6 minute read
THE DIRT DIABLO
LuxLife test drives the new Lamborghini Urus to find out if the world’s fastest SUV is worth the substantial price tag
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Few cars have polarised opinion in recent times like the Lamborghini Urus. The thought of an SUV from the makers of the Miura, Countach and Diablo was too much for some. Well, we’ve driven it on the road, the racetrack and in the bush and thankfully it’s still a Lamborghini in all the right places.
Lamborghini has stepped into the rich family territory for the first time with the 641bhp, twin turbo V8 Urus SUV and it can only be described as explosive regardless of what surface its wheels are on.
It’s hard to dispute the claim that the US$200,000 Urus is the world’s fastest SUV with a zero to 100kmph time of 3.6 seconds and a top speed of 305kmph because that’s faster in both respects than Lamborghini’s V10 Gallardo supercar from a decade earlier.
The 370mm carbon ceramic discs with six-piston callipers on the rear are bigger than the front discs on most Lamborghinis while the 440mm discs with 10-piston callipers on the front are the biggest brakes on any production car in the world. This enables it to stop its 2.2-tonne mass from 100kmph in a shorter distance than the Gallardo in just 33.7 metres.
While the company claims to still predominantly be a supercar manufacturer, every second Lamborghini it sells from now on will be an SUV which they hope will be used as a daily driver to win over first-time owners.
“We are now competing in a segment that is represented by all the manufacturers, not just our traditional rivals,” said company Chairman and CEO, Stefano Domenicali.
ANIMA OR EGO?
While Urus shares underpinnings with other VW Group SUVs, namely the Bentley Bentayga and Audi Q7, it has a longer wheelbase. Likewise, it shares the 48-volt, self-levelling rear suspension from the Bentayga but has exclusive use of a torque vectoring system and four-wheel steering taken from the Aventador S.
At just over five metres long, Urus is imposing but its all-wheel steering turns the back wheels three degrees in and out to reduce its perceived wheelbase by 600mm to just 2.4 metres giving it a smaller turning circle than the Huracan.
A Torsen centre self-locking diff provides maximum control and agility in most conditions but especially off road. Torque is split 40/60 front to rear with a maximum of 70 percent sent to the front or 87 percent back to the rear depending on the driving circumstances.
Its active torque vectoring provides more traction to each rear wheel as well as additional steering control, so less steering effort is required and it also raises its corner speed on the road and track.
Sitting behind the Alcantara-covered wheel, peering out over instruments that are more at home in a low-slung Aventador, the driver’s view feels oddly high by comparison but the engineering team have worked hard to keep its centre of gravity as low as possible.
The Tamburo mode selector on the Urus offers a labyrinth of chassis set-up options with the Anima console on the left housing six settings, while the Ego console on the right offers nine further permutations within each of the six from Anima. The Anima console features six drive settings from Strada (street), Sport and Corsa (track) on tarmac that mimic those used on the Huracan and Aventador as well as Neve (snow), Terra (gravel) and Sabbia (sand) for off-road use.
Once selected, the mode can be further refined using the Ego selector on the right to find smooth, medium or sports settings for the Traction, Steering and Suspension controls. Confusing? Yes, but once mastered it lets you get the absolute maximum performance from every facet of the Urus for virtually any condition.
PERFORMANCE ON ROAD, TRACK AND GRAVEL
On road, it felt little different to most other high-end luxury SUV’s though its optional 23-inch rims made the ride a bit stiffer than expected, even in Strada mode. But the steering was docile enough around town and the change up pattern from the eight-speed box was soft and smooth. On track in Corsa mode, it hunkered down and got to business turning in some impressive lap times. The exhausts opened up to fire a few deep belches on change up as it sailed to easily into the 5,800rpm redline cut off. Its understeer, when pushed hard under extreme conditions, was about the only feedback reminding you that this was a big five-door wagon and not an Aventador.
Finally, it attacked a gravel course like a rally stage, using its massive torque curve to carve its way through sandy ruts spitting out giant rooster tails, traversing up loose, gravelly hills like it was the Pikes Peak Hillclimb and even held itself together over a small jump where it briefly managed to get air.
Lamborghini will also offer an off-roading package that will use the standard sized 21-inch rims coupled with a body kit comprising restyled front and rear bumpers for better approach and departure angles.
WINNING OVER NEW CUSTOMERS
The biggest job for Urus is to convince customers to consider a Lamborghini for the first time and as Chief Marketing Officer, Katia Bassi noted, Urus is about shifting the company towards a new, more suburban demographic. “Urus has given us a chance to not so much re-invent Lamborghini, but to widen our scope.”
With a target to double the company’s output from 3,500 vehicles per year to 7,000, Urus needs to find a lot of new customers and that means women for what until now has been a largely male-dominated buyer profile. Lamborghini established a Female Advisory Board comprising 250 women globally who are influential but not influencers, from many industries to predict future trends.
“We created the board so that we can talk to women about Lamborghini in a different way. It’s not about technicalities or performance but more related to the car business in general and how things are changing for women,” said Bassi. “These ladies come from different professional circles so they can show us what’s happening and how we can learn from it. They excel in their industries of sport, theatre, fashion and IT and we believe they can be a great asset to our future thinking.
“We would like to understand how they face challenges with things like fake news and the digital environment because it’s important that we exchange experiences to be more effective and to become more conscious of what we are doing.
“The automotive industry is forced to follow the same timeline of the development of the car which is slow compared to almost every other industry, so this board will help keep Lamborghini at the forefront of trends and allow us to get more women into Lamborghinis.”
THE SPECS
Lamborghini Urus Engine: 4.0 litre, twin turbo V8 Transmission: Eight-speed automatic Power: 641bhp at 6000rpm Torque: 850Nm at 2250rpm 0-100kmph: 3.6 seconds Top speed: 305kmph Weight: 2,200kg Price: AED734,530 lamborghini.com
