CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, California – A Lamborghini supercar It may seem like the complete opposite of a daily driver, but apparently, one in three sold is just that. Consider Lamborghini 29,700 sold HuracanThat’s nearly 10,000 owners who actually care about things like interior space. Indeed, it was the most common request from owners when Lamborghini began creating the next-generation “entry” model that would become Time.
Lamborghini product manager Paolo Racchetti feels their pain. At over 6 feet tall, Racchetti says he can’t fit inside the Huracan with a helmet on—he has to lean awkwardly in to fit. Obviously, wearing a helmet isn’t a daily driver complaint, but Racchetti says owners also take their Huracans to the track an average of once or twice a year (those with STOs drive once or twice a month). For both the track and daily driving, Racchetti’s helmeted head space was reduced by hollowing out the Temerario’s aluminum structure and using larger components with fewer parts and less welding. The result is 24% stronger, too. Lamborghini also freed up some storage space behind the seats, another customer request. Between that and the front trunk, you’re now more likely to drive your Lamborghini on road trip. A new “Comfort” chair would also help.
“We expanded the vehicle’s mission, making it more versatile,” said Racchetti, adding that visibility was also improved and more camera angles were added at the request of customers.
At the same time, all of that certainly seems more like “would be nice” than legitimate criticism. The Temerario is still a Lamborghini, but it’s also a very different kind of Lamborghini than the Huracan it replaces.
It all starts with the engine. Racchetti says they needed to upgrade the Huracan’s V10, but increasing the displacement wouldn’t make sense and adding more cylinders would turn it into a V12, thus invading Revuelto‘ territory. At the same time, Lamborghini wanted the car to be smaller, and downsizing the engine would do that while lowering the center of gravity in the process. It would also counteract the need to add mass elsewhere, but more on that later.
The result is a V8 with a pair of giant turbochargers positioned in a hot V between the cylinder banks. Old turbochargers tend to produce a lot of turbo lag, but the first of three, nestled between the engine and the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, fills the torque gap while the turbos spool up. Now, there’s really not much new about any of this, but before you moan about the naturally aspirated V10, know that we’re not done yet. Thanks to a flat-plane crankshaft and “really complex technical solutions,” according to Racchetti, the Temerario’s turbocharged V8 can rev to 10,000 rpm. Hello! If you can get a turbo to 7,000 rpm, you’re cooking on gasoline. But 10,000?! That sounds incredible. That’s indeed true, says Racchetti, especially thanks to the pair of snorkus intake pipes that funnel sound back into the cabin like a pair of cannons aimed at your rear.
Peak engine power of 789 horsepower is delivered between 9,000 and 9,750 rpm. The Huracan Evo’s V10 engine makes 631 horsepower at 8,000 rpm. Oh, but the Lamborghini Temerario isn’t stopping there. That 789 horsepower is sent to the rear axle only. Each front wheel gets its own 110-kilowatt electric motor, creating a torque-distributed all-wheel drive system. The general concept of front-electric, rear-gas-driven isn’t much different from Acura NSXTotal output is a definite 907 horsepower. Lamborghini says the car can hit 62 mph in 2.7 seconds, so it can go from 0-60 mph in 2.5 seconds.
Racchetti says there is “a lot of room for the future” because this is the starting point for the powertrain. There is room for growth for both the engine and the motor.
Like all modern performance cars, there are multiple driving modes. Let’s talk about two of them. First is Drift mode, which not only turns off the front motor and lets you drive, but also helps you drive like a hero or a thug, depending on your perspective, so you can be safer while having fun in the smoke. The opposite of that would be EV mode, which puts the engine to rest when you need to sneak into the heart of an EV-only European city center or sneak out for a weekend date in that city with your mistress. I’m just talking about scenarios here.
The battery The battery pack is pretty small at 3.8 kilowatt-hours, so you won’t have to lug it around for long. Lamborghini doesn’t have United States Environmental Protection Agency estimated, but will almost certainly be in the single digits. The Revuelto only has a range of 6 miles. The battery itself is packed inside the tunnel that would previously house the driveshaft.
“The work we did on the packaging is incredible,” Racchetti said. He also pointed out that cooling everything is an incredibly difficult task because you have an engine, turbocharger, transmission, brakeThe battery and motor will be cooled.
As Racchetti shows off the car’s exterior, pointing out the many subtle aerodynamic tweaks that increase downforce by 104 percent over the Huracan, it’s striking how restrained and luxurious the Temerario is for a Lamborghini. The electric green version shown in our original reveal story might not be, but the matte navy example shown at Quail in Monterey Car Week is going for a cleaner, more streamlined look, especially when compared to the wild Revuelto. It also stands out because of this, as all supercars start to look the same after a while with their wedge shapes, aero bits and carbon-fibre bodywork. The Temerario is still a Lamborghini, but it’s just a little more grown up and perhaps a little more suitable for daily driving.
