We tested the Lamborghini Huracán Evo and Urus: it's a toss-up…

Not every day does one wake up with an appointment like this in the diary: “Lamborghini Days”. First, of course, there is a short talk about the brand’s current situation and its future plans… which feels endless with the cars waiting impatiently to be “tamed”. But we are here for that, and before driving, Lamborghini have some things to share and tell.

The first is that the brand is going full throttle. So much so that the forecast for this year 2021 is to close the year with a new sales record, surpassing the 8,205 units sold in 2019. Much of the success is due to the arrival of the Urus in the range in 2018, which led Lamborghini to expand its facilities in Sant’Agata Bolognese to an area of 160,000 square metres, doubling the surface area compared with 2015.

Today, Lamborghini has a presence in 51 countries, with 38% of sales in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa), 35% in the American market and 27% in Asia-Pacific. The brand has two dealerships in Spain, each with its showroom and workshop: one in Madrid and another in Barcelona.

The future of Lamborghini is also electrified

The Italian brand has also recently announced that it will invest 1.5 billion euros to reduce the emissions of its fleet of vehicles by 50%. And this inevitably involves electrification. In 2023 production of the current V12 combustion engine will come to an end, to launch new plug-in hybrid propulsion systems. From 2024 onwards, no Lamborghini will be sold that is not electrified.

That year is also the one marked on the calendar as the year in which Lamborghini will have in its range a sports car with 100 percent electric propulsion. According to the brand, it will be a car that sets new standards in its category. Meanwhile, Lamborghini continues to sail with the wind behind it. The limited series of 600 units of the Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae is completely sold out. The 112 units of the Lamborghini Countach due to be built (priced at over 2 million euros before taxes) all have names and surnames even before their presentation.

And both the Huracán and the Urus maintain the expected demand. We didn’t need to drive them to understand why, but since they offered, we couldn’t say no…

Lamborghini Urus

I confess, before getting into the Lamborghini Urus I couldn’t stop thinking about whether it would be justified to pay almost 90,000 euros more (its price is around 250,000 euros) for the SUV from Lamborghini compared with its “first cousin”, the Audi RS Q8. It must be a matter of “professional deformation”, because I’m not going to buy an Urus -I’d love to-, nor do I think anyone who might be thinking of buying one will read my opinion on the matter here.

But car enthusiasts need to know this: the Urus offers everything you’d expect from a Lamborghini, and much more than anyone could imagine from an SUV. Of the cars with this type of body that I’ve been able to test, there are undoubtedly two brands that have shown they are capable of performing miracles with a type of car that, on paper, is the antithesis of what a sports car should be. One is Porsche with the Macan; the other is Lamborghini and this Urus. When I test it (not long to go now) I’ll probably add Audi and its RS Q8. Because no Audi with the letters RS disappoints in this respect, and the “Urus” from the brand with the four rings will do so least of all.

650 hp V8 engine, four-wheel drive and steering

Its engine is the twin-turbo V8, capable of generating 650 hp of maximum power. When driven efficiently, it can deactivate a bank of cylinders to improve consumption; but even so, don’t expect figures of less than double digits. In any case, that’s not something that will concern the owner of a car like this.

What will concern them is its performance: from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, less than 13 seconds to accelerate from standstill to 200 km/h and a top speed of 305 km/h. Okay, you’re surely thinking that a Tesla Model X accelerates even faster. But I assure you it’s not the same, and it’s not just a question of noise, but of sensations. Sportiness isn’t measured solely by how quickly a car can accelerate in a straight line, and this is a clear example.

The route didn’t allow for much, but I was able to drive the Urus enough kilometres on motorways and winding roads to be amazed by something I didn’t expect. Because from a “Lambo” you expect character, an extreme and radical dynamic behaviour. And the Urus, like a good “Lambo”, can be wild… but it’s also a perfectly usable car for everyday life. Not only because of its boot, with over 600 litres of capacity, or its cabin with up to five seats. Also for general comfort: suspension, noise, the feel of the controls…

And furthermore, it’s very easy to drive fast… if the road is wide enough. As in the RS Q8, a self-locking differential central Torsen distributes the engine’s power in a clearly rear-biased ratio: 40/60. And on the rear axle, a torque vectoring system helps make the behaviour even more sporty. The four-wheel steering and air suspension help ensure that the work with this “bull” doesn’t require going through the banderilla stage.

When you start linking bends and choose the sportiest mode on the driving programme selector, you can simply forget that you’re driving a car weighing over 2.2 tonnes with a very high centre of gravity, and focus on enjoying a unique SUV. Power is never lacking, not even when you’re trying to reach the next bend as quickly as possible… nor when it’s time to brake the “beast”. You don’t have to worry too much about modulating your right foot either, because the all-wheel drive and the tyres protest, but they do their job. The gearbox is lightning-fast, as is the steering. And the bodywork doesn’t lean even if you insist. Almost certainly many of its owners will be satisfied simply knowing what their car is capable of, even if they never dare to explore its limits.

Image gallery Lamborghini Urus

Lamborghini Huracán Evo

Now it’s time to face the second bull, which even from standstill tries to intimidate with a defiant stare. Rarely does a car have a name so well chosen: Huracán (Hurricane). It’s now called Huracán EVO, since it received a major update in 2019. It comes in two versions, one with rear-wheel drive and 610 hp, and another with four-wheel drive and 640 hp, which is the one I was able to drive. In both cases the power comes from a naturally aspirated 5.2-litre V10 petrol engine that you’ll probably be familiar with. A hint? Read this test of the Audi R8 Spyder V10. The price starts from around 216,000 euros for the rear-wheel-drive version, and from 250,000 euros for the all-wheel-drive one.

Again, we need to talk about performance to set the scene. We’re dealing with a car capable of accelerating from 0 to 100 km/h in almost the time it takes to press the stopwatch start button and press it again to stop it: 2.9 seconds (the RWD takes almost half a second longer). To go from 0 to 200 km/h it needs 9 seconds, a figure that already allows us to classify as fast a family car that reaches half that speed in the same time. Power in this case reaches all four wheels through a Haldex-type differential, and a self-locking differential is added on the rear axle.

After driving the Urus, the first few moments create a strange sensation going from such a tall car to sitting almost with your backside on the floor… until you lift the hexagonal cover on the console to press the start button, in the purest fighter-jet style, and give the first burst of acceleration. Then you forget everything else and just want to reach your favourite winding road as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, I take the chance to familiarise myself with the controls, although in reality practically everything you need is on the steering wheel. Even the indicators are operated by buttons, instead of the classic stalk. The reversing camera helps with manoeuvres, and the function that raises the suspension so as not to scrape over speed bumps makes life easier on urban stretches, where the best thing is not to pay attention to the strange way people look at you as you pass by in a car like this.

640 hp naturally aspirated V10 engine, all-wheel drive and ceramic discs

If the Urus’s V8 already gave us a good time, setting aside for a moment any trace of electrification, the naturally aspirated V10 is simply… a hurricane. And to feel its full force you only need to use the button on the lower part of the steering wheel, select Sport or Corsa modes and “play” with the huge fixed paddles behind the steering wheel. You’ll use them again and again, even when it isn’t necessary, to feel the gearbox change up almost at machine-gun pace, while the digital instrumentation keeps reminding us that the V10 can rev with a marvellous sound well past 8,000 rpm.

And what happens when the bends arrive? Well, first, the tremendous power of the ceramic brakes on this version, inexhaustible no matter how hard you try otherwise, will make you rethink again and again when you can stop accelerating. Second, the scale of what you can call “sporty” is different when you’re talking about an Urus and when it comes to the Huracán, although in both cases we’re at the wheel of a Lamborghini. Physics doesn’t lie, and here we’re talking about just over 1,400 kg (almost 800 kg less than the Urus, you know what that does to the power-to-weight ratio) and, just as importantly, a low centre of gravity: right down at asphalt level.

Then there’s the four-wheel steering, which helps a lot too. But above all, a magnificent balance in precision, agility, speed of response, reactions… Though don’t lose your respect for it. The Huracán isn’t one of those supercars that “batters” you when you drive it. But you should never lose respect for a fighting bull, no matter how well you think the bullfight is going.

Image gallery Lamborghini Huracán

Technical specifications of the cars in this article

RoadsterLamborghini Huracán4 versions · from 269,904 €

CrossoverLamborghini Urus3 versions · from 265,895 €