Lamborghini Revuelto review

This is Lambo’s halo car, the car that sets the dynamic tone for everything else electrified that will inevitably follow. You can tell immediately that the engineers haven’t just gone through the motions. They’ve kept the character and charisma that makes Lamborghinis such a force of nature to drive, but added a layer of polish and dynamism that is entirely new.

How do you know?

Because the first thing they did when we initially drove it in Italy was wheel out an Aventador SVJ, and send us out to have a play in that. And it was a lot of fun. Good communication, but quite fighty and moves around a lot through corners. At high speeds there was some twist, pitch and bobble around Nardo’s handling track, and at lower speeds the 4WD’s mechanical differentials were a mite clumsy. You know where you are with it, you’re having a blast, but in 2023 it feels at least a decade out of date.

What’s the big takeaway from the Revuelto?

The punch out of corners. It’s the same with both the SF90 and Porsche’s 918 Spyder as well. That’s the electric advantage, filling the gap before the engine is fully stoked and doing it absolutely instantly. In the 918 you get huge electric thrust before the handover to internal combustion, here it’s less – chiefly because the V12 packs such a punch.

So you feed it in out of a slow corner and feel the electric motors haul the front wheels to negate understeer and keep the line tight. But it’s not blunt force, it’s nuanced, the power evenly and effectively distributed between the wheels. It ensures you basically jet the first 20-30 yards out of the corner, and by that stage the V12 is fully lit.

So it has the torque it needs?

Absolutely. This is acceleration with impact. It’s notably faster than the Aventador SVJ, both in a straight line from low revs, and getting out of corners. But more than that it’s the trust and confidence you have in its manners that sets it apart.

Take the gearbox and brakes. The old gearbox shunted so hard that you were worried it might cause wheels to lock or spin - it did upset mid-corner balance. Now it just fires the shifts through with zero fuss. As for the brakes, one of the big issues for super sports cars is the handover from regen braking to physical pad-on-disc braking. Even Porsche has struggled with this. Not once did we give it a second thought in the Revuelto. That, at least in part, may be because we were only driving on circuit, so using the brakes hard, but aside from them being too sharp at the top of their travel, we found the brakes very reassuring to use. Good firm pedal helps here.

And what about driving on a road?

Two days driving across Wales filled in many blanks. The Revuelto copes brilliantly with our battered buffet of broken B-roads. The damping quality is what stands out. It feels plush. Even twisting the knob for hard damping doesn’t immediately break your spine. There’s composure where once there was histrionics. And it’s calm. Those huge Bridgestone Potenza Sports (265 fronts and 345 rears on 20- and 21-inch wheels don’t kick up nearly as much fuss and noise, nor tramline as badly as we expected.

Traction is phenomenal, braking is where you detect the mass. Trigger the ABS and the Revuelto fights to shed weight, those front tyres almost over-whelmed. It doesn’t slow and change direction as well as a McLaren. The rest of the time, you’re not really aware of the weight, or the hybrid that accounts for it. You feel a surge of power, way thicker than it should be from a V12 at low revs, but by 3,000rpm the handover seems complete. From there to the 9,500rpm cutout is a festival of aural addiction. The musicality of a V12 just can’t be beaten. You don’t need to go to 9,500rpm all the time: there’s massive, massive thrust across the mid-range. Drive with the windows down.

This is a Lambo that doesn’t batter you (except around town, where the ride remains hard and unyielding), and steers very nicely indeed. The centre of gravity is low, so it changes direction easily, the steering is quick but calm. It’s easy to drive smoothly, carrying good speed without effort. The wheel itself is thin-rimmed, sculpted and lovely to hold. Lots of buttons, but the controls are intuitive (except those on the back that control the driver display). Go for Sport mode, let the hybrid sort itself out, keep the dampers soft.

This is an indulgent, rewarding car. It gives you all the drama and texture of the Aventador, but is far more nuanced, deft and fluent. It drives without too much effort from you, copes with clumsiness without threat, and even carries good pace in the wet.

Any drawbacks to it?

We’d like a little bit more steering weight ideally, but Lambo hasn’t fallen into the trap that others have and offered a selection of steering and brake pedal weights in the options menu. Quite rightly, they have just focused on doing one properly.

Steering feel is good, although information comes as much through your backside as the wheel rim. What’s changed is the overall sense of balance. The Aventador was a handful on the limit, this feels more controlled and capable – and that despite having a steering rack that’s now 10 per cent faster (almost as direct as the Huracan STO's).   

How’s the economy and efficiency?

Asked no-one ever about a Lambo! But this is a brave new world, and it matters. The numbers you need are 23.8mpg and 276g/km. Yep, the WLTP figures exaggerate the benefits of electric-only running and once that little battery is flat, you are using the V12 as a generator to recharge it. In reality you can blow through a tank in under 200 miles. And that’s 90 litres. So 10mpg…

Sum it up for us.

The closest Lamborghini has yet come to challenging Ferrari’s chassis dynamics. The Revuelto is not only deeply dramatic and exciting to drive, but this new level of control and integration adds real extra depth to the experience. Lamborghinis have often been seen as the ultimate show-off’s supercar, and given a wide berth by those who enjoy pure driving. The Revuelto reframes the game.