Most engineers will tell you that, when converting a car from a coupe to a convertible, it's nearly impossible to maintain that vehicle's same weight. A convertible needs extra reinforcement to account for the loss of its roof, more welding to hold that bracing together, and in many cases, heavy mechanisms that neatly tuck a convertible roof into place. For Horacio Pagani, those are merely suggestions.
"The goal was to create a car that was as rigid as a coupe without the roof," Horacio says in Italian, translated to English by his son Christopher Pagani. "And this car has exactly the same rigidity as the coupe but without the roof."
Horacio has been working with carbon fiber and composite materials for nearly four decades—many consider him a pioneer with the material. The obsession with carbon started during Horacio’s time at Lamborghini and has grown under his company namesake to become the preeminent choice for supercar makers everywhere. But Pagani, arguably more than anyone, has perfected that use—and elevated it to an art.
The new Utopia Roadster is proof of that expertise. It has a dry weight of 2,822 pounds, which means it weighs exactly the same as the coupe. But how they achieved that is no big secret.
A highly advanced carbon monocoque chassis props up the Utopia's sumptuous curves. A blend of Carbo-Titanium and Carbo-Triax helps keep it rigid, and the roll bar is seamlessly integrated into the roof structure just behind the seats. The front and rear tubular subframes even use a mix of Chromium-Molybdenum alloy steel. The result? The Utopia is 10.5% stiffer than any previous road-going Pagani, including the Huayra.
With that much stability baked in, lopping off the Utopia's roof—a small sliver of it, in this case—is no problem. Only a few extra weld points were added for rigidity. Pagani offers the Utopia with your choice of a lightweight carbon fiber roof or a cloth top. Both of them must be removed manually, and neither of them fits inside the vehicle, as you'd expect. Oh, the woes of owning a hypercar.
"[The hardtop] is very lightweight and doesn't have any structural benefit for the chassis because, as we said, the rigidity without the roof is what we really cared about," Horacio notes. "So [the roof] is a nicely engineered piece of design that's very light, but, well, it is something you will have to leave at home the day you go because there is no space in the trunk."
Horacio insists that, with its hardtop affixed, the Utopia Roadster looks very similar to the coupe. As with every component on the car, he demanded the Roadster’s roof be a sophisticated piece of engineering, but one so simple in execution that it takes mere seconds to remove or affix.
"The goal was to create a car that was as rigid as a coupe without the roof... And this car has exactly the same rigidity as the coupe but without the roof."
To maintain its light curb weight, Pagani ensured every single one of the Utopia Roadster’s components was engineered to the same standards as its hard top. A comparable Koenigsegg CC850 weighs 3,053 pounds with fluids, and even something smaller like a McLaren Artura Spider weighs 3,212 pounds dry by comparison.
"It's really not just carbon fiber, but all the machined parts that you will discover in the car—hundreds of them—that are engineered and designed to be as light as possible, because [2,822 pounds] is the result of grams here and there in every single component of the car."
Take the steering wheel, for example. It was sculpted out of a single, massive chunk of aluminum and took five-axis milling machines 28 hours to complete. The end product is a stunning, single piece that weighs just 5.3 pounds with all the fixins. The door handles, the roof latches, even the shifter for the manual gearbox and its exposed linkage were milled from lightweight metals.
Working with some of these metals is a newer concept for Pagani, and Horacio still regularly uses his long-term supplier, Bosch, for some components. But the company has grown so dramatically in the last 30 years that it's now able to produce more of these pieces in-house with every new generation of vehicle.
"When the company started back in 1998, the Zonda was fully designed and engineered in-house," notes Christopher Pagani, translating for his father. "The engine and gearbox were provided by external suppliers, but most of the design and engineering was something we were capable of doing with a very tiny group of people."
"The evolution of the company for us is investing in knowledge and know-how. So how the company can evolve from being a small manufacturer, building 20 to 25 cars back at the time of the Zonda, and then increasing slowly over time to about 10, 15 cars… and now it's about 50 to 55 cars."
"The evolution of the company for us is investing in knowledge and know-how."
Keeping the car light is one thing, making sure a 2,822-pound hypercar adheres to global crash regulations is another beast entirely. But it does, and Horacio isn't shy about the fact that his cars are as safe as they are sexy.
"Another important aspect is safety," he says. "These cars, obviously, with all this power are also extremely dangerous. So, trying to respect the severe regulations regarding homologation, this car here—as well as the coupe—has overcome all the tests at the world level; carbon, general usage, and safety…. In terms of environment, in terms of safety, believe me, it's a remarkable effort and this car does it."
The technical stuff is beyond impressive, but for Horacio, the most important thing is how this car feels. And to ensure the most feel, a manual gearbox was mandatory.
"Another aspect that many customers have asked about… is the manual gearbox," says Horacio. "The manual gearbox seems to be a simple thing because it's been used for over 100 years, but for a car with 852 horsepower, it's very difficult…. We had to develop a new clutch— which we designed, created, and built. We've already traveled about [620,000 miles] with different cars, obviously with the same clutch…. So, it’s a remarkable commitment and also remarkable that the car is intuitive, easy to drive, and that it doesn't scare you—that it doesn't make you feel uncomfortable."
The Utopia is the first Pagani since the Zonda with a manual available from the jump. And the decision to bring back the manual has proven worthwhile; Nearly 70 percent of Utopia customers have requested it. The 130 customers who get their hands on a Utopia Roadster will be lucky to have one—and the people who picked a manual clearly understood the assignment.
But for Horacio Pagani, this is more than just his next hypercar. The Utopia Roadster is the culmination of 40 years worth of engineering expertise brought to life—this is his baby, his masterpiece. It’s a monumental display of what Pagani is truly capable of.
Put it in the Louvre, right next to the Mona Lisa.
