Why the new Pagani Utopia is a timeless masterpiece of design and engineering, from day one of its launch

The queen of the automotive world, the Pagani Huayra, has left us. The time has come, then, for a new era, in which a successor must be crowned. And this successor, created under the auspices of Horacio Pagani, is called Utopia. And, with a manual gearbox, a V12 and no central display on its dashboard, it is a worthy successor to the glory of its predecessor.

The design of the car, seen from the outside, says from the first moment that it is a Pagani. It's a car, whose forms combine art and science, and which seems immune to the passage of time from the very first day of its launch. It is one of those cars that you know from the first moment that it will be a legend, admired many decades before. So it is also a collectable, right from launch.

Inside there is no large central display, placed in the middle of the dashboard. We have almost all forgotten what a car can look like, the dashboard of which is no longer eclipsed by a large rectangular plate, acting as a display.

And yet, the new Pagani Utopia manages to remind us in a fascinating way, putting four analog dials there, beautifully inscribed in Italian — turbine pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature and coolant temperature.

There are 7 switch-type buttons, then three more large knobs, with inscribed sectors around them, dedicated to the climate control. And all this is teamed up with separate air vents, which come out of the board like airplane turbines.

But perhaps the most fascinating thing inside is the lever on the center, which certifies the presence of a manual gearbox. Yes, the new Pagani Utopia still comes with a manual transmission these days. In fact, Utopia has a „manualized” automatic transmission, which allows you to shift manually from gears 1 to 6, then leave it in the D position for upper gears, considering that, anyway, you would enjoy manual driving up until the 6th gear. Or, if you just want to cruise, you can engage D and just let the car do its thing. So, when you move the lever from first to second, when you press the clutch pedal, there is no mechanical connection acted inside the gearbox, directly by the lever of by the pedal. Everything is replicated electronically, but the clutch is engaged with the same progression you press or depress the pedal, and even the speed of the gear changes matches your movement of the stick. You can even accidentally make the engine stop if you release the clutch too fast, just like in a classic manual. And for the feeling of vibrations, there is a fixed rode connected from the gearbox to the lever, so that the feeling is even more natural. That single mechanism deserves an award for a timeless engineering.

The car's propulsion is not achieved by any hybrid system, with electric motors, batteries and all sorts of other modern electrified elements. Here, everything is kept analog, with an old-school, AMG-origin 6.0-liter V12 engine, now boosted to 864 hp and a maximum torque of 1,100 Nm (811 ft-lb).

And the whole car weighs only 1,280 kg — a remarkably low weight for these days, considering the dimmensions and performance!

And this has been achieved thanks to the materials used, not only in the structure of the car, but also in the construction of the suspension, brakes and every little detail. Such a degree of deep, in-house engineering is almost unheard of these days in the automotive world!