Soul Train Marketing….
As Lamborghini’s first SUV (first modern day SUV, at least) draws closer to a full reveal, the Italian marque is keen to show off its talents, particularly those focused away from the road. So far, they have teased its terrain-specific driving modes via video.
These sort of modes aren’t anything new, especially for an SUV. While Lamborghini performance cars have unique settings for ‘Comfort’, ‘Sport’, and ‘Race’ in some form or another, the expanded all-terrain ability means that even more are needed. Unsurprisingly, they’ve executed this in the most ‘Lamborghini’ way possible.
Via flickable lever on the centre stack, the driver can select between different ‘Anima’ settings, meaning ‘Soul’, which is already funny. The Urus has a Soul button, which is cheesy even for them, and something the late great James Brown might’ve loved. A quick tap up or down runs through the modes for Strada (Road), Sport (duh..), and Corsa (Race), but below this lives the unique Sabbia (Sand), Terra (Land), and Neve (Snow).
Lamborghini have been testing their inaugural SUV extensively in more extreme conditions to make sure that in the unlikely event that a future buyer would actually take their Urus off the road, it would be prepared to tackle deep snow or thick sand dunes or rocky mountainsides.
It certainly does help, then, that their all-wheel drive system and much of their electronic architecture have seen heavy use on other SUVs as well - the perks of being owned by Audi and thereby having access to the vast knowledge and technical component base of the Volkswagen Group. In this light, the hashtag-line Lamborghini is using for the Urus - ‘#SinceWeMadeItPossible - doesn’t really hold much water.
The Urus itself will no doubt be quite devastating on paved surfaces, for sure, but we’ll leave it to these videos and your own judgement to determine whether the high-riding Lambo could/should tough it out in harsher conditions.
Powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine, which is essentially the same unit used in the Bentley Bentayga and Porsche Panamera Turbo, the Urus is also the first Lamborghini to not use atmospheric pressure for combustion. If that’s a shock, Lamborghini has also confirmed that a hybrid version of the Urus will be available further into its lifecycle. Embrace the blasphemy.
The Lamborghini Urus is slated for a full unveil on December 4th, taking place at the company’s headquarters in Sant’Agata, Bolognese in Northern Italy. It would mark the end of the Urus’ protracted journey from concept to production model, having first been unveiled before the crowd at the Beijing Motor Show way back in 2012.
In the intervening 5 years, other high-end sports car makers have also followed the path forged initially by the Porsche Cayenne in the early 2000s, merging the SUV with high performance, and having led them to big money ever since. Now, the Cayenne is now into its third-generation model and Maserati have also launched their own SUV, the Levante.
Meanwhile, Aston Martin has confirmed a product roadmap that includes a coupe-like SUV called the DBX and much talk is brewing about Ferrari dipping their toe into the space as well, kind of a taller rendition of their GTC4Lusso. Heck, even Rolls Royce are getting in on the game.
For more on Lamborghini cars, check out our Showroom.
