Wowza! Lamborghini just dropped its much-anticipated Huracan replacement and its more powerful than we expected. Way more powerful!
As expected, the highlight of the Lamborghini Temerario is the new 4.0-litre twin turbo. And no, as we emphasized before, it is not a simple remake of Audi’s ubiquitous 4.0L. In fact, the new flat-plane crank V8 is an all-Lamborghini design that sings all the way to a truly headstrong 10,000 rpm. In doing so, it slams out 800 CV at 9,750 rpm. Translated into good, ole Society of Automotive Engineering SAE-rated horsepower, that’s 789 ponies, barely a blink off the magical 200-hp-per-litre mark. There is also, proving the new engine isn’t just some peaky, hard-to-drive beast, a very sincere 538 pound-feet of torque available all the way from 4,000 rpm to 7,000. Better yet, there’s almost assuredly more to be had. Lamborghini’s engineers have imbued the fast-spinning bi-turbo with lighter and stronger titanium connecting rods and claims that the DLC-coated valvetrain is actually good for 11,000 rpm. In other words, all by its own self, the new L411 would be an impressive piece of kit.
It is not the sole motivator of the new Temerario. Like all recent Lambos, the new Huracan replacement is a hybrid with no less than three electric motors. All three motors are of the latest axial flux design and each pumps out an identical 110-kilowatts (148-hp) but weigh just 15.5 kilograms apiece. One is sandwiched between the engine and the gearbox and two on the front axle, one for each wheel allowing complete and instantaneous control over torque vectoring. The other, again sandwiched between the engine and gearbox, uses its 221 pound-feet to ‘torque-fill’ any turbo lag below 4,000 rpm. Tally it all up and the new Temerario is good for 920 CV — 907-hp — a marked increase over the outgoing Huracan. It also lets the new Lambo scamper to 100 kilometres an hour in a very hypercar-like 2.7 seconds and hit 343 km/h if all the bulls are let loose.
Like the Revuelto, the Temerario is a plug-in hybrid. It’s tiny battery — barely a metre-and-a-half long and 240-millimetres wide — is good for 3.8 kilowatt-hours and can be recharged in half-an-hour using basic 7-kW charging or, in its (self) Recharge mode, using the big V8 to generate the necessary electricity . It is also good enough to power the Temerario with 187-hp in its all-electric mode, though Lamborghini doesn’t say for how long.
Despite all this talk of electrification, Lamborghini has put special emphasis on the gas engine harmonics. Normally a flat-plane crank V8 that spins to 10,000 rpm needs no help in the sound department. Nevertheless, the engineers from Sant’Agata Bolognese have gone to the trouble to connect the two engine banks to emphasize all the internal combustion. As well, an exhaust valve opens up the symphony to all at higher speeds. Even the routing of the tailpipes emphasizes that the Lambo runs primarily on pistons, the transverse piping, in Lamborghini’s words, “focussing the sharpness of the engine with a high frequency component, emphasizing its power.”
And lastly, possibly establishing a new record, the Temerario boasts no less than 13 driving modes (a few of which I will, no doubt miss). First of all, there are the traditional Città, Strada, Sport, Corsa and Corsa Plus, this last shutting down ESC completely. Then there is Launch Control, which maximizes engine and traction motor torque so you can blast to that 2.7s, 100 km/h time. In hybrid operation, there are Recharge, Hybrid and Performance modes. Recharge, as I said, replenishes the battery, but in doing so, restricts the gas engine’s performance to 714-hp. Hybrid is a regular fuel economy maximizing system while Performance is simply all-hands-on-deck with the plug-in battery dumping kilowatts as fast as it can. And finally, there is — shades of Rimac Nevera — a drift mode. Actually, there are three levels of Drift, level one allowing beginner levels of oversteer while level three allows experts to get their yaw on.
The Temerario will be available in the third quarter of 2025 and don’t expect much change from $430,000.
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