The age of the super-suv: a new Lamborghini “monster”
I’m not sure when the world’s richest people decided they wanted “fourwheel-drive monsters”, but they did, said Jeremy Clarkson in The Sunday Times. So in the next 18 months, we’ll see Aston Martin, Ferrari and RollsRoyce launch super-suvs to rival the “leviathans” by Bentley, Porsche and Maserati that are already on the market. The Urus, made by “the most exciting carmaker in the world”, is sleeker, lower and more powerful than the others. But with lots of its hardware borrowed from parent company Audi, it doesn’t really feel “mad” enough to be a Lamborghini.
The maker’s first turbo-charged engine, a 4-litre V8, is impressive, said Adam Towler in Auto Express. It comes in at a “massive” 641 bhp, and despite its “hefty” 2.2-tonne weight, it can sprint to 62mph in just 3.6 seconds – and reach 189mph. It “blasts forward at every opportunity, consuming fuel with the same enthusiasm”. But it’s not as tricky to drive as you might expect; it’s got “nicely weighted and accurate steering”, and an “impressive” ability to corner and suddenly change direction.
The Urus’s looks won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it is recognisably a Lamborghini, with its “myriad creases and cooling vents”, said Paul Hudson in The Daily Telegraph. Inside, it’s comfortable and stylish with “lashings of tactile materials”, and interior trim choices – as with the rest of the company’s cars – that range from “restrained to garish”. You can use the Urus like a proper SUV; it has drive modes for terrains from snow to sand, and you can raise the body for ground clearance. But it’s hard to imagine many people “hurling their £165,000 Lamborghini at a strenuous off-road course”. Still, there’s been “nothing quite like a Urus” before, and drivers won’t be disappointed.