Summer has finally arrived in the UK this past week, which has led to us glaring with envy as convertible owners finally throw back their roofs and enjoy the simple pleasures of top down driving. It could be a wet Tuesday in January, though, and we’d still be envious of anyone in this particular convertible: the new Pagani Utopia Roadster.
Arriving two years after the Utopia coupe – just Pagani’s third-ever all-new model – the Roadster does exactly what you expect of it: take Utopia, remove roof. It’s not quite that simple, though.
Pagani Utopia Roadster – roof detail
The coupe and Roadster were developed side-by-side with one another from the beginning, with the aim of ensuring the roof-off version was left wanting for nothing in terms of its performance. The engine, obviously, is the same: an AMG-built 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged V12, sending 852bhp and 811lb ft of torque to the rear wheels. As with the coupe, you have a choice of a seven-speed semi-auto gearbox or a bona fide, honest-to-God, three-pedal manual with a glorious exposed linkage.
We know what you’re thinking, though: it’ll be heavier and less rigid, it’s the Utopia for posers. Well, even bigger posers. No, actually – because of a heavily reworked chassis, and the use of materials with impossibly cool names like ‘Carbo-Tanium HP62-G2’ and ‘Carbo-Triax HP62’, it weighs exactly the same as the coupe: 1280kg. Pagani hasn’t confirmed performance specs, but we suspect they won’t differ too much from the coupe’s 217mph top speed and three second 0-62mph dash.
Pagani Utopia Roadster – side
The Utopia Roadster offers three different roof setups, which is precisely two fewer than the Citroen C3 Pluriel, but we’ll let it off. First is a glass hard-top panel which can be placed on its own special display stand when not in use, just so you can gaze at it. Then there’s a similar arrangement in soft-top form, which can be stowed in the car behind the seats. Finally, there’s no roof, the choice you should make whenever possible – why buy the Roadster otherwise?
Pagani Utopia Roadster – interior
All new for the Roadster are tyres with artificial intelligence. No, really. This isn’t just some fruitless effort to integrate AI into the car because it’s 2024 and that’s a buzzword – they’re Pirelli’s Cyber Tyres, which are packed with sensors constantly sending information to the car’s driver aids to allow them to react accordingly.
Inside, it’s all familiar from the Utopia coupe, meaning it’s a wonderful steampunk fever dream of leather, carbon and exquisite analogue dials. Uniquely on the roadster, the floormats have been redesigned with a texture “reminiscent of an outboard boat.” Because why not?
Pagani Utopia Roadster – rear
130 Utopia Roadsters will be made – 31 more units than the coupe – at a starting price of $3.1 million (approx. £2.6 million). And that’s before taxes. Yikes. It’s debuting in full during Monterey Car Week in August, an event that, we imagine, about 129 of those wealthy customers will be attending.
