Lamborghini Urus finally breaks cover!

Words by Ganesh Murthy

The wait is finally over. Lamborghini has unveiled the much anticipated Urus SUV at the Los Angeles auto show 2017. The teaser videos showed the SUV, fully camouflaged bashing dunes in the desert, sliding in the snow and even making a home run in the race track. Last week, the exhaust note of the car in question was leaked. Following the success of the SUVs from other VW Group makers such as Porsche and Audi, it was about time Lamborghini made its mark with a radical looking SUV and behold! The Urus it is.

The silhouette of the car is undeniably Lamborghini and it will stand out in a crowd full of super SUVs of its class. The striking LEDs in the front and rear get the horizontal Y-graphic design along with the blacked out headlamps for the traditional Lamborghini look. You also get monster wheels that can be had in rim sizes up to 23 inches. You will find lots of resemblances with both Huracan and Aventador, if you look at it with a keen eye.

Under the hood of this monster SUV is 4-litre, twin turbocharged V8 engine that makes 642bhp and a mind twisting 850Nm of torque. It is the same engine that powers the Porsche Panamera Turbo and the Cayenne Turbo, but tuned to make more power for the Urus; 99bhp and 80Nm to be precise. The Urus is 4-wheel driven where power is distributed in a ratio of 60:40 to the rear and front wheels.

Lamborghini has claimed the top speed of the 2200kg Urus as 306 kmph(!) and a 0-100kmph timing of 3.6sec. The Urus comes equipped with ANIMA (Adaptive Network Intelligent Management) system, that calibrates the engine mapping, suspension and traction control in different situations. It also gets three new modes namely Sand, Land and Snow. The ‘Ego’ mode allows the user to customise the settings.

The Urus will be sold starting from 2018 and Lamborghini bosses are hoping big for the SUV, just like Porsche did for the Cayenne. And the money coming in from the Urus will be pumped into supercar R&D. And fret not, no turbocharged supercars but naturally aspirated V10s and V12s. Watch this space for more.