Resistance is futile

Lamborghini has launched its super- SUV and – while we should be appalled – all the signs are it’s going to be some machine

YOU WANT TO BE OUTRAGED BY the new Lamborghini Urus, don’t you? I know I do. But I’m not sure what we can justifiably get riled up about. For a start, this isn’t even Lamborghini’s first SUV, that accolade going to the Countach-engined LM002 of 1986.

It can’t be the slightly difficult-topronounce name, either, because compared with Gallardo and Murciélago it’s easy to get an Anglo Saxon tongue around Urus (it’s ‘oo-rus’ rather than ‘you-rus’, by the way).

What about the fact that it uses hardware found elsewhere in the Volkswagen group? Underneath, the Urus is very similar to the new Porsche Cayenne Turbo: it has the same threechamber air suspension that allows varying spring rates and a 90mm difference in ride height, the same electromechanical anti-roll bars, adaptive dampers, rear-wheel steering and torquevectoring rear differential. It even has the same 4-litre twin-turbo ‘hot-v’ V8, although in the Urus it puts out 641bhp and 627lb ft of torque, which is 98bhp and 59lb ft more than the Porsche.

But then the Gallardo and Huracán have shared DNA with contemporary Audi R8s. As Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini’s chief technical officer, says: ‘It’s clear that we’ve used some components that can come from the group – like we did in the past. What makes the difference is the software; the calibration is the result of development that we did here in Sant’agata. Our car is completely different from all the others.’

Of course, the way the Urus behaves will change depending on which driving mode it’s in. As with other Lamborghinis, it has the ANIMA (Adaptive Network Intelligent Management) system, with Strada, Sport and Corsa modes. However, the SUV gets three extra off-road-specific settings labelled Terra, Neve and Sabbia. These translate to land, snow and sand. A further Ego mode allows the driver to mix and match their favourite chassis, engine, steering and gearbox settings.

That gearbox, incidentally, is an eightspeed torque-converter automatic – yes, just like in the Cayenne – and is mated to a centre differential that by default sends 60 per cent of drive to the rear axle and 40 to the front, but can send up to 70 per cent to the front or 87 per cent to the rear depending on conditions or the driver’s desires. ‘If you want to drift, you can do so really easily,’ Reggiani promises.