Some hypercar owners keep their vehicles locked away in a garage so they can appreciate in value, while others actually want to drive them.
A brave Pagani Utopia owner who definitely falls into the latter camp recently found themselves in a tricky situation on the streets of Dubai thanks to the city’s worst rainfall in 75 years. Faced with a flooded stretch of road in front of them, they decided to throw caution to the wind and drive right through it.
Video of the incident (via Motor1.com) began doing the rounds car internet earlier this week. In the short clip, you can see the $2.5 million Utopia and a Nissan Patrol come across a flooded section of road in the Emirati city. The high-riding SUV barely hesitates before driving through the water, while the Utopia driver takes a beat before doing the same thing. This isn’t a small amount of water either. It takes the hypercar nearly 30 seconds to ford the puddle.
It should go without saying, but most cars—despite what Elon Musk might say—are not meant to be driven through water (there are some off-roaders designed to deal with the liquid, though). While they can drive over wet pavement is fine, traveling through deep water can cause severe damage. It can get into areas where it’s just not supposed to be, wash away necessary lubrication, and, worst of all, possibly cause the engine to seize or become hydro locked. Water can cause thousands of dollars of damage to a normal car.
Of course, the 1-of-99 Utopia is anything but normal. Pagani’s third hypercar is a mechanical marvel designed and engineered specifically to appeal to the purists. The sleek coupé is powered by a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter AMG V-12 that pumps out 852 horses and 811 ft lbs of twist which is sent to the rear wheels via a seven-speed manual transmission. It can shoot from zero to 60 mph in under three seconds and has a top speed of over 230 mph. The Utopia’s body sits just inches from the ground, so it’s fully possible none of these numbers are possible after its ride through the water.
Pagani Utopia
Pagani
So, how much will it cost to fix any water damage that may have been done to the Utopia in Dubai? It’s impossible to say, but supercars and hypercars are notoriously expensive to fix. Still, when you consider how much money the owner needed to even by the car, we imagine they’ll have little problem covering the repair bill.
