Drivelines

HORACIO PAGANI IS A visionary designer and self-taught engineer.

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He is also a master of carbon-fiber manufacturing, which is why his cars are so strong, light, and eye-catching. His command of the material is so complete that it is a shame to paint over any of it, which is why many buyers are choosing a mere tint for Pagani's latest creation, the Utopia, so you can see how all the fibers are aligned. It is beautiful enough to hang on a wall.

The Utopia is also frighteningly quick, not least because it weighs roughly 3100 pounds and gets moved around by a twin-turbo 6.0-liter V-12 that makes 852 horsepower and 811 poundfeet of torque. The M158 is a Mercedes-AMG engine built exclusively for Pagani to its specifications, which include titanium components, smaller turbos to reduce lag, modified intercoolers, and a dry-sump oiling system. The V-12 sends this prodigious power to an Xtrac sevenspeed automated manual transaxle (a traditional manual is available), which functions like a racing gearbox in that it has a transversely oriented gearset to keep it more compact. But the Pagani gears are helical instead of straight-cut to reduce whine.