Automotive

Pagani thumbs its nose at electrification, unveiling all-new V12 Utopia

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The Pagani Utopia, complete with atomic-age rear spoiler
Pagani
The Pagani Utopia, complete with atomic-age rear spoiler
Pagani
A car like this cannot possibly be launched without an orchestra. Bassoons, people, this calls for no less than bassoons.
Pagani
Yep, that's the exhaust we're going with
Pagani
Pagani's gearshift levers get sent back if they're not complicated enough
Pagani
I can only imagine Pagani rocking back and forth in the shower scrubbing himself after approving a digital dash
Pagani
In a perfect world, this image would be showing all the ejector seat locations. But this world, as we all know, is far from perfect
Pagani
Mercedes-AMG has developed a special twin-turbo V12
Pagani
When the Utopia faces away, there's a clear feeling of disdain that will be familiar to cat owners
Pagani
Heavily sculpted rear covers
Pagani
Only 99 Pagani Utopias will be utopiated, and the people that matter have already bought them
Pagani
From the front, well... It looks an awful lot like a Pagani
Pagani
Don't expect another properly new Pagani until the 2030s
Pagani
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It's been 11 years since Horacio Pagani unveiled a new car model, and boy has the world changed. Pagani, on the other hand, has not. The all-new Utopia eschews the electric in favor of V12 theatrics, light weight, and a typically steampunk interior.

This is only the third car Pagani has built, after the Zonda in 1999 and the Huayra in 2011. Not that you'd know it – these small-run supercar factories sure know how to squeeze a lemon. Wikipedia lists no fewer than 12 model variants of the Zonda, as well as 34 different special editions. The Huayra gets away with just seven variants and a much less jubilant 14 special editions. So the casual observer could be forgiven for thinking these guys release new cars like they change their underpants.

Not so. The pace is hand-built and glacial. So to dyed-in-the-wool Paganisti, today is a big day, even if the rest of us might have to squint to make sure we're not looking at another tarted-up Huayra. The positive way to spin this would be to say that Pagani has settled on a strong design language, and that the Utopia is "unmistakably Pagani." Which it certainly is.

From the front, well... It looks an awful lot like a Pagani
Pagani

"The alchemy of pleasure, the equation of beauty ... What would be important for the next Pagani hypercar," asks a florid press release. "Horacio Pagani certainly had his own ideas, but he asked his closest clients, those who eagerly await each of his creations, to express their wishes. They already had exceptionally fast and beautiful cars, what were they still missing?"

Cup holders, that would've been my guess. Either those, or simpler times when supercar makers weren't always trying to get them on the phone asking how best to bilk more millions out of them for additional garage jewelry. But no! While some might imagine their only lack is of lack itself, these fabulously rich survey respondents made their heady desires crystal clear: "simplicity, lightness and the pleasure of driving."

Really? That's all? Pagani could've offered these people an Ariel Atom, smashed this brief out of the park and knocked off for a ciggy. But he didn't. That's why he's Horacio Pagani, and I'm just Loz Blain, and you, dear reader, are (hopefully) neither of those things. No, Pagani knew what he had to to. He had to go against the grain. With the world zigging toward electrification, the truly brave would have to zag. Batteries? Those aren't simple, or lightweight, or pleasurable – well, depending on what you put them in, I suppose.

A car like this cannot possibly be launched without an orchestra. Bassoons, people, this calls for no less than bassoons.
Pagani

No, the new car was going to need the simplicity and lightweightness of a 5.9-liter, twin-turbo, 60-degree Mercedes-AMG V12 engine, its thousands of delicately synchronized, but assuredly very simplistic, moving parts capable of spinning its crank some 6,000 times per minute. This motor makes 864 horsepower (635 kW) and at least 1,100 Nm (811 lb-ft) from 2,800 rpm upwards. And none of your fancy dual-clutch transmissions, either. Pagani would have none of this witchcraft. Pure manual, or a 7-speed "automated manual," that's what you'll get, and by gum you'll like it.

It's got electronic suspension. It's got a "carbo-titanium" and "carbo-triax" monocoque chassis. It's got big Brembos and big forged rims, 21s at the front and 22s at the rear. It's got a cabin as aggressively complicated as a Roland Iten belt buckle, featuring an aesthetic that's just a few copper tubes and valves shy of steampunk. It's got a four-port exhaust that would've been edited out of the theatrical release of Cats.

When the Utopia faces away, there's a clear feeling of disdain that will be familiar to cat owners
Pagani

Let's be serious for a moment. Naturally, you can't have one. Heavens no. Pagani's only making 99, and they're all already sold, at prices somewhere north of US$2.5 million, to people who were informed about this trinket long before you were. Instead, you'll have to wait for the inevitable gaggle of special editions to drop, at which point you can't have those either. So all the lofty lyricism of Pagani's press release can probably be distilled into the phrase "nerny nerny ner ner," or the Italian equivalent.

Still, much like the proprietor of a gentleman's club, Pagani is happy to allow you to look at Utopia, as long as you don't touch it, via the photo gallery and the video below. Very sporting of him.

Source: Pagani

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11 comments
CarolynFarstrider
No car can be beautiful that spouts pollution, affecting all of us. Beauty is in the function, as well as the form. This is a horrible monster.
martinwinlow
Oh, dear. I won't be rushing to buy shares in Pagani, then. They'll be bust by the end of the decade!
Unsold
CarolynFarstrider cannot possibly know what she's talking about. These are one-off and low production vehicles as well as rolling art. They're also the work of a man with decades of skill and design experience and the cars go for quite a lot of money to people who drive them sparingly. They ARE art. With quite probably a lower carbon footprint than her life affords her.
Daishi
The up front carbon footprint of an EV is initially higher than an ICE because they require more resources to manufacture. It's only after several miles driven that EV becomes lower overall. Because this car is a collectors item that will likely see very few actual miles that means the carbon footprint would be higher if it was an EV and not lower. Imagine shatting on something so nice and not even being right.
SplineDoctor
That dashboard is definitely not steampunk. It's rather dieselpunk or atompunk.
Cool car, except that It's a big shame to waste such engineering ingenuity to create luxury toys making aggressive pollution for some rich duchebags instead of developing something useful for the mankind.
michael_dowling
CarolynFarstrider : If this was a mass market vehicle,I would completely agree,but only the uber-rich could afford this thing,so in the grand scheme of things,it will be harmless to the environment.
David F
Garage jewellery, indeed. No different in that respect from other huge overpriced luxuries for the very few who can afford them. Wristwatches for £10,000+, for example, that like a car provides a basic function. But - wow! - what a dull place the world would be without them!
Rocky Stefano
@CarolynFarstrider - Do you have any idea what it takes to completely electrify a vehicle? I'm so sick of you pundits talking out your other end. Do you know what the environmental impacts of strip mining the planet for the material required for batteries? As @Daishi points out, at the end of the day, it's all equal. I can't wait for the news reports in 15 years talking about the need for massive battery reclamation factories and the damage the batteries in landfills are costing the environment.
Spud Murphy
CarolynFarstrider, exactly, this thing is ugly as sin because it is an environmental nightmare. Unsold, they are just a pointless toy for the rich, you even said it yourself, they are sparingly driven, so all those resources going into a vehicle that just sits around 99.99% of the time?
Towerman
The car is pretty, the V12 not so much. @rocky stefano. Doesn't matter what it takes to electrify a vehicle, the pollution generated creating an ICE engine is the same, however naturally as electrification moves into the future, manufacturing processes and materials will become even more eco friendly, that is something you cannot do with ICE engines, As well as the pollution generated by EV's is virtually zero.

Having said that, having this as one of the last ICE monsters of this century is some sort of a classic. As has been said they won't be driven much so the carbon footprint will be tolarable.

Beautiful car, looking forward to (hopefully) their first electric vehicle in 10 years time.