Meet Lamborghini’s new V12 flagship supercar

Lamborghini’s new V12 flagship supercar.

The unveiling of Lamborghini’s flagship is a decade-defining moment, with lasting repercussions for the automotive world. And 13 years after Lamborghini took the wraps off the Aventador, it unveiled its even more powerful successor. It’s called the Revuelto, and it’s, thankfully, also powered by a naturally-aspirated V12. With all European car brands teetering closer to their carbon-neutral deadline, there was much speculation whether the next flagship Lamborghini, whose ancestral tree includes the likes of the beautiful Miura, the mighty Countach and the absolutely bonkers Diablo, would have to downsize in order to meet strict emission regulations. Thankfully, Lamborghini found a way around this – a hybrid powertrain.

The V12 lives!

So the Revuelto is powered by a naturally-aspirated V12, but that’s not the only thing it’s powered by. In a first for a series-production Lambo, the V12 is accompanied by a plug-in hybrid system featuring three electric motors and a lithium-ion battery pack that’s housed within the central transmission tunnel, in order to manage the centre of gravity, and distribute the weight of this mid-engined beast more effectively. Two of these electric motors are mounted to the front axle (making this a four-wheel drive supercar by default) while the third has been neatly integrated into the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Good to see that Lamborghini still has the ability to surprise its fans.

Not that this car comes to anyone in the know, as a surprise. The talk of a plug-in hybrid flagship has been in talks for a while, with the codename LB744. However, as is customary, Lambo has flipped through its bull and matador name book and stuck with Revuelto, something of a celebrity fighter bull (the bull was a fighter and did not fight celebrities) in Barcelona, back in the late 19th century. The Revuelto also gets an all-new V12 engine, along with an all-new gearbox. The placement angle of the cylinders has changed, as has the overall weight of the engine which is 17 kg less than the V12 block on the Aventador. As a result, performance has been amplified by 30 percent and emissions are lowered by the same amount.

The engine makes 814 bhp and revs about 1,000 rpm higher than the previous one (9500 rpm, to be specific). The car can be driven in pure-EV mode alone, thanks to each motor producing 110 kW of power, but work best when supplanting the V12’s massive power output to produce an even more massive 1001 bhp in the track attack Corsa mode.

Design

This is where things get polarising. The Aventador was criticised for something that looked a bit too much like the limited edition Reventon that preceded it and the Revuelto looks a lot like the Aventador. Neither of those are bad things. Suffice it to say that the Revuelto, while looking slightly derivative, is still very recognisable as a Lamborghini and looks considerably more extroverted than, say, the Ferrari SF90 - it’s a rivalling, hybrid supercar. Edges are sharper and air dams are larger. In fact, the car uses active aero to deliver 66 percent more downforce than its predecessor, which will come in handy when you’re putting all that power down on a racetrack.

THE USP

This is a very technical car, carrying a lot of power and a lot of bulk but is designed to have the reactions of a much smaller and lighter car. As a result, there are a grand total of 13 driving modes (good luck getting out of the pit lane quickly) that you can choose from including Recharge, Hybrid, Performance and Città the latter allowing you to quietly drive this behemoth in city traffic, powered by nothing but pure electricity limited to 180bhp only. The Revuelto then promises to be a supercar driving experience unlike any other.