New Rambo Lambo era dawns with some serious kick

There was once a time when if anyone told you that supercar manufacturers would be producing SUVs you would have laughed out loud. And if they added that these SUVs would be best sellers for their makers, you would have probably started rolling on the floor with laughter.

I mean you can now buy the likes of a Rolls Royce Cullinan, and around 2021 you will be able to buy a Purosangue, which is Ferrari’s SUV. Even Bugatti are having SUV thoughts, but they say they don’t want to use their Volkswagen Group platform. The Lamborghini Urus was the super SUV I got to drive this past week. I don’t have to say too much about the styling, it is plain to see all the Lamborghini DNA and styling cues on the Urus.

There is absolutely no denying that this SUV is a raging bull from the company that builds some of the sexiest cars on the planet. And as is the norm when you are shopping in a league where your SUV starts at a suggested retail price of R3 495 000, personalisation is the name of the game. Here you can spend hundreds of thousands more making your Urus unique and more sexy.

Now maybe I am wrong about this, but the most important part for me owning an Urus would be how it looks. So now it’s onto how it sounds when you hit the start button and performs on the road. Step inside and you are greeted with a pleasant mix of Audi technology and switchgear, which is not in any way a bad thing. Some would argue that Audi brings sanity to the special quirkiness only the Italians can engineer into a car.

There is no shortage of space and luxury on-board for five adults. The Lamborghini infotainment system controls car setup, media, telephone and navigation, and a fully-digital TFT display shows you the SUV’s main information in a fully customisable animated 3D representation. But the fun truly starts when you lift the cover, punch the starter button and 478 kW of power and 850 Nm of torque bark angrily into life.

Although I think it would have been an insanely cool idea to plumb one of the naturally aspirated howlers that does duty in the Huracan V10 or Aventador V12  into the front of the Urus, this super SUV makes do with a 4.0-litre petrol V8 twin-turbo powerplant. This turbocharged engine is a first for Lamborghini.

One of the more sane reasons is that the torque and power delivery characteristics of the V8 is far better suited for an SUV. And making sure you get the best out of all that the Urus has to offer in terms of dynamics and performance, the SUV features a thing called Tamburo. Tamburo in normal speak is a driving mode selector located on the centre console featuring a Strada (street), Sport and Corsa (race) mode, pretty much like on the Huracan and Aventador.

It has three extra modes, Neve (snow), Terra (off-road) and Sabbia (sand) should you be that one person in the world who might go off-road in a Lamborghini. That’s not to say the Urus can’t tackle the dirt, it features all-wheel drive and adaptive suspension that can vary damping and ride height to suit the various conditions encountered. We did not go near any dirt roads on our test drive, but we did tackle some of the best tar in the Western Cape. And if you think you are going to overtake a Urus, then you better bring a very special supercar to even come close.

The Urus is said to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, 0 to 200 km/h in 12.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 305 km/h via an eight-speed automatic gearbox. I guess if you need to get the kids to school in a hurry, the Urus will do the job nicely. Is there a downside to the Urus? I would have to say there is.

For me, as fast and dynamic as it is, if you closed your eyes and somehow blocked out the addictive allure of the Lamborghini badge, your senses would have you believe that you could be driving almost any other top class premium high performance SUV. This is not a value for money segment and there is already an eight-month waiting list for the Urus in South Africa, so what I think will make no difference.

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