Horacio Pagani: “The Utopia is 5 seconds faster at the Nürburgring than a plug-in hybrid with 1,000 hp”

To have an interview with Horacio Pagani is to be able to talk to one of the last great automobile designers of all time. Member of a dynasty whose last name appears as the name of a sports car brand and whose level, currently, is only Christian von Koenigsegg in terms of success.

Enzo Ferrari and Ferrucio Lamborghini are gone, and for this reason Pagani can be considered the last great surname alive in Italian car culture. A brand with little more than 20 years of history that has presented its third model: the Pagani Utopia.

Together with three other colleagues from other media outlets, including Top Gear, we set out to talk with Horacio and his son, Christopher Pagani, about the new supercar, current affairs of the electric car and the future of the Modena-based company.

Interview with Horacio Pagani

Question: How has the creation of the new Pagani Utopia been?

Horacio Pagani’s response: It has been a long road of six years. More than 1,000 designs, 10 scale models, a prototype for wind tunnel testing and two full-scale models. But it has been a very exciting process and guided by the work of Leonardo Da Vinci.

Q: Has the aerodynamic design work been complicated compared to other cars?

RHP: The machine had to be very downforce, but with a more streamlined design and not as extreme as our other models. The work has included phases of computer and wind tunnel simulations.

There we perfected more than 700 versions to produce a perfected sports car. I’m not saying it’s a very complex car, but we’ve polished it a lot compared to our previous hypercars.

Q: Within the current situation of the car market, the new Pagani Utopia is not a hybrid and you continue to avoid electrification. Why has the Mercedes-AMG V12 engine been chosen again?

RHP: Currently we are focused on this car and what we have to do until 2027 or 2028. This block is according to the current market. The Pagani Utopia is homologated throughout the world, including the California region, with one of the most severe anti-pollution regulations on the planet.

Obviously yes, we have been working for four years on an electric sports car. We do not know if it will be manufactured or not, but we are still working on it. We’ll do what’s right when 2035 rolls around.

At the moment, the biggest problem with electric sports cars is that they leave aside the human and limit their sensations at the wheel, and that is what we are pursuing. I’m sure a Tesla will out-accelerate us, but I don’t care.

There has been no customer who has ever asked me about the performance or speed figures of a Pagani. They are hypercars built to excite the driver and with an artistic design. Our goal is another, beyond speed.

Question to Christopher Pagani: However, the anti-combustion law in Europe will foreseeably contemplate the Ferrari amendment from 2035. With Pagani entering the group with a production of less than 1,000 units per year, will you continue to manufacture sports cars with an internal combustion engine?

Answer from Christopher Pagani: Obviously. This is what we do, it is what we love and it is our essence. If we are allowed, regardless of whether we launch electric hypercars, we will continue to make cars with combustion engines as before.

Q: And hasn’t the PHEV option been evaluated to gain more power?

A: The relationship with Mercedes-AMG has been sensational and we respect them very much. In fact, they offered us a plug-in hybrid V8 engine with 1,000 hp.

But this does not fit with our philosophy and what customers expect from us. We make really light sports cars, and with the Pagani Utopia we’re going to offer a manual gearbox. This could not have been done with a plug-in hybrid car.

Also, in computer simulations of a lap of the Nurburgring, when we were only putting out about 800bhp, the machine was 4-5 seconds quicker than other hybrid supercars with 1,000bhp, but weighing 300-400bhp. kilograms.

Q: And speaking of manual gearbox, what is the percentage of sales of the 99 Pagani Utopia with this transmission?

A: More than 50% of the customers who have bought the new Utopia have requested the manual gearbox. A very pure system, with 7 speeds and a single clutch. Quite a challenge to withstand the 1,100 Nm of maximum torque of the V12. An old school gearbox, without emulations or an adaptation of the automatic transmission.

RC: Although this is a momentary thing. Customers who have made this preselection in their orders can change the option to automatic gearbox before the car goes into production, but for now, more than half of the new Pagani Utopia will be manual.

Q: Has the development of that manual transmission been very complicated?

A: Very much. It has put a lot of work into components like the synchronisers, lever and clutch. It’s great when a customer goes for the manual gearbox, but if the car becomes uncontrollable when releasing the clutch with 864bhp, it’s a disaster.

RC: You have to make sure that the sports car can be driven comfortably, even at low revs. And one of the most important aspects to this effect is the oil lubrication of the transmission.

One of the things we are going to suggest to Utopia buyers is to warm up the car before driving for a few minutes, so that the gearbox is properly lubricated and they can work smoothly in gear.

Q: Finally, what will be the next variants of the Pagani Utopia? Will the circuit versions be very different from the standard version, as happened with the Pagani Huayra?

A: The next step will be the announcement of the Pagani Utopia Roadster, as we did with our previous cars. And yes, more Utopias are coming with different aero configurations.

There are customers asking for a big wing and other performance features, so this model will evolve over the years to offer different options to buyers, in a very similar scheme to what we did with the Zonda and Huayra. We have many ideas for the future!