Five stars wouldn’t do justice to Lambo’s new supercar
I wasn’t interested in Lamborghini’s new hybrid supercar - until they loaned me one for a week. God, driving this car is exciting. It’s like you’re in charge of a solar system.
A few years ago, at a Sunday Times dinner, I sat next to one of the bosses at Lamborghini, and he told me – in a spittle-speckled, table-thumping rage – that if he was ever forced to make an electric car he would shoot himself. I felt sorry for the man. So I made sympathetic noises and we drank some wine and we agreed that if Lamborghini was ever forced to use electricity as a means of propulsion, it would be the end of the world and we would shoot each other.
Since then, of course, he’s been left with no choice. UK government regulations mean that before long, cars that run on petrol alone will not be allowed. And there’s no escape. Even low-volume makers of supercars are being forced down the eco route and it’s filling me with despair.
In recent weeks I’ve tried hybrids from Ferrari and McLaren, which are very nice, but you can never quite get it out of your head that they were built this way because of those regulations.
The thing is, McLaren and Ferrari are serious carmakers who make serious cars. They focus hard on engineering and lap times, so the electrical assistance might even be seen by some of their fans as a boon. It mirrors the drive systems in Formula 1, and when all is said and done you do get staccato pinpricks of electrical power between gear changes.
But Lamborghini is different. Lamborghini is not involved in Formula 1 because it has no time for staccato pinpricks of power. Lambo doesn’t do pinpricks. It’s about artillery. It’s not science or nerd-tech either. It just paints its cars purple and would, given half a chance, equip them with space lasers. This is why I’ve always maintained that the Lamborghini Aventador was the best supercar of them all. Let’s face facts. A car you can’t really climb into that costs more than £300,000 ($597,000) is daft. And if you’re going to be daft, be very daft. The Aventador actually produced a strange blue flame from its exhausts on the overrun. I have no idea what it was, but I know what it was for. To make small boys jump up and down with excitement while clutching their tinkles.
If you liken supercars to theatre, Ferrari is Ibsen, McLaren is Chekhov and Lamborghini is panto. It’s all heavy make-up and shouting. I loved the Aventador. My 300km/h day with it at the Imola track in northern Italy, howling around with the brakes glowing orange in the evening light, is one of the best I ever had. So I was sad to hear it would be going out of production, and even sadder to hear its replacement would be a hybrid. A hybrid Lambo is wrong. It’s like Aled Jones doing an acoustic version of Highway to Hell.
The new car would be called the Revuelto, which I thought was Italian for revolting, and so for nearly two years I refused to even think about it. But then Lambo sent one round for a week-long loan. And I had to admit it definitely had presence. There was a lot of styling. There was styling on the styling. It was busier to behold than the front page of a Japanese newspaper. But somehow it worked.
My cleaning lady has never once commented on any car that has ever come to my house. There have been many bobby-dazzlers over the years and she’s ignored all of them. But she was so stunned by the Revuelto that she insisted on sitting in it and hearing what it sounded like.
It was delivered during a subzero cold snap in January when the roads were ribbons of black ice, so I couldn’t actually drive it. Yes, it has four-wheel drive, but the power unit chucks out nearly a thousand brake horsepower. And driving with that kind of power on sheet ice? That’d be like sharing your bath with a toaster.
So rather than driving it, I read the bumf, and you don’t have to dig very deep to find out that while it is technically a hybrid, the battery is like one of those 9V jobs you get in a torch. You charge it using the sort of cable you get with a child’s toy, in just six minutes. And so far as I can tell the electrical motors are only really used for reversing. Lambo says there are three electric motors – one for each of the front wheels, and another to start the 6.5-litre V12 engine. Er. So that’s just a starter motor then. No wonder my Lambo friend hadn’t shot himself. He’d simply built a hybrid that is basically no such thing.
Excited by what I’d learnt, I couldn’t wait to drive it – and happily, two days later, it was warm enough. So you start it up and, initially, you’re on electrical power. In most hybrids there’s enough to get you to work. In the Revuelto it got me to my gates. Then, with the roar of an angry god, the V12 burst into life. God, it’s exciting. It’s like you’re in charge of a solar system. And get this. There were no warning buzzes and sirens if I strayed over the speed limit or momentarily crossed the white line. Or maybe there were but Lamborghini has made them so quiet only a dog could hear them. That would be a very Lambo thing to do.
To drive? What can I tell you? I honestly don’t know where to begin with the steering and the grip and the noise of that transversely mounted V12. It’s all just mad. Absolutely mad.
And even at sociable speeds it’s still mad, which cheers you up no end. Even in London, in a traffic jam, in the rain, it felt like I was being tickled. You giggle at all the weird clonking noises as you change gear and the judders from the front tyres as you try to park. It’s made from all sorts of exotic compounds but it feels like you’re in a steam train.
That said, the interior is beautifully finished and there’s absolutely no evidence it was made using switches and knobs from the Audi parts bin. My only gripe is that Lamborghini has followed Ferrari and put all the buttons you need on the steering wheel. Which, because it’s a steering wheel, means they move about. So nothing’s ever where you expect it to be.
I suppose I could also gripe at the price tag. But that matches the excessiveness of everything else. This is a Spinal Tap car. It goes to 11 everywhere. And so I’m going to do the same with its star rating. The maximum I can award is five. So I’m giving it six.
LAMBORGHINI REVUELTO
Engine: 6.5-litre V12 twin-turbo petrol plus three electric motors
Performance: 0-100km/h 2.5 seconds, top speed 349km/h
Price: From $987,900
Stars: ★★★★★★
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