2018 Lamborghini Urus Will Use Twin-Turbo V8
By Paulo Acoba
Lamborghini’s SUV was given the green light last year and it looks like they’ll be stuffing a Twin Turbo V8 under the hood.
If you ever wondered if there was going to be a sequel to that ever popular Lamborghini LM002 built between 1986 and 1993, wonder no longer as Auto Car’s has confirmed that a suitable engine has been found. According to Auto Car’s latest report on the Urus’s potential power plant earlier Monday, Cheif Executive officer Stephan Winkelmann and R&D boss Maurizio Reggiani both have confirmed that a naturally aspirated V10 and V12 unit will be sidestepped for a more powerful twin-turbocharged eight-cylinder unit with 4.0 litres.
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The reasons behind the switch to a turbocharged powerplant are much of the same reasons many of these boutique supercar manufacturers choose a turbocharged unit. For one, they’ll be more fuel efficient if you put around town and never really put your foot down. When you do unleash all 4.0 litres of power, Urus owners will come to appreciate the turbo’s low-end torque as well as high-end power characteristic of a turbo setup.
"“In acceleration and in off-road capability it is really important to have a high level of torque, in order to move as quickly as possible and in an off-road situation to have the ability to come out of a critical situation easily. We decided that a turbo for a super sport SUV is the best choice. The engine must be light and powerful and with the capability with this torque at low revs to allow the car to be ‘elastic’ in every type of condition.”"
Lamborghini has been hard at work bench testing against its competitors, mainly Lexus, and when Winkelmann took a prototype out on the track, he was more than impressed at how it handled.
"“In early autumn I drove a prototype for the first time on a racetrack and the performance was great,” he said. “I was astonished; it was more than any of us expected, which is a car that is very powerful but easy to drive, with very good handling, and also in terms of driveability and comfort, it has a limousine feel in an SUV. This is very important to us."
Winkelmann also confirmed that variants such as a Super Veloce or hybrid powertrain aren’t entirely off the table.
But when it comes to the interior and overall driving characteristics of the Urus, don’t expect Lamborghini to be tuning this SUV to be an all out track machine as comfort and usability will take priority over being a bigger, taller race car that happens to be able to go off-road.
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Lamborghini might say this Urus has off-roading credentials with all that power and a sizeable amount of ground clearance, but let’s make one thing clear. The target market won’t even come close to unleashing all the power this twin-turbocharged V8 will make nor will they ever take it off-road. And yes, Lamborghini will sell Uruses (Uri?) like hotcakes.