The
weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth you hear is the collective agony
of the supercar cognoscenti freaking out about this: the Lamborghini
Urus. It’s an all-new SUV from Sant’Agata, and despite Lambo’s claims
that it’s strictly a concept, expect to see the Urus on roads within the
next few years.
While
the idea of a Lamborghini crossover might be surprising to anyone who
wasn’t poring over car mags in their misspent youth, this isn’t
Lamborghini’s first ‘ute. That illustrious distinction goes to theLM002 (pictured
below). Disaffectionately referred to as the “Rambo Lambo” for its
propensity to appear in ’80s-era B-class action flicks, Lamborghini only
managed to offload around 300 LM002s to coke-addled movie execs and
oil-rich Middle Easterners before the finicky, unreliable off-roader was
killed in 1992.
Let’s be clear: The Urus is not an LM002 redux.
Instead, it’s a play by Lamborghini to get Aventador and
Gallardo owners to trade in their Porsche Cayenne Turbos, BMW X5 Ms and
Mercedes-Benz G63s for something just as ostentatious and even more
powerful. In other words, Lambo wants to keep these people in the family
by appealing to families.
To
do that, Lamborghini fitted the Urus with four seats, a right-sized
luggage compartment and a touchscreen entertainment system to keep the
kiddies in back at bay. And partnered with a variable height suspension
setup for boosted ground clearance and command-view seating, along with
Lamborghini’s permanent all-wheel drive system, the automaker claims the
Urus can “be used by a household as its primary car … to meet all the
demands of everyday mobility.”
But
being a Lamborghini requires the injection of a certain amount of
insanity, and that starts with power — 600 horsepower, to be precise.
Lamborghini
isn’t divulging exactly what powerplant lives underneath that pointed,
angular hood, but considering the automaker claims that the Urus will
boast the lowest CO2 emissions
of any vehicle in its class, we suspect that some manner of
turbocharging will be applied to Lambo’s V10. Getting that power to all
four wheels will be a dual-clutch gearbox, controlled by a pair of
paddle shifters on the multifunction steering wheel which nixes the
traditional turn signal and windshield stalks for an array of buttons.
The
other key aspect of keeping emissions and fuel economy down is through
the use of lightweight components. The carbon fiber and aluminum
treatment of past Lamborghinis has made its way inside, with seats,
dashboard components and assorted structural bits created through a new
process dubbed “Forged Composite” and originally seen on the Sesto Elemento concept.
Lambo wants to keep these people in the family by appealing to families
Aerodynamics
is another influencer in the Urus’ design, ranging from an array of
active aerodynamics that shift position depending on speed and load, to
Lamborghini’s decision to pull the side mirrors and replace them with
two small cameras feeding live images to TFT displays mounted on either
side of the cockpit.
It
doesn’t come as a surprise that Lamborghini chose the Beijing Motor
Show for the debut. The automaker estimates that it could sell around
3,000 Urus SUVs each year, primarily in the United States and U.K.,
along with the conspicuous consumption capitals of the world: Russia,
the Middle East and China.
If
given the green light, the Urus should go on sale by the end of 2014,
and all indications point to Stephan Winkelmann, President and CEO of
Automobili Lamborghini, and the execs at Lambo’s Volkswagen parents
doing just that based on how the SUV is received.
So
consider the Urus is a return to Lamborghini’s roots, which started
humbly enough when Ferruccio Lamborghini got into the mobility business
with his first product: a tractor.
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