Weekend Drive by Hormazd Sorabjee: Viva la Revuelution
Lamborghini’s newest hybrid supercar, the Revuelto, is an improvement over all its predecessors, potentially making it the best model the brand has ever built
Calling it the greatest Lamborghini ever may be a bit premature. But all I could do was spout superlatives after driving the revolutionary Revuelto for 10 hard laps of the Valellunga circuit outside Rome. This super sports car is the legendary Italian brand’s ticket into an increasingly electrified future. It’s a plug-in hybrid; it can run on pure electric power for short distances (8-10km). But no one in their right mind would buy a Revuelto for silent, pure electric driving, unless they want to sneak out of their homes on an early Sunday morning without waking up the neighbours. The three electric motors play a supporting role for the main show: The glorious 6.5 litre V12 engine.
Lamborghini’s flagship models, right from the Miura 60 years ago, have all had V12s. The Revuelto gets the latest 6.5-litre version, which is lighter, more powerful and revs to a dizzy 9,500rpm! There’s a brand new 8-speed gearbox, which has no reverse gear. The Revuelto was conceived by picking off, one-by-one, all the flaws of its predecessor, the raw, brutal Aventador. The powertrain is butter smooth in comparison, the cabin more spacious and better equipped. The handling too has been tidied up. Perhaps the only thing that isn’t revolutionary are the looks. You know instantly this is a Lamborghini: Angry ‘shark’ nose, wide haunches and scissor doors that dramatically open skywards.
The Revuelto’s seats are now broader and more plush, and there’s finally a place to put your mobile phone -- a broad charging pad in the centre console.There are no analogue dials. Instead, you get three highly configurable screens, allowing you to move icons and functions from one screen to another.
The other shocker is the smoothness with which the Revuelto slowly trundled down the Vallelunga circuit pit lane. High-performance super cars don’t like being driven slowly. They feel clunky, fidgety and out of their comfort zone. Not the Revuelto. It seamlessly blends electric power and the thunderous V12 engine. With 1015hp on tap, it goes 0-100kph in 2.5 seconds, one of the fastest accelerating production cars in the world.
The kidney-flattening shove you get when you put your foot down on the accelerator is immense. Before I knew it, I was hitting 250kph. Because it’s a hybrid, the response is instant and the electric motors neatly bridge the gap in the engine’s powerband at low revs. The V12 sounds absolutely glorious and Lamborghini purists will be pleased to know that hybridisation hasn’t dulled the Revuelto’s character. Four wheel-drive and rear-wheel steering makes it stable and agile in equal measure. This gave me the confidence to push harder than I ever imagined.
This combination of performance, brilliant handling and that it can be driven really fast by ordinary drivers has taken Lamborghini to a different level. Lamborghini’s future looks exciting, and expensive. On-road prices will breach the ₹10 crore mark when it goes on sale this December.
