This Pagani Zonda is a rolling sculpture made out of 100,000 coins as a tribute to Lionel Messi

This might be the world’s slowest as well as the cheapest Pagani Zonda. You’re looking at a piece of art made from $2 Uruguayan Pesos, 100,000 of them to be precise. Unveiled at the Miami Concours during its inaugural Art Week Cars & Coffee event, this automotive art was designed by Uruguayan artist Joaquin Arbiza, who created it in the shape of a Pagani Zonda.

Christened Carpincho, this beauty was commissioned by car collector Jorge Gomez as a tribute to soccer superstar Lionel Messi and Pagani. The common connection between Gomez, Messi, and Pagani’s eponymous founder, Horacio Pagani, is that they all have Argentinian roots.

Arbiza spent three years creating this replica, which features more than 500,000 soldering points. The attention to detail is really impressive, so much so that it looks like a real Zonda covered in coins.


The framework was made from wood, foam, and clay, while the artist carefully soldered every single coin with utmost precision to recreate the curvaceous shape of the Italian supercar faultlessly. Furthermore, the front features the face of the Argentinian sports icon.

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While the Zonda replica doesn’t have the fire-breathing V12 under the hood, it weighs the same as the original, around 2,800 pounds. There’s no word on how much Gomez spent on the art piece. While 100,000 2 Uruguay pesos is about $4,500, three years of extensive labor that went into creating this beautiful replica should be worth a lot. However, Gomez is a massive Pagani fan, and this isn’t his first tribute to Pagani. His home near Buenos Aires has a statue of a hand rising out of the ground to sketch a Zonda on the wall. It was crafted from the remains of Horacio’s own first car, a 1981 Toyota Corolla.

Pagani Zonda – an automotive icon

The Pagani Zonda is an extraordinary Italian supercar that emerged as a groundbreaking automotive masterpiece, first introduced in 1999 by Horacio Pagani. Handcrafted in limited numbers, the Zonda represents the pinnacle of automotive artistry, featuring a mid-engine layout and constructed with exotic materials like carbon fiber and titanium. Powered by Mercedes-Benz AMG V12 engines ranging from 6.0 to 7.3 liters, different Zonda models could produce between 550 and 760 horsepower, making it one of the most powerful and fastest supercars of its era.

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Image – Prestige Dealers

Each Zonda was essentially a bespoke creation, with multiple special editions like the Zonda R and Zonda Cinque becoming instant collector’s items, often selling for millions of dollars. Its distinctive design, characterized by dramatic aerodynamic lines, exposed carbon fiber body, and incredible performance, made the Zonda an automotive icon that bridged the gap between racing technology and rolling sculpture.