These days the hyper-rich are demanding more from their toys than for them to be merely fabulous. Any old multi-millionaire can park a barn-load of cash with Bentley or Rolls-Royce and satisfy that criterion. If you really want to show the world you’ve arrived, the absolute must-have 21st-century automotive accessory is a car that’s not only quicker and more costly than a light aircraft but also, and crucially, one that is available to hardly anyone else in the world, no matter how rich.

That’s why Ferrari built just 30 FXX versions of its Enzo, £1.3m a pop and strictly for favoured customers only - Michael Schumacher included. Lamborghini is building just 20 of its £800,000 Reventón, the Murcielago-based hypercar. And it’s why Pagani is so keen for the world to know it’s going to make only five versions of this ultimate Zonda that it has even called it the Zonda Cinque (Italian for five). If your name’s not on the list, it doesn’t matter if it’s Roman, Bill or Warren: you’re not having one.

And they are not: all five Cinques have been presold to customers in Hong Kong for a quoted price of €1m plus local taxes, which, had Pagani sent one to the UK, would have resulted in a nice, round £1m or, put another way, about double the price of the standard Zonda F coupé, on which it is based.

So what does this buy them apart from an exclusivity that makes Fabergé eggs look mass-produced? Predictably, this Zonda is faster than ever: new intakes allow more air to be guzzled up by the colossal 7.3 litre V12 motor made by Mercedes’s AMG tuning division exclusively for Pagani. With the help of new electronic mapping, power rises from 603bhp to 678bhp, making the Cinque the first roadgoing Zonda to offer more power than the McLaren F1.

Moreover, just to make sure you waste as little time as possible between gears, the Cinque is the first Pagani to be fitted with paddle-shift sequential gears, reputed to be able to get you from one cog to the next in less than 100 milliseconds, which is faster than a snap of the fingers. Combined, these two modifications allow the 0-62mph time to drop from 3.7sec to just 3.4sec.

However, this is a pretty poor measure of the Cinque’s performance because the Cinque has only two-wheel drive, so only a small fraction of its power can be used for this acceleration test without the wheels spinning. A more meaningful idea of its vast potential can be gained from the fact that its all-important power-to-weight ratio is actually better than that of the Bugatti Veyron. If it had four-wheel drive, like the Veyron, it would sprint from standstill to 0-62mph in less than 3sec without breaking a sweat. Even as it is, Pagani says it will hit 125mph from rest in less than 10sec. No top speed is quoted, though it would be reasonable to expect in the region of 220mph.

The Cinque also offers us a glimpse of the Paganis of the future. While normal Zondas are made from the same carbon fibre materials as Formula One cars, the Cinque pioneers a new composite material, carbon titanium, which helps to make the Cinque both stronger and 20kg lighter than the Zonda F.

In fact a strong titanium theme emerges with the Cinque as it becomes clear that its springs, the bolts that hold the forged wheels on and even the wheel nuts themselves are made from the ultra-lightweight but hideously expensive metal.

Extra attention has also been paid to the airflow around the car in an attempt to increase aerodynamic downforce and make it fly round corners even faster. There’s a new rear wing, a new front spoiler, extensive modification to the flow of air under the car and a better rear diffuser to hasten its exit: as a result, at 186mph it develops 750kg of downforce, which is like lashing a Smart Fortwo to the roof.

Inside, you’ll find racing seats with four-point racing harnesses and a roll cage. Just so you get the idea.

It seems likely that the Cinque will be the last of the Zondas, a car on which we first clapped our disbelieving eyes back in 1999. At the time, it had the air of a one-off vanity project soon to be consigned to the overflowing dustbin of great automotive ideas, with no grounding in commercial reality. But the moment production began, the Zonda put Pagani on a par with the world’s greatest sports-car builders and soon gained a reputation not simply for its outrageous looks and speed but for the exquisite quality of its construction, combining the best of Italian creative flair with German engineering skill.

The last Cinque will be delivered next year, a decade after the word “Zonda” was ingrained into the memory of every petrolhead on the planet. And while no details are yet available on the car or cars that will replace the Zonda, it seems likely that it will build further on the performance of the Cinque. And with any luck there will be more than five of them, one of which you can be assured we’ll drive. We can hardly wait.

- The Cinque is made from carbon titanium to help realise the dream of all supercar designers: increased strength coupled with a reduction in weight Carbon ceramic disc brakes stop the Zonda from 125mph in 4.3sec, which must feel like crashing into a wall

- The interior is distinguished by carbon fibre racing seats, a carbon fibre steering wheel and proper racing harnesses in place of conventional seatbelts Pirelli P-Zero tyres cover ultra-lightweight aluminium and magnesium wheels. They help the Cinque pull up to 1.45G in corners; most normal road cars struggle to generate 1G

- The new rear wing does more than stop the Zonda taking off at speed; it actually pushes the car into the ground to increase stability and cornering speed

- The mighty 7.3 litre Mercedes-Benz V12 motor is closely related to that used in the track-only Zonda R racing car. In roadgoing form, it produces 678bhp, giving the Cinque a better power-to-weight ratio than a Bugatti Veyron

Pagani Zonda Cinque

ENGINE 7291cc, V12
POWER 678bhp @ 6150rpm
TORQUE 560lb ft @ 4000rpm
TRANSMISSION Six-speed sequential, paddle shift
FUEL / CO2 N/a / n/a
ACCELERATION 0-62mph in 3.4sec
TOP SPEED 220mph approx
PRICE £1m approx
ROAD TAX BAND G (£400 a year)
VERDICT The ultimate Italian supercar