Pagani Utopia Review | Has Pagani delivered the ultimate supercar?

On to the Pagani Utopia and if you want to go back and listen to the first 30 seconds of this video over and over again, honestly I wouldn't blame you. But do me a favour, once you've done that, come back and watch the rest of this video, as this car is even better than you think it is. And this is why. In the 16th century, the philosopher Thomas More published a book that described a perfect island nation free of all conflict and oppression. Ever since, the word utopia has been used to describe the idealised places of which we dream. And while artists and creators like Horacio Pagani may be some of the few who can turn their dreams into reality, that doesn't mean it comes easy. The design process for the Pagani Utopia went through 4,000 stylistic drawings. 10 scale models, 1 wind tunnel model, 2 full size models, 8 prototypes and 6 long years. Evidently, following on from the Zonda and Huayra would be no mean feat. And to do this, Pagani focused on 3 key areas, namely simplicity, lightness and the pleasure of driving. That means no electric powertrain, no hybridisation, no heavy dual clutch gearbox. Instead, it's got a 6 litre twin turbocharged Mercedes-AMG sourced V12 with either a 7-speed X-track automatic or a proper 3-pedal H-pattern manual. Don't let these old school ways fool you, however. Pagani treads the fine line between past, present and future like few others, and as such, the Utopia has more than its fair share of bleeding edge tech. For example, the monocoque chassis is made with the latest generation of composite materials including the alien-sounding Carbo-Titanium and Carbo-Triax with the front and rear subframes hewn from chromium-molybdenum alloy steel. As such, torsional rigidity is up by 10.5% versus previous Pagani road cars. But come on, this car isn't about percentage improvements here or there, is it? I mean, there are so many cars now, even supercars, where they're lacking any kind of intricacy or detail in the design, but it's not the case with this thing. It really isn't. I mean, the aerodynamics actually are incorporated into the overall shape, so that's why you won't see any big wings or splitters or anything like that sticking out from the car and spoiling the design. So, the bonnet and the splitter incorporate the aero ducts and the cooling, while at the rear end, the clamshell is the perfect housing point for that active rear spoiler. And check out the wheels. Now, the carbon-fibre turbine-shaped extractor has a dual purpose because it's there to pull hot air away from the brakes and it also reduces the turbulence going underneath the car. But also, it gives the look of one of those 1960s and 70s racers, where you've got the big, fat profile tyres and the very small wheel that's within them. And that looks like the wheel and that looks like the tyre area. The brakes are obviously carbon brakes and the tyres themselves are absolutely ginormous. At the back, it's 325-30-22. And of course, they're bespoke tyres for this car. And you can see a little silhouette of the Utopia on the tyres themselves, so that you don't mistake them for anything else. The wing mirror, I mean, it's not usually a thing of beauty on a car, to be honest, but welcome to the world of Pagani. It is here. It's suspended very delicately, set away from the rest of the car. And that's not just for show. It also helps with high-speed aerodynamics as well. And then, come round to the rear of the car, and it's one of my favourite design details. You've got the taillights suspended in the air extractors. And the design of them is supposed to be inspired by jet turbines, but I think it looks a lot like the taillights from a Ford Thunderbird, which is obviously incredibly cool. But just check out the detail in here. The little ribbons of light going round and the silver in the middle. It's just a work of art. And all it is, is a taillight. But obviously, it's been designed to look special, as has the ceramic-coated, quad-titanium exhaust system. We've seen those on Pagani since the beginning. And it's not just there for show, actually. The way it's packaged uses less space. And the whole exhaust system weighs about six kilograms, which is very light for an exhaust system. Final, final thing I want to show you, and trust me, it is worth it, is these little leather straps on the side of the car. Now, it looks like something from Paddington Bear's suitcase, but trust me, there's something even better than Marmite underneath. Now, this opens up the rear clamshell, obviously. But to do it, you need two people. So, Sebastian from Pagani is going to come in and open the other side. And all you do, open the strap like so. And that comes through. Open the door. And then pull a little lever behind the door. And the whole clamshell comes up. And look. I mean, it's perfection, isn't it? Told you it was better than Marmite. And don't, for a second, think that the level of detail and exquisite design simply stops once you get behind the wheel. Because, if anything, the Utopia's cabin is even more outrageous. Do you know what? I cannot tell you how nice it is to get into a car's interior and not be presented with a million 12-inch hyperscreens that just dominate the entire cabin design. None of that going on in here. I mean, there is a digital dashboard display, but it's there out of necessity because it can present lots of information in a fairly small space. And it doesn't take over the whole design. It just nicely integrates. And that means that you can focus on all the other design details. And, of course, there's plenty. This steering wheel, for example, is machined out of one single block of aluminium. And it feels it. You've also got some choice controls. So there's the horn, obviously. Volume control. The radio tuner. And then the drive mode control. Comfort, Sport, Race and Wet. Very simple. Also, if you press it, that turns on the gearbox auto-blip function, at least in the manual. So that's very nice. It just feels like every single thing in here has been designed. It doesn't matter how minor the function, there is design to everything. You've got little knurls here for the windows and for the fog lights and the wings. And down here, it's a similar story. There's just design everywhere. And then the analogue dials. They really stand out as being different in today's cars. And they say that they use the analogue dials because with digital, there's a translation phase. So you see it and you need to interpret it in your mind. But with the analogue dials, you can see where the needle is and that instantly tells you kind of where you're at, which is an interesting idea. The hinges for the doors, by the way, are hollow. And that allows the wire for the door electrics to go through that hinge and not get damaged by lots of opening and closing like you'd usually get in a car like this. So that's a nice, clever idea that feels like it's been designed, even though no one's going to see it. And all of this incredible little details and pieces is before you get on to the major controls. So the gear lever, for example, and that actually the whole thing down here, the gate is completely exposed. You can see all the workings going on. I mean, you could just spend hours playing with this and seeing how it moves. It's really quite something. And then the pedals perfectly placed for heel and toe. And just look at them. They're an absolute work of art. Pouring over the Utopia's cabin, it's hard not to get carried away with the tactile and visual feast that forms every last button, switch and dial. It's such a treasure trove of intricacy that you'll end up with a camera roll full of photos from every conceivable angle. But there comes a time when you need to put your phone down, strap yourself in, lever the scissor door shut and hit the big red magic button. Right, here we go. Pagani Utopia. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. First impressions. The smell in here is of leather. That's the thing that permeates through into your nose. It's the most obvious smell. The driving position is really good, actually. The whole car feels smaller than it does when you're just looking at it from the outside. It looks quite big, almost quite bulbous. But in here it feels like it shrinks down and you've got those two haunches at the front that make it seem narrower than it is. And that's definitely welcome. The steering wheel is chunky, but the leather feels good in my hands. The sound is thrashy, but quite promising. And the pedals, the pedals are really short through. The clutch is really nice and light. Steering's light enough. And even the accelerator, actually, is a short throw as well. Just getting used to the dogleg gearbox, so I keep looking down at it a couple of times. The engine is really flexible and torquey. I mean, I can be doing, what, 50 kilometres an hour. Put it in fifth, absolutely no problem. Sixth, no problem either. Really, really flexible. I've even got the equivalent of the bumpy road mode in a Ferrari. It's called super soft and you press it, it doesn't matter what mode you're in, it makes the suspension softer if the road surface isn't very good, which in Italy, that's quite often. Like a lot of modern supercars, though, the Utopia's ride quality is far better than you'd ever imagine. That the Pagani is also significantly lighter than many of its contemporaries at 1,280 kilograms only adds to this and gives the car a light, flexible feel when cruising along at normal speeds. But now, though, the road is opening out a little bit, so let's put it into sport. Let's turn the super soft suspension off, exhaust on, and let's see what it is like. Just enough lock on my arms. Oh, wow. Add that low kerb weight to 852 brake horsepower and 811 pounds for the torque and the result is a deep, rich reserve of straight line performance. Pagani doesn't quote nought to 62 mile an hour figures, why would you when they're entirely at the mercy of whoever is changing gear, but the sheer pace through the third and fourth ratios in particular is addictive. Wow, you can hear that engine sound, it sounds angry, thrashy, it's howling away. What's really interesting is you think Italian V12 engine and you think high revs, but this, it maxes out at 6,700 rpm, peak powers at 6,000 rpm, and if you read that you might be a little bit disappointed, but honestly you do not need to be because it gets there so quickly, it revs so freely up to that 6,700 rpm red line, and also that's quite a lot higher than previous Paganis which I think were around 6,000 rpm, maybe even a little less. What an engine sound, the turbos come on song very quickly indeed, you need to be aware of that if you've got some lock on, but it all leads to an engine that is just bursting with character. Listen to the overrun there, wow, this is amazing. The V12 engine might be from AMG, but it's one of the most unique and special aspects of the car. A Torbjörn howl of yesteryear that fills the cabin every time you set it free through the gears, there's nothing else quite like it today. You know I'll be honest, this road is very twisty and it's not ideal for this car, I'm not sure it's ideal for any kind of supercar, but it does tell you a lot about the front end of this car very quickly. It resists understeer incredibly well, I mean you can just send it in and there's not even a hint of it. Really strong front end grip, the steering's a good weight and it's also a good speed, I don't think you've got quite the same positivity and ability to rotate almost seemingly on its axis as say, I don't know a Ferrari 296 and perhaps not the outright feel of the best McLaren supercars, but what it does do is feel incredibly pure, there's no sense that there's any electronics helping you out, it's just you, the steering wheel and the road and it leaves you knowing exactly where you stand with it, it's such a pure feeling. Also the brake pedal, absolutely sensational, as I said short travel but the feel that you can get going into corners, really, really nice and it lets you measure out the weight over the front end, not that you really need it, but if you want a trail brake in and absolutely get the best possible corner entry and exit, it's really nice. One of the many things that stands out about the Utopia is how simple it is. I'm not saying there isn't any cutting-edge tech under the skin, but crucially it leaves you to enjoy the driving experience pretty much all on your own. It's perhaps like how a chef would say, you don't need a super complicated recipe, all you need is really good ingredients and then the dish will be perfect, that's like this. I don't want to sound like a broken record, when your average hot hatch has got a billion different drive modes, it's got all sorts of assists to make you drive faster, feel more of a hero. This thing, this thing is different and I tell you what, I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm a little bit scared of it as a result. It's raw, it's pure, but it absolutely fills the brief. There is a very clear spot for a supercar like this. Listen to it! For the small group of owners lucky enough to receive this 2.2 million pound statement of art and science, the Utopia will transport them to a world every other supercar has left behind. Lamborghini, Ferrari, McLaren, none of them could have feasibly created a car like this in 2024. It's an awe-inspiring realization of divine power, craftsmanship and exclusivity that honestly may never be replicated again. But for now, let us dream.