UTOPIA

No car seeks to blend performance and art quite like a Pagani. The Utopia pushes both to the absolute limit

- OLLIE MARRIAGE

Where to start? It's a toss up between wing mirror and gearbox. And the weather come to think of it. But let's go with the initial plan and tell you about the side mirror. Because look at it. It's more steampunk street lamp than functional item. Wonderful, but needlessly elaborate.

Welcome to the world of the Pagani Utopia a Jules Verne fever dream for the 23rd century. Done with the mirror? Then have a look at those bonkers carbon wheel spats, the brake calipers like bronze knuckle dusters, the elegant slivers of aluminium, the leather buckles, the roof portholes. It's a 1930s vision of the far future, Flash Gordon's motor conveyance. Pagani likes to claim its cars perfectly balance art and science, but I walk around it convinced it's all about the art, the sculpture, the effortless luxury, certain that functionality has been willingly overlooked, that Pagani has let the weight swell.

And then I drove it.

The ride is supple and composed, the Utopia calm in my hands, the clutch easy, the motor tractable, the manners polished. Later in the day I'll discover how sharp and fizzy the twin turbo V12 is, that there's an animal contained within. Later still, the roads will finally dry out giving the Utopia a chance to demonstrate its eager, tenacious front end, suspension finesse and rampant, explosive, exponential acceleration.