MY DREAM PAGANI UTOPIA! First Drive in the New Manual V12 Masterpiece

Good morning from Italy and the home of Pagani, where I am here today for one very, very exciting reason, and that is the car over here. The Pagani Utopia, the third Pagani model. And today I'm going to get an opportunity to get behind the wheel a first drive in Pagani's V12 manual limited to 99 hypercar, the follow-up to Zonda and Huayra. This is the one, the car that I have filmed on a number of occasions before, but never previously have I been in the driver's seat. So join me for an experience, a first drive in the Pagani Utopia. It was only a couple of months ago when the weather was far from as good as it is today. When I came to visit here to take a look around, Pagani Utopia number one was in fact on display here at the time. We also headed through the museum to see some of the Pagani history, went to the atelier to see these cars being assembled, the first cars that were on the line, plus I went into the specification studio to put together my dream spec for a Pagani Utopia. That was quite the day, that was quite the experience, but at the time it was not yet possible to take this car for a drive. That is what today is about. Let me tell you a little bit more about this very car. This is the one that was unveiled to the world in the theater in Milan, the same place that I saw it and filmed it for the first time. Then a few months later at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, I was due to ride Shotgun in the passenger seat up the Goodwood hill climb, but alas, due to delays on the schedule, that run wasn't able to take place. It was completely gut-wrenching at the time. Well, fast forward, I've seen it at a few other events, but today is the day, today is the time to bring you along as we go for a run in this car, in this fabulous piece of art. I think before we do, we need to zip up into the mountains, go and take a walk around, a bit of an overview, an introduction to the Pagani Utopia if you're not already familiar with it. But yeah, today is an exciting day. Hi guys, I'm Shmee, hello and welcome back to the channel and welcome to my first drive in this, the Pagani Utopia. This is the day that I've been looking forward to, so we can discover Pagani Utopia together and where better to do it than here with this view from up in the hills over Moto Valley, down there is Modena and Maranello. But of course, it's all about the masterpiece that is the third chapter of Pagani's story, and I want to have a quick walk around. We've taken a look at this car before because, of course, this is the very one that introduced Pagani Utopia to the world, the first public appearance. But it's the third chapter of this journey that began back in 1999 when Horacio Pagani introduced the original Zonda. Up next came Huayra and, of course, now Utopia or Utopia. This is a car that's completely different to its competitors or its contemporaries in the market in the sense that it's not a hybrid. There's no hybridization electrification, it's a combustion engine with an optional manual gearbox. In fact, the 6-litre twin-turbo V12 in Utopia makes over 850 horsepower all to the rear wheels in a car that is spectacularly lightweight. Now, the gearbox is an option. The first customer cars were delivered with the sequential, the automated manual. About a quarter opting for that, three quarters opting for the seven-speed manual that we have in here. In fact, come and take a little look at what we've actually got. Firstly, the doors, just everything about this is wonderful. You've got a carbon fibre tub, only 1,280 kilos, actually using carbotanium, but then the exposed linkages of the gearbox in the centre, the single block of aluminium that's used to make the steering wheel, all of the other fixtures and trimmings that are at the absolute top of the game when it comes to details. It is a wonderful thing to behold, and that's just looking at the interior. On the outside, this car features some of the elements of the Sport Pack, so for example, the carbon fibre aero blades around the wheels. I want to come and pick out a few details on it, because carbon bodywork, carbon interior, we've got all of these software and controls that have been developed in-house as well, Pagani doing even more of that now with this model than ever before. The 99 of these were well spoken for long before it was introduced to the world, and of course, there's a lot to discuss in terms of spec, which is what we were looking at last time. You can have exposed carbon, you can have different options, upper and lower, bespoke paint schemes, all sorts of other details. Even the door mirrors are actually an aerofoil. The way these are designed is all to do with the aerodynamics of the car, and then come towards the back, and the air channels all the way through and underneath. This shape, the Pagani logo here, with the iconic quad circular exhaust tailpipes in the centre, and even come and look closely at the way these tail lights are floating in the opening. Again, another air channel. It's all so much attention to detail and high quality. So let's have a slightly better look at a few more things, then hop in because we need to go and get this out on the road ASAP. To show you a little bit more, even the latches, look at these. The way this opens to pop open the door, it is all so lovely to touch. Inside here, there's also a plaque there, C10 PT08. C10 was the code name for Utopia, PT08 prototype number eight. There's a lot more of the interior I would like to show you through when we get back, but look at the dials. Look at how they're like a watch mechanism, exposed with some of the components going on inside them. Around the outside, the unusual amount of glass up top on the roof, on the rear deck, the view through to the AMG derived V12, the openings here for cooling across the lid of the car as well. An unusual choice here with the shape of the windshield, but giving the car its own unique identity. Down towards the front, similarly to the back, the fog lights hovering in the centre of the openings for the cooling, and even the exposed hinges that you have there for the front clamshell, which opens forwards and outwards. This is as much a work of art as it is a car. It's a rolling piece of art, but I tell you what, it's a car that we need to go and drive, and with a view like that, there are worse places to be to experience this. To swing in then, my goodness, the feeling inside here. The doors feel fantastically lightweight, but I tell you what, it's about this. Dogleg first gear. This gives you 1100 Newton metres to the rear wheels, and the software involved in making that usable. Up to seventh gear, sixth, seventh, and the way you see it all happening, everything in here that you look at, that you touch, is as you expect from a Pagani. I can't believe I'm about to drive this, but I should probably get my cameras rigged up and get ready to pop it into first, and go bring you along for the ride. Inside here, the key is right here in the centre console, as per the Huayra, shaped to match the car, and stows away in that little storage area. But basically, foot on the brake in the clutch, and I press the start button, and we have V12. You've got driving modes, control through the selector here on the steering wheel. Just look at all of this. But I think the road is beckoning, so let's go. This is already, quite frankly, something unbelievable. Now, when you're pulling away, actually, this is the first observation, is that it's quite like a Carrera GT. There's so much torque that you just do it with the clutch. You don't need any throttle pedal input. I'm in comfort mode, and this is another big thing that I'm immediately noticing. Compared to the Huayra that came before, the ride is very, very soft. Now, there's also a super soft button on the instrument cluster, but at the moment, I don't feel like I need it. We're on some very familiar roads here, outside of Motor Valley. I mean, this is an area I have driven in many different amazing cars, but I don't think anything quite as spectacular as a Utopia. If we rotate the toggle here in the middle, we can go up into sport mode, which obviously changes a variety of things, including the traction control lowers to about 70% intervention. If you go up into track mode, race mode, it goes all the way down to only about 20%. It also changes the response, the mapping, the exhaust noise, and the crazy thing about this is that you have to remember to create a package that has 1100 Nm, yet can also be fairly easy to drive. That's no simple feat. Now, in terms of the inputs, there's a lot of torque. You don't need to shift all that much. The clutch pedal has very, very, very small amounts of travel as we go up into fourth gear. It takes a little bit of getting used to the fact that fast is down to the left. It's super simple to drive. I expected it to be a little bit more of a handful, a little bit more awkward. We've got auto rev matching, which again, gets more aggressive as you're going up through the modes, down to second gear, for example. As we just warm up into this a little bit, some of the hairpins ahead, and then the sounds of it, the intake noises, the rumble of the V12 as it revs up, the crackles and burbles that you get a lot more of in sport mode on the liftoff. And then when you give a quick release of the throttle pedal, you get these awesome turbo flutters, whooshes, swooshes, and all sorts of crazy things going on around you. Now, I should point out that the tarmac here is pretty chopped up and bumpy. Welcome to Italy. That's why I'm probably the most impressed by the ride. We've got some good braking, of course, as well, as we get into some of these hairpins, up and down over the undulations in the ground here. But this thing is absolutely putting a massive smile on my face. Immediately, even just the tight steering ratio, I can just about get around a hairpin without taking my hands off the wheel. It's very Porsche-esque in this style, I want to say. Everything is very precise. Everything is very pinpoint sharp, right on point, right where you want it, how you want the car to be. And there's so much torque. I mean, even if I come out of this hairpin in third gear here, you'll see what I mean. We're going very, very slowly. Back on the throttle, and away you go. Just easily does it. Oh, this is special. This is very, very, very special. There are so few words to properly describe and explain what it's like to drive something like this. Of course, the Zondas were very much manuals. You know the 760s, you know the stories of people even wanting to manual swap them nowadays. But this thing... I didn't think it would be so easy. I thought it would have been a much more challenging, technically difficult gearbox to drive with, but you do literally just go up, drop it back down into second. Nice and simple. And then those crackles going off behind, which I can promise you are a lot louder outside the car than they are inside. Some smoother tarmac here in an opportunity, perhaps. To just do a little bit more. Gosh, this feels quite larry. Just got to find the right gear. It takes a little bit getting used to because the neutral, normal middle position is over towards four and five, as opposed to three and two. Or rather, three and four, where it would normally be in a manual car. Wowzers. I mean, this is a proper... Come on, when it gets on boost. I've accidentally gone into sixth gear. But that's okay. That's all right. Drop it back down through the gears. This is just putting a massive smile on my face. What a thing. All meanwhile, everything that you touch and interact with is obviously finished so well. I can't emphasize that enough. And this is the test car, which literally has 46,837 kilometers on the clock. This is the whole lot of driving on and off track. It's being tested, it's being pushed, it's being used to make sure they know exactly what this gearbox is doing. And that in-gear pull... Just catapults you forwards. I love the steering feel, actually. It feels very real, very old school. None of that extra weight needs to be hidden. You'd obviously have, with a hybrid, with a load of batteries and electric motors being carried around with you. I'm really quite amazed. I genuinely expected this to be a much more awkward, clunky thing, if I can say it like that, because of the whole idea of bringing a manual to an engine like this. It's an engine that, obviously, in its previous iterations was only available with the automated manual, the sequential, and the paddle shifters that we know from the Huayra and, of course, the later versions of the Zonda that came before that. But the reality is, this is actually a Donald's driveway. To shift up with a precision, it's not a clickety-clackety kind of Ferrari 550 or Lamborghini Gallardo manual-style gearbox shifter. But what it is, is one that just instantly slots to the gear and gives you such a sense of satisfaction and reward from your driving. Combined with all of those bangs going off behind you, there's a lot going on. And, of course, carbon tar. You hear a lot of the stones on the road. A lot of that. And it's very, let's say, hard when you do have a little scrape on the ground. It's happened. It happens with these kinds of things, on these kinds of roads. Although, generally speaking, when we've had speed bumps and that type of stuff, it's ridden over those absolutely with no issue, without even needing a lift system up. But, like I say, you could just stick it in third gear on a road like this, and probably don't need to go up and down second and third, etc. But it's a lot of fun at the end of the day, and a big part of a car like this is the fun of it. Shifting mid-range. One of those cars where you don't feel like you need to be on the red line partially, because the red line is 864 horsepower, which is a little bit scary, here, for example. I don't really know what to say, other than... Oh, that downshift was nice. Of course, this is with auto-flipping. You can, in any mode, press the button at the bottom, and that will disable rev match, as it's just done. Now it's all down to me to have the honours. Oh, a little scrape on the ground. Sounds a lot more dramatic than it is, just because of the carbon fibre everywhere. Turn the rev matching back on, back to flipping away at me. Oh, no, I turned it off. There we go, back on now. I don't think that this could ever get boring. This is a special, special car, and I am enjoying driving this so much. What I also need to do is put it into race mode, and this immediately makes a whole lot more noise. The pops, bangs, and crackles... ...are in overdrive behind me now. Everything else sharpens up a touch as well. The shifts get slightly quicker in terms of the rev matching, and it's popping and banging away behind like you wouldn't believe. The more familiar that I'm getting with this car, the more I'm appreciating that it's kind of two things in one. On the one hand, it's a bit of a wild, mad machine, yet on the other hand, it's also a fairly civilised, comfortable cruiser type of car. It's doing this dual-character thing amazingly well, and just, I don't know, I didn't expect it to be this insanely cool, to be completely honest. I mean, it's obviously going to be special, whatever you look at, whatever you think. But then, just to go up and down through the gears, long live the manual. Now, of course, I understand both arguments of this. I understand the argument that this engine in its earlier form, and the gearbox set up from the Huayra, it's kind of the way it was originally developed, but they've clearly put in the attention to make sure this works, to make sure that this is a good setup and solution, and it really is. I mean, it's super precise, like I said. You just slot it from one gear into the next, very little travel, shorter shifter, short clutch pedal, super easy steering. I like this tight ratio, kind of mid-feel to the weight, it's not too heavy, not too light. It feels really, really well done for this kind of driving, right? For coming out to the twisty roads, to coming out to enjoy, to go and have the most amazing time, every time going through the gears. As we head back now towards base, we're not far from the factory and the museum again. It's something that does take a little bit of learning, but once you've learned it, it rewards you as a result. This isn't a car that anybody's just going to jump in and be able to thump around roads as fast as some others. Some cars you feel instantly like you just know it, but then against that, they don't offer the same reward from honing everything in. With this, whether it's the gearbox, or even just how it delivers the power, and obviously the turbocharged nature of it, and the amount of extra power you get at the top, and the different modes. There's a lot to take in, a lot to kind of learn and understand, and I think that always gives a car more, first, character, but secondly, more longevity in terms of the enjoyment from it. And I think the biggest surprise, like I said, is that I thought perhaps this might feel akin to some other cars I've driven in the past, and to name a couple. When I drove the BMW M4 with a manual, it felt like that was kind of a little bit shoehorned in, the same for the Jaguar F-Type, and I regarded them in their automatic variants. This, however, is a car that I would order manual, because for me, for long-livedness, while we can enjoy cars like this, the combination of a V12 engine, actually here, I can carry it through in second gear, you only need to use first, really, from a complete standstill. This combination, the fact that it still exists, and, you know, as many manufacturers as possibly can are doing what they can to retain it, this is quickly shot very high on my list of dream cars of this nature, because it's a really, really involving experience. It's a really special experience. It's a really stunning thing to just look at, to feel, to sit in. You have some peculiarities, things that just make it feel like a true hypercar. As the raindrops start falling on the window, you know, it's those things like the front arches, the mirrors and the way they look as you look out towards the side, the shape of the glass around you, the minimal visibility that you have backwards, but they add up together to be part of the experience at the end of the day, part of what you're driving and what you're basically feasting your senses on, because that's effectively what's going on here. And I'm kind of sad that in a few minutes I'm going to have to get out, because I would just love to take this on a very big adventure, a very big trip, go and drive it, do miles in it. And, you know, there are plenty of Pagani customers who use these cars so much, some that have been driven coast to coast across the United States, plenty that go on the Radunos, the annual rallies that they organise for owners as well. And that's half the fun, making the absolute most of them, enjoying it every bit possible and just having a sheer smile on your face, because at the end of the day, this is automotive passion in the best way possible. We have returned. We are back at Pagani HQ. It feels special to pull into this driveway in this car, I'm not going to lie. But yes, a few more things that I need to show you about this before we pack up for the day. Wow, that has been something. Before I shut this off, I have to take a little bit of time just to show you through a few elements of it, because how often are you sitting in a Pagani Utopia? This thing, I mean, just look around, look at all of the details of it. So the dashboard in front of us, as you can see, this car has 46,869 kilometres. You can actually... Oh, just alerting us because the door is currently open. You can then show a few different screens. So we've got tyre pressures there. If you go across, you've got the G-force sensors and then you've got the trip information. So this car does a lot of track testing and all sorts of different things as well with your gear in the centre, which then changes when you use the selector down here. So if you turn this up into sport mode, you obviously get the red, go up into race mode. You can select from the central toggle again on there. You've got yellow, or you can go to wet as well. Go around through these different settings, obviously in race. Look at that. Look at the rev counter. Look at the dials. Look at how it's exposed, like the tourbillon that you'd find in a watch, for example. That is truly beautiful. Your lift button on this side, your super soft button over on the other side, your wipers and indicators on the stalk. This is one single aluminium block used to make this entire steering wheel. Quite chunky grips that you have on the side of it, but this mixture of the traditional style and the way these dials are again presented in the centre, the way you have the switch gear for your windows, for example, just there. The way these are styled and milled, combined with carbon fibre, combined with lightweight materials, the view behind through towards that V12 engine. It's a stunning place, the windows overhead. It feels very, very airy inside this cabin. These seat controls, this is actually a button to change the rake of the seat. There is a different seat available with the sports package, so this would be in carbon fibre. It would obviously be a slightly lightweight, slightly more firmer experience to ride in, but this is undoubtedly the star of the show. This linkage, the way this moves, I mean, look at what happens underneath it as you go through the gears. It's really something else to experience. Everything with a Pagani badge on it, every single element, everywhere you look. Obviously these controls, this is like I was mentioning, what you can move over. You can change the colours and lighting and the settings. You can obviously set those how you'd like. You can have them changing colour as well, rather than the light blue right now. Yeah, this is, I mean, look at the door handles. Have you ever seen a car with door handles like that? Absolutely breathtaking. I mean, even look up here. Look at the hinge for the sun visor. Look at the way that is engineered. Every single detail of this car is the finest possible. All the exposed carbon that runs over your head for the cage around you, the light switches up above, the rear view mirror, which I'm not going to pretend you can see a lot through because you certainly can't, but at least something back there. Yeah, utopia. What a place. What a place to be. I mean, even look at this. Even look at the way these are done for the climate control. If you don't want that and you just want auto, press of the button and it does it for you. It's all immaculate. It is all absolutely beautiful. And I press of the button, take a listen to this. When you switch the car off, you get the composed music to send you on your merry way. As I step out of this, even look at this, all of these, every single one of these has a Pagani logo on it. That's quite amazing. That is quite frankly amazing. And as you might have spotted, currently with the rear clamshell opened, come and take a look underneath this because that's where, of course, you have an amazing view of the engine, the suspension and everything else. And that's the stuff you don't normally see. And Pagani always do it so very well. Even down to the luggage pouches, there's one on each side. These are finished with leather straps to close them. And inside here, of course, is where once you've opened it up, you have your fitted luggage. Those pouches, those cases that sit inside. This is just, it's an attention to detail like no other. Just there's nothing else that does it like this. There never has been. All of the little touches, even the way the clamshell is held down. In fact, on this car, obviously just to take a look at the underside, full carbon. The entire panel is just one ginormous carbon fibre piece. Super lightweight, in fact, considering its size and actually the view of the exhaust as well. But to close this down, this shuts. You need to pop open the door just to make sure it very safely closes. I'm going to go open the other side as well. I don't know entirely if they need to be open, but I'm not taking any chances with this. We close this entire clam down and then it's a case of clicking it into place. I do up the latch on this side and then I'll come running around to grab the one on the other side as well. And you're back to the full closed beauty of it. It's such a, I don't know, you just want to sit in your garage probably and play with this. Double click. Pop this back in. That simple. Even here, come in close here. Look at this. Even the buckle on the latch has the Pecani logo on the side of it. Absolutely amazing. Totally, totally, totally amazing. All closed back up. So you can see on this car, interesting thing, we've got different coloured wheels on each side, which is done as a demonstration for specification with the carbon aero blade. Part of the sports pack, as I mentioned, along with a number of other things that you can add to it. Which is unluckily for me, the drizzle has begun. It is that, well, I guess I was going to say time of year, but these things you can't really control. Nonetheless, what an experience, what a drive, what an opportunity to take in what this is about. You know, I've seen the car, I've ridden around the car park at Goodwood in the car, and we've been to see how they're manufactured and to actually spec one up as well. But now to know what it's like to drive, absolutely for me, manual gearbox. I haven't driven a Utopia with the sequential, but from experience of the Acquirers, not that there's anything wrong with it. I love that feel of the automated manual, where you still have to fluctuate the throttle pedal. You're still basically driving it manually. You're just not doing the clutch. But this is something that there's not a lot of in the current market. There aren't many opportunities to experience something that does this anymore. So long live it. Congratulations to Horacio Pagani and the team here, because they have made something that you just have to admire, respect, and appreciate. The automotive world says thank you to Pagani for Utopia. This is really quite incredible. That's it for now, though. Thank you very much for watching, guys. I hope you've enjoyed this video. I hope you've enjoyed coming along for a first drive experience in such a car. But that's it for now, and I'll see you again very soon. Cheers.