A Pagani Utopia was seen pouring what was believed to be "smoke" from its engine compartment while on display at a Monterey Car Week auto show on Friday. The company’s head of marketing told Road & Track that the plumes were actually discharged from the car’s fire extinguisher.
Update: 1:52 p.m EST, August 19, 2023: This story has been updated with information from Pagani. The incident was caused by a fire extinguisher being set off.
“A guest of the event was touching switches on the inside of the car and set off the engine’s self containers fire extinguishers,” Christopher Pagani told R&T.
According to witness Chris Corces, the smoke billowing occurred at the Pagani display at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering at 11:20 a.m. on Friday.
"Nobody knows what happened with it. It was really quick," Corces told Road & Track. "It was a lot of smoke. It was a lot."
"It was coming from the engine but pretty close to the firewall. Very close to the back of the seat."
Pagani was celebrating its 25 anniversary at The Quail when the incident took place. This was the first time the Utopia was on display in North America.
The Quail is a popular car show that attracts affluent guests, high-end automakers, and multi-million dollar cars. Held in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California, the event has become an important part of the product unveiling cycle for luxury manufacturers, their customers, and automotive media.
The Utopia is the replacement for Pagani's flagship Huayra model. Unveiled in September 2022, it packs an 864-horsepower, twin-turbo, 6.0-liter AMG V-12 with an optional manual transmission. At the time of its release, Pagani said the car would cost buyers more than $2.3 million.
A native of the famously car-loving city of New York, Road & Track’s digital director is constantly surrounded by beat-up old project cars. Brown’s daily driver is a problematic manual-swapped 1991 BMW 325i sedan, but for special occasions he pulls out his E34 M5 of the same vintage. Before R&T, Brown worked at Jalopnik, The Drive, and Business Insider, starting in the industry in 2015.
