A Lambo to love? | CAR magazine Feb-26

Temerario across Italy
Words Georg Kacher Photography Jordan Butters
A LAMBO TO LOVE?
Stripped of the V10 that made its predecessor so special, the Temerario faces a battle for hearts and minds – can it convince on home turf?

Temerario across Italy
Lovely surface,
not too narrow,
no oncoming
traffic: bliss
T
his is a fabulous crowd magnet. Park the
Lamborghini Temerario in the piazza of a small
Italian village, step back and watch what
happens. First, a window pops open, then
another, and one more. Someone appears in a
doorway, shouts across the square to a friend,
who is already on the phone to another friend.
Within minutes the curious and the
aficionados alike have started arriving, mostly on
battered Vespas, adding to smartphone image
libraries already brimming with photos of
Ferraris, Maseratis and Lambos.
Influencers appear, asking if they can pose in
front of the yellow Temerario, filming each other to pocket music.
School children join in. A shopkeeper forgets about her customers
and saunters over to have a look. There’s a pram-pushing grandma
minding two next-generation Lamborghinisti, the village idiot
pestering us for Mel C’s phone number, and the local traffic warden.
Stupendo! Meraviglioso! Fantastico! The public vote could not be
more enthusiastic. Then I fire up the engine. Am I imagining it, or
does the crowd look a little less enthused?
The naturally-aspirated V10 fitted to the Gallardo and Huracan
was a master musician that always had the audience on its feet. Not
so the new twin-turbo V8, kicked off by the former CTO Maurizio
Reggiani because the charismatic V10 was about to be black-flagged
by the emissions stewards. Especially when cold, the Temerario’s
32-valver is coarse by comparison, hollow and not particularly
refined. Not that we give anyone long to ponder the sound, as we’re
parting the crowed and heading off to continue our journey around
Redline in
second: 90.7mph
and counting
Italy to take the temperature of the crucial home market’s reaction
to the newcomer.
At low to mid revs, the tonal monotony is interspersed with the
impatient clutter of the valvetrain, which employs finger followers
because only they can cope with peak revs. Humming along in the
background are three e-motors, two up front and one sandwiched
between engine and transmission.
It’s a predominantly smooth-running powerplant, a composed
and mechanically tight eight-pot resonance chamber, which
responds sharply to throttle orders and will scream its heart out
whenever you floor the accelerator. It’s rowdy and physical right up ⊲
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Temerario across Italy
THE TEMERARIO LETS
YOU CHOOSE FROM
13 DIFFERENT DRIVING
MODES BUT THERE ARE NO
MIX-AND-MATCH OPTIONS
Electrical
assistance on
two and four
wheels
LAMBORGHINI TEMERARIO
PRICE £267,400
POWERTRAIN 3.8kWh battery, PHEV,
3995cc twin-turbo V8, three e-motors, eightspeed
dual-clutch auto, all-wheel drive
PERFORMANCE 907bhp, 590lb ft
(789bhp @ 9000rpm and 538lb ft @ 4000rpm
from the engine), 2.7sec 0-62mph, 214mph
WEIGHT 1690kg (dry)
EFFICIENCY 25.2mpg (official), 12.8mpg
(tested), 5.0-mile electric range, 272g/km CO2
ON SALE Now
sssss
to the redline at 10,000rpm, where the limiter softly intercepts it.
You won’t hit five digits on every journey, but against the stopwatch
it’s the extra 2000rpm over the Huracan’s V10 that makes the
difference. You can roll out first gear all the way to 65mph, extend
second to 100mph, and stretch third to close to 140mph. From here,
fourth is only a whiplash upshift away, then fifth, sixth, seventh and
eighth, reaching a sensational top speed of 214mph at a yelling and
hammering 9750rpm. In addition to the 789bhp the V8 puts on the
table, the three e-motors lift the total of the plug-in hybrid unit to
907bhp and the aggregate maximum torque to 590lb ft. It’s incredibly
dramatic – once experienced, it’s unlikely ever to be forgotten.
The Temerario’s at its best on long straights and curves fast
enough to exploit the mind-expanding mix of ground-effect aero
and trick torque vectoring. While the Huracan was relatively
comfortable on Italian back roads, the extra 139mm of length and the
311kg of added body fat can make the Temerario uneasy on narrower
lanes. Having said that, the clever combustion-electric interplay
into, through and out of tight-ish corners never ceases to entertain,
even if you find yourself breathing in for oncoming traffic.
After leaving the autostrada at Roncobilaccio, we go up and down
the Futa and Raticosa passes, following the Mille Miglia route to the
south side of Florence. What the Temerario needs to shine is enough
open space so that you can see past the next apex and ideally the one
after that, too. That’s not on offer here, but let’s give it a go with the
transmission in manual, the mode selector in Corsa, the suspension
in Soft, and the hybrid system in Performance.
Although this is second-gear territory almost all the way across
the Appenine ridge, we keep changing up into third for a brief
slingshot effect, only to shift down again for the next temporary
single-track bottleneck, a flock of sheep in transit or a wayward Fiat
Cinquecento.
It takes time to find the right rhythm for weaving in and out of
traffic, tiptoeing through villages from one orange radar trap to the
next, testing courage and ability where conditions permit it. If
exploring this car’s limits is a job for the racetrack, there is still a great
deal to enjoy on the road.
The five-figure redline is a no-go on hilly by-lanes, where the
cypress trees bend backwards in awe of the fast-approaching yellow
peril. A mere 20 minutes deeper into Tuscan heartland, however,
where the tight curves begin to uncurl, high revs can help because
they minimise gearchanges and maximise acceleration. The
extended grunt is a bonus, especially when the roads get busy in the
afternoon and you still want to press on, ticking off one white Ducato
van after the other.
Even on top of the torque mountain, which is flat from 4000 to
7000rpm, the V8 continues to play its dense and steady techno beat,
gruff and physical, always ready to erupt. It generates emotions – not
through sound, but through speed. Think brutal acceleration,
explosive torque and steel-fisted raw power paired with enormous
grip, sweet steering and potent carbonfibre brakes.
Florence on a Friday evening is a zoo with all the cage doors open.
In this hectic habitat, the Temerario feels not only exceptionally
visible but also quite vulnerable. Although the city centre is off ⊲
There’s always
one who’s not
quite convinced
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Temerario across Italy
ITALY’S TARMAC MASTERPIECES
No rear-wheel
steer; you rarely
notice its absence
AMALFI COAST ROAD
Surreally, gut-wrenchingly
beautiful, the Amalfi coast
road – the SS163, number
fans – stretches from
Sorrento to Salerno and
wriggles high above the
glittering Tyrrhenian Sea.
The good bit’s less than 40
miles long, but Google
Maps bills it as a two-hour
drive nonetheless (the
tourist coaches take twice
that, and you likely will the
first time, too, given the
views and the quality of the
coffee). Tight and
relentlessly twisty, this is a
road for sports cars (or a
rented scooter) – something
small, light and punchy
enough to pass when you
need to.
BEN MILLER
SP26 AND SP30
Located an hour or so south
of Maranello near Pavullo
nel Frignano, these lumpen,
battle-scarred hill roads see
more Ferraris than they do
freight or Fiats, their tarmac
impregnated not with the
cheap rubber of workaday
traffic but with the exotic,
silica-stuffed by-product of
countless sets of big-money
Pirellis. Cracked and
ravaged by subsidence in
places thanks to tough
winters and non-existent
maintenance, they’re a riot
to drive in pretty much
anything. But if you can find
yourself a V12 LaFerrari
Aperta with a full tank of
gas and nowhere else to be,
happy days.
BEN MILLER
STELVIO PASS
Climbing to a majestic 2757
metres above sea level, the
Stelvio Pass reaches the
sort of altitude that caused
a drone to crash when I first
went there because the air
was too thin… But it’s not
the lack of oxygen in the
atmosphere you’ll
remember, rather the
countless hairpins that
snake up and over the pass.
Once you’ve reached the
summit (and caught your
breath), make sure you
keep heading west – the
Insta-friendly eastern side
of the Stelvio is
spectacularly out-done in
pure driving appeal once
you drop off the summit and
head towards Molina.
PIERS WARD
SS65 FUTA PASS
The 903-metre high Futa
Pass was a staple of the
wild and magnificent Mille
Miglia road race, and also
formed part of the original
Mugello road course,
superseded by the
purpose-built circuit in 1974.
Deceptively fast in places,
but also blessed with more
than its fair share of
wheel-twirling hairpins, it’s a
testing road that cuts
through some of the most
beautiful Italian scenery
imaginable. The surfaces
are largely good, but with
its relentless turns and
challenging downhill
sections on the southern
side, you’ll need a strong
stomach to really go at it.
ADAM TOWLER
limits unless you are a resident, the entire Northern Italian social
media community seems to zoom in on that slow-moving bright
yellow dot. People are jumping in front of the car, photographing
through the side windows, tailgating two or three vehicles abreast,
gesturing us to put on a little show, fasta, fasta!
Which way out? Both escape routes lead to the sea, one to
Viareggio on the Ligurian coast and the other one to Rimini on the
Adriatic. We choose option number two because getting there
involves two hours on interesting roads over the San Benedetto in
Alpe and down towards Faenza and the Po delta. It is already dark,
but the matrix headlights do a fine job.
The Temerario lets you choose from 13 different driving modes.
These include Recharge, which reduces the engine’s power output
from 789 to 715bhp; EV, good for five clean-air miles; Corsa with ESC
Off as a stepping stone to launch control; and three levels of
driftability, from controlled mild slides to panoramic hooliganism.
In Corsa, the suspension setting is set in Hard by default, which isn’t
great on the bumpy zigzag sections of the SR302, a popular truck
route. So Soft it is, and we carry on in manual, which won’t shift up
automatically when the V8 hits the rpm ceiling.
There are no mix-and-match options in this car, so you cannot
combine a sportier steering calibration with the cushiest damper
setting or pair the tautest chassis set-up with the least aggressive
engine-transmission interaction. Instead everything is preprogrammed,
so take your pick of the pack. Strada is an in-built
tranquiliser, Sport is the best let’s-get-on-with-it mode, Corsa
sharpens all senses and speeds up the responses accordingly.
A best-in-segment power output compensates for the hefty dry
weight, which comes to 1690kg. The Temerario is heavier than a
Ferrari 296 GTB or McLaren Artura and has put on some 300kg
Absolutely not
budging without
a passenger ride
compared to the Huracan (most versions of which were also allwheel
drive). The engineering team could have narrowed that gap
and saved about 115kg by adopting the Revuelto’s carbonfibre
monofuselage tub, but for cost reasons that wasn’t to be, which is
why a new aluminium spaceframe got the nod.
You feel the weight, and the fuel consumption reflects it. Over 349
miles, the test car emptied two tanks of petrol, averaging 12.8mpg.
That’s the bad news. The good news concerns the 3.8kWh buffer
battery which temporarily improves the low-speed efficiency
without neglecting its overboost obligation.
When you climb behind the wheel of the Temerario for the first ⊲
Not essential,
but a great car
enhances these
fine roads
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Temerario across Italy
time, the steering feels quite light even around the straight-ahead
position, but the system quickly grows on you. Through the
mountains from Borgo San Lorenzo to Marradi, the effortless
malleability, the quick responses and the subtle self-centring are
confidence-inspiring. Supported by two attentive e-motors and by
massive cornering grip, courtesy of the 255/35 R20 Bridgestone
Potenza Race semi-slicks, the nose tracks the chosen line with poise
and precision. The rears, with even wider 325/30 R21 tyres, follow suit
unless a quick stab at the throttle tricks the Lambo into a momentary
sidestep. To save calories, there is no rear-wheel steering, and while
we don’t really miss it through the slow-speed twisties, it would
certainly help to tighten the XXL turning circle.
Although the Temerario spins routinely through second-gear
esses, first-gear hairpins and back-road kinks, it’s happier on long
corners that open up or tighten progressively, straights stretching
from here to the horizon, and motorways. If you do habitually drive
on unrestricted roads at quiet times, the Alleggerita pack may
actually be worth the extra outlay. Not so much because it trims the
weight, but because of the elaborate aero kit which increases the
downforce by up to 67 per cent. Although we do not hit the highest
speeds today, our test car oozes confidence in critical situations like a
sudden lift-off followed by an urgent lane change.
Rimini in early winter sees the dolce vita in hibernation, but
whenever the Temerario stops at a set of busy traffic lights, bubbling
and clattering angrily and impatiently in neutral, every GTI and
Abarth driver in sight instinctively picks up the gauntlet and changes
down a gear or two in anticipation of the drag race that never comes.
They instantly embrace the Temerario’s Emotion pack, a late
addition to the standard equipment which makes the engine blatblat
whenever you take the foot off the accelerator, while every
downshift in Corsa is paired with an automatic blip of the throttle.
The Temerario may not be quite as raw, involving and emotional
as the Huracan, but it is significantly roomier, converting a highly
strung Sunday-morning special into a comfortable and spacious
weekender. There is more storage space behind the seats plus a bigger
boot. Visibility is less claustrophobic, too, helped by the tapered
shape of the Alleggerita seats, and the redesigned interface is a step in
the right direction. The huge shift paddles are 100 per cent failsafe,
IT’S SIGNIFICANTLY
ROOMIER THAN THE
HURACAN, IF NOT QUITE
AS RAW, INVOLVING
AND EMOTIONAL
but the switch-operated indicator keeps playing a game of chance
whenever you exit a roundabout, and the four control knobs which
hug the steering wheel and let you fine-tune the dynamic settings are
small and flimsy. Although the Temerario is 20 per cent stiffer than
the model it replaces, this particular specimen would occasionally
rustle and groan over crests and on broken-up turf.
Homebound for Sant’Agata, joining a stream of red tail lights on
the Ravenna-Bologna autostrada, I get a chance to assess the last two
days – two days dominated by that engine. It sounds intensely twodimensional,
which is at times more tiring than inspiring. But it does
make this car go like stink. A car that has grown quite big and heavy.
While the e-motors help orchestrate a fine handling balance, the
brutal combined power output almost closes the performance gap to
the much more expensive Revuelto and Ferrari 849 Testarossa. True,
the noisy, loud and acoustically underwhelming V8 makes this
Lamborghini harder to love than expected. But as a driving machine,
it ticks all the boxes: it is fast, involving and rewarding. Just stop
imagining what it could be like had that iconic V10 somehow been
granted a fresh lease of life.
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