There are cars that lose value within the first kilometer. And then there's this one. Bought for £1,6 million in 2014, wrecked in Monaco, deemed "horrible to drive" by its own owner, resold for £8,5 million in 2021, crashed in 2023 by its new owner… and now worth over £10 million… Welcome to the completely absurd life of Lewis Hamilton's Pagani Zonda 760 LH.
In 2014, Lewis Hamilton is having fun: a Zonda Tailor-made, absolutely unique. 760 LH : his initials. A full purple livery, a personal signature, a naturally aspirated 7,3-liter AMG V12, a six-speed manual gearbox—a world first on a Zonda 760, demanded by Hamilton.
Pagani will only produce five Zonda 760This one is the only one with a manual gearbox. The value is already locked in. On paper: an engineer's dream. In real life… a nightmare.
November 2015. Monaco, 3:30 a.m. Pitch black. A witness hears a car hurtling down the hill, a violent braking, then a huge crash. Hamilton just crashed his Zonda.
He would later acknowledge that the accident was linked to a period of intense festivities and a total lack of rest, after having organised his mother's 60th birthday. Ten days without sleep, or almost.
Officially, Mercedes He mentioned a “slight fever” to explain his lateness at the Brazilian GP. In reality, the Pagani Violette just kissed a parked car in the streets of the Principality. No one was injured. But the hypercar was seriously damaged.
In 2018, Hamilton uttered a phrase that has become iconic: It's the car with the best sound I own, but in terms of handling, it's the worst. »
And he drives the point home: “ Imagine: a $1,6 million hypercar, built to your specifications, with the manual transmission you requested… and it drives worse than every other car in your collection »
The verdict is final. In seven years, Hamilton travels less than 1,000 kilometers with the Zonda.
It sits in a garage in Monaco, admired for its V12, while its owner literally drives everything else.
In 2021, Hamilton He sold the car to an anonymous British buyer. Sale price: £8,5 million. Estimated profit: ~£7 million. Seven years of ownership. A crash. A self-confessed hatred of driving. Less than 1,000 km driven. And yet: an absolute jackpot.
Hamilton He then explains that he no longer drives supercars for environmental reasons, now driving an electric Mercedes EQC.
2023, the new owner perpetuates the curse. August 2023, Penmaenbach Tunnel, Wales. The Zonda Violette reappears… and crashes again.
Acceleration at the tunnel entrance, loss of rear-end grip, high-speed spin-out, broken rear axle, destroyed bodywork, cracked windshield. Everything is filmed by an onboard camera. Hamilton He had crashed it at low speed. The new owner, however, sent it violently into a wall.
Restored… and even more expensive, the Pagani Zonda 760 Lewis Hamilton isn't just a car. It's a 10 million purple myth.
The car is fully repaired. Of course. When you've paid 8,5 million for just the Zonda 760 manual ex-Hamilton, we're not talking about "total loss", but unlimited check.
Today, the estimates exceed the 10 million pounds sterlingTwo accidents. A terrible reputation for driving. Virtually no use. And yet, a value that continues to climb.
But why this Zonda Has it become untouchable? Because it combines everything the market loves: absolute ultra-rarity, unique specification, former owner a seven-time world champion of F1 And a crazy story, full of parties, crashes, and contradictions. In the world of hypercars, history is sometimes worth more than mechanical perfection.
Hamilton He bought the car, crashed it, explained that he hated it, drove it less than 1,000 km, and sold it for a huge profit. Then someone else crashed it, and yet its value skyrocketed.
The lesson? You can sometimes buy a car, wreck it, complain about it for years, resell it for a crazy profit, watch someone else wreck it again… and still win, if you bet on the right legendary car at the right time. Pagani Zonda 760 LH It's not a car. It's a purple myth. 10 million.
