The Uber-rich in Dubai tend to do things differently. It’s only in Dubai, for example, that you can buy gold from a vending machine. Or find supercars abandoned in junkyards, forgotten to the sands of time. The recent floods in Dubai seem to have opened up a new form of ‘only seen in Dubai’ content: that of super-rare, expensive supercar, and hypercars dealing with waterlogged roads. A recent video of a 2023 Pagani Utopia braving a flooded section of road in the desert city is an especially good example of the bravery, or flippancy, of its owner.
The video shows the driver of the Pagani approach a flooded section of road, hesitate for only a moment, and then accelerate into the standing water up to the hypercar’s front lip, following an SUV through to the dry side. To put these actions into context, consider that the low-slung Pagani Utopia is pretty much a brand-new model. The Utopia is only the third model the Italian boutique hypercar manufacturer has released since its first model in 1999.
The Pagani Utopia follows in the footsteps of the Pagani Zonda and Huayra in its exotic carbon fiber and titanium-heavy construction. Bucking the trend of modern cars being heavier than their predecessors, the Pagani Utopia tips the scales at 2,822 pounds, or a little over 200 pounds lighter than the Huayra Roadster. Couple this with the AMG-developed twin-turbo V12’s 851 horsepower, and it’s a recipe for scorching performance. Just 99 units of the Pagani Utopia will be made, each reportedly wearing a starting price tag of $2.5 million.
So, while the Pagani isn’t quite irreplaceable, it comes pretty close. It does seem the Pagani driver’s appetite for risk may have as much to do with it, as his bank balance does. As they say, it only happens in Dubai.
