, including over 45,000kms on “some of the world’s most demanding racetracks”. Racetracks like Spa Francorchamps, where the hardcore drop-top Huayra has apparently just set a lap record.

The record, says Pagani, is for “globally homologated road cars”. It claims the BC was pushed to “extreme speeds” in testing, “to which normally only a racing car would be subjected”.

“At the end of the tests, the R&D department saw the potential of the vehicle and, with Horacio Pagani’s approval, did a fast lap despite the damp conditions of the racetrack.”

Development driver Andrea Palma clocked a 2:23:08 lap around the full 7km circuit near Liege in Belgium. Pagani doesn’t namecheck the previous recordholder, but a cursory Google reveals a McLaren Senna supposedly set a 2:24:82 at a private event last summer, while a Koenigsegg One:1 managed a 2:32:14 five years ago with “plenty of room for improvement”.

The Huayra Roadster BC has a special AMG-developed 6.0-litre twin-turbo V12 making 800hp and 1,050Nm. A 7spd Xtrac automated-manual gearbox sends power to bespoke Pirelli rubber, while ALL THE CARBON keeps down to just 1,250kg. 40 will be built, each costing at least… £3.7million.

Watch Palma wrestle the Huayra around Spa in the video up top - skip to 3:10 for the lap. Eau Rouge looks…tough.

STORY Tom Harrison