Most people choose a car color by flipping through a swatch book but millionnaire car collector Kris Singh spent roughly three years planning a paint shade that involved gold bar shavings and crushed moon rock, and the result is dazzling on a one-off Pagani Utopia that Singh calls ‘Madonna of the Car Nation’. It is a pun on Leonardo da Vinci’s Madonna of the Carnation, the circa 1475 painting that lives in Munich’s Alte Pinakothek and supplied the golden spark for the whole project. Singh’s night-time delivery video on his social media, which surfaced after the Pagani Raduno this week, shows the finish doing its thing under the lights.
The paint, named Lunar Gold, was developed with Karosserie, the Pennsylvania specialist that has worked with Pagani before. By Singh’s account, the lunar material was bought at auction and saved for this purpose.
The cabin leans more toward the fashion house than the launchpad, though. Black leather is lit up by gold stitching, patterned gold seat detailing, gold-toned dials, and a 24K gold finish on the pedals and shifter. Singh worked with designer Pandragram, trading reference images over several months, and the Italian style influences reportedly owe a lot to his partner, Silvia.
The 6.0-liter twin-turbo Mercedes-AMG V12 makes 852 horsepower and 811 lb-ft of torque, and Singh made sure a seven-speed manual sat behind it. Lunar paint, lunar ambition, and a clutch pedal, what more could a collector ask for?
This story is eight years in the making. In 2018 Singh announced that his Aston Martin Valkyrie would wear Karosserie Lunar Red, a shade inspired by Christian Louboutin’s lacquered soles. The Valkyrie plan fell through, and by 2024 he had taken the idea to Pagani. Gold replaced red, and the moon dust finally found a home.
It also fits neatly into a collection with a clear literary streak. The Miami-based investor’s Pagani garage already includes the Huayra La Mona Lisa, a play on the Mona Lisa, and the Huayra BC Macchina Volante, named after Leonardo’s flying-machine sketches, among other rare and priceless exotics from other brands.
Clearly, the man likes his puns as much as his carbon fiber. The Utopia coupe is limited to 99 cars and launched with a price tag hovering around $2.5 million though it has appreciated considerably since launch. What Singh paid, and what the moon cost him, remains a mystery.
