Lamborghini Temerario review

Those are three words that have to cover a lot of intellectual distance when it comes to Lamborghini’s new Temerario – which translates as ‘reckless’ or ‘fearless’ by the way – simply because this is a car that has a lot going on.

At the bare descriptor stage, it’s Lamborghini’s replacement for the V10 Huracan; a supercar that’s cheaper, more usable, less anxiety-inducing and more subtle than the Revuelto. So you get a car with more space, conventional doors, but a mid-mounted 4.0-litre ‘hot vee’ V8 with a flat-plane crank and two turbos.

Oh, and an electric motor wedged between the motor and eight-speed double-clutch transmission, plus two more on the front e-axle to give all-wheel drive. Total system outputs are supercar-startling; 907bhp and 538lb ft all told, punching the car from rest to 62mph in 2.7 seconds and on to a top speed north of 213mph.

It’s some 250kg+ heavier than the outgoing car, but with enough power to see to that. Base of the range you say? More like rocketship daily. 

Sounds.. complex.

That’s because it very much is. This engine and drivetrain is multifaceted, but also insanely complicated. Designed as a clean-sheet by Lamborghini, it’s the second car in the company’s HPEV (High Performance Electrified Vehicle) pantheon, and features turbos big enough to provide boost at the 10,000rpm redline, counterweighted by electric motor torque at the bottom end to eliminate lag; the EV backfill that shores up the power/torque curve.

The real genius here is that Lamborghini has managed to build a car and drivetrain that sounds ridiculously complex, but drives with nuance and fluidity – it doesn’t feel forced or computer gamey, even with the e-AWD element – although home mechanics are going to be really confused in 20-years’ time.

You won’t need a set of spanners so much as a supercomputer and PHD in computer science to fix it. It’s got a plug, and you can stick an extra 10km of range into it for pure EV running too, so it’s a proper hybrid.

It looks… very Lamborghini.

And yet relatively subtle as these things go, especially in the less outré colours. The front is a pleasing scowl that’s free of some of the OTT aggression that some supercars greet you with, a wide front bracketed by a pair of hexagonal daytime running lights – one of Lamborghini’s notable design themes throughout the car. Lights that also feature a cooling inlet in the middle.

There’s some subtle aero running up and through that front all the time; air channelled and massaged to variously create downforce or provide cooling for the front brakes. The profile is pleasingly shrink-wrapped, again with air convinced into the various rear inlets to feed and cool the engine – 10k rpm and turbos generates a prodigious amount of heat. But the engine is exposed in the rear, the roof concave and shaped so that it feeds dorsal air to the rear spoiler.

Then at the back, it’s more hexagons for the rear lights and various holes and Venturis that manage rear airflow, with a big – you guessed it – hexagonal exhaust high in the rear valance. 

Like all ‘baby’ Lamborghinis – especially the Huracan – it’s a relatively restrained but impactful design in this basic format, and all the better for it. We love wings ’n’ things, but a good basic design works wonders: the Temerario feels like a supercar, and looks like one too.

Saying that, there’s the ‘Alleggerita’ or ‘lightweight’ package for a bit more visual oomph and track-orientated aero. It loses only 30kg if optioned with the carbon wheels (which is a big lunch for some people), but the additional carbon elements of bodywork (extended splitter, side-skirts, slightly larger side side inlets rear hatch, and more aggressive spoiler), plus CF doorcards and sports seats are apparently worth an extra 67 per cent downforce and 62 per cent of aero efficiency. Hard to verify without your own wind tunnel, mind you. 

Has it got any tricks?

Lots. You can actually drive the Temerario purely on electricity (although specific EV range is a few miles only), where it uses the same 3.8kWh battery as the Revuelto that sits in a spine arrangement in the centre of the cabin (where a transmission tunnel would usually be) to power the front motor. So that’s a front-wheel drive, 78bhp-ish Lambo for you.

Then there are various driving modes (more on those in the Driving section), including a three-stage drifty suite of electronics that allows for – if not risk-free – mitigated risk sideways action. Added to that, it’s a very connected and technologically advanced little Lamborghini. And it all works. 

What’s the experience like?

Calm and usable when pottering, somewhat intense when you get somewhere you can actually stretch the powertrain. Which is basically on-track, seeing as above third gear you’ll be looking at serious fines if not prison time if you get caught.

It hasn’t got the aural drama of the V10 – which is expected – but sounds a bit chuntery and industrial at times and especially at lower revs. That’s a flat-plane V8 for you. But there’s something special up at 6,500-10,000 rpm, which you have to work for.

Handling-wise it’s actually largely benign, more rear-wheel drive biased in Sport mode, more pointy in the Corsa elements, where it feels like you get more help from the torque-vectoring front e-axle. It doesn’t feel like a track car (we’ve only driven it on track so far), so we’d want to get it on a road to get the full impression, but it’s fun, easy to handle and very, very fast.

It’s only a tiny bit lighter than the Revuelto (unlike its big brother, the Temerario hasn’t got a carbon tub), but it hasn’t got an awful lot less power. Because it’s easier and less intimidating to drive, it’s not practically very far away in the hands of normal drivers – and that’s saying something.

The Temerario is a complex, fascinating and deeply technical super sports car. No, it’s not got the easy win of a dramatic V10, but Lamborghini has a good idea of what it means to be a Lambo, and have tried very hard to inject that naughtiness that everybody expects.

A 10,000rpm redline is a great start, the integration of the e-axle a good way of delivering that power to the ground. It’s also ridiculously quick, operating at near-800bhp even when the battery is completely depleted – and one good series of braking zones and the battery will be back and usable anyway.

It’s not as raw – or as immediately intimidating – as something like a Ferrari 296GTB or McLaren 750S, but at the same time, that might make it a more usable daily, albeit one that can similarly make you swallow your tongue when the mood takes you.

There’s also considerable headroom for more hardcore versions during the lifecycle – this is the first Temerario, supposedly the most amiable, and it’s got serious chops. Better than the last V10 Huracans? Yes, but in a different way. The fact that we’re getting a twin-turbo V8 with hybrid help should be celebrated - it’s something not easy to do with current global regulations.