As the engine races towards its 9500rpm crescendo, the momentary pause you expect as the gearbox moves up to third is welcome. Yet it never arrives. The power surge continues, the Lamborghini Revuelto frantically flinging you towards the horizon. Next gear, the process repeats itself, the numbers barely letting up. The speedo is perhaps the hardest working component in the car at this point, the numbers maniacally ticking upwards with scarcely believable haste.
Atop third gear a corner approaches and you change tack. Lean into the gargantuan stopping power of the carbon ceramics, pop it back into second with a theatrical thump and keep the naturally aspirated V12 at around 5000rpm, ready to get back on the front foot out of the corner. The guttural howling consumes you and the Surrey countryside around you. “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” said Mike Tyson. The Lamborghini Revuelto repeatedly punches you in the mouth.
There’s barely time to breathe, let alone turn the air blue with swearwords. As if the 6.5ltr naturally aspirated V12 wasn’t enough, Lamborghini have thrown in three electric motors. Alone, the V12 produces 825bhp, making it Lamborghini’s most powerful production engine ever. Not enough, thought the good folks of Sant’Agata, let’s up that to 1015bhp with electricity. 725Nm of torque becomes 807.
Numbers and experience dovetail in harmony here. Seeing such dizzying figures is rapidly becoming the norm, but the experience put on by the Lamborghini Revuelto is not. Here’s a car that packs a punch wherever it goes, from the spec sheet to the road, in person and on paper.
I’d read some other reviews before getting in, of course. Autocar, for example, described the Lamborghini Revuelto as the fastest supercar they’ve tested. I was prepared. Or so I thought.
What’s the Lamborghini Revuelto like to drive?
The truth of the matter is nothing can prepare you for the Lamborghini Revuelto. It’s a supercar dialled up to 11, a Mike Tyson uppercut and an electric shock rolled into one. Now, that might make it sound entirely unmanageable, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
My first foray into the world of the Revuelto came returning home from Hatfield in it. 50 mostly motorway miles were a gentle half volley, a comfortable way in which to become cordially acquainted with the beast. It starts up in EV mode, slinking silently away without raising so much as a murmur. It’s not until you move the lefthand dial round from Citta to Strada that the V12 barks into life.
Your eyes instantly widen. Any illusion that this might be a wee bit toned down, a supercar for the modern era, is dispelled in an instant. Things are getting serious. With the V12 warming in the background, it continues to rely on battery propulsion.
Then the V12 takes over and the party really begins. Pulling onto the M25 the Revuelto required only a breath upon the accelerator to surge up the slip road. You arrive at, erm, 70mph really rather quickly with the cabin pleasingly filled with V12 notes.
At this point the gearbox settles down into eighth and you can bed in for the ride. The active aero rears its head for the first time, consuming a third of your rearward view, but you can make it dance via a button on the right of the steering wheel.
The inescapable comparison point is the Lamborghini Aventador, the Revuelto’s predecessor. This immediately feels more refined and grownup, a supercar with duality to its personality. There’s a softer edge to soothe you after spirited sprints.
What’s the Lamborghini Revuelto really like to drive?
Away from running round the M25, the Lamborghini Revuelto also needs to deliver decisive blows along flowing B-roads. And my word does it deliver. One drive snaking north from Haslemere will live long in the memory, the Revuelto a picture of poise and perfection that simultaneously made me feel like a supreme and an inadequate driver. Supreme because it responded so precisely and perfectly to my inputs; inadequate because I understood I was nowhere near pushing the Revuelto out of its comfort zone. You’d need a track for that and even then, my talents would fall some way short.
The steering is sharp and consistent, another step on from the Aventador. The brakes, as they were with the Aventador, are firm and pleasingly consistent to modulate, even with regen capabilities.
Flick the drive mode into Sport then Corsa and you get gradually more power. There’s an esc off setting above that, but please refer to the opening paragraph of this section for the reasons why I left that well alone.
Within the dial there’s a chequered flag for thrust mode, full on lunacy now available. Despite this, you still get nowhere near provoking this beast into killing you. Changes of direction are crisp, responses instant and traction deeply impressive.
When pushing on, the firm ride also elevates the experience, communicating clearly through the chassis what’s going on at the four points of contact with the road. It’s a wholly immersive, utterly intoxicating experience. Sure, it’s rabidly fast but it also tackles UK roads superbly. It doesn’t scrabble for traction as the power floods the physical limits of its delivery. There’s an underlying sense of calm and composure to the way in which the Revuelto unleashes its savagery, always just within itself. Intoxicating, beguiling, supreme: insert your own superlatives here.
What’s the Lamborghini Revuelto like to live with?
This is perhaps where Lamborghini has made the greatest strides since the Aventador. The Revuelto, put simply, is much more amenable. The infotainment system is an immediate improvement – you can connect your phone to this car. Then there’s the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission which doesn’t try and break your neck on aggressive upshifts. It swiftly works through the cogs and the paddles are a must on spirited drives. There are parking sensors and a reversing camera, too!
What it retains from the Aventador, however, is a lack of internal storage. Got a coffee? Want to take a bottle of water? Need to stow a couple of bits away? The Lamborghini Revuelto fails to accommodate, being sans cupholder, central storage or door bins. There’s a glovebox, but I’m unconvinced you’d fit a pair of gloves into it.
The front storage is useful, but if you want to charge it, that’s where the cables live. There’s a shelf behind the seats which is useful, but this isn’t a supercar with GT pretentions. The view out is good, though, albeit with chunky blindspots. It’s all very Lamborghini, which is no bad thing. In a world striving for perfection, the simple acceptance of a few imperfections is welcome. They add character, if nothing else.
The seats are firm but adjustable and supportive. In the heatwave the UK was experiencing, the AC worked tremendously and you can get comfortable in a great driving position. Initially I found the seat, even at its lowest, to be a bit high, but there’s ample headroom for taller people donning crash helmets. All in all, the cabin is a major upgrade on the Aventador.
Fuel consumption isn’t, but if you’re worried about achieving 11.5mpg then £521,000 worth of Lambo probably isn’t for you anyway.
Conclusion
That’s a lot of money but let’s ponder it further. If the Lamborghini Revuelto sounds a little tame and you want to stand out a bit more, then you’re looking at hypercars. Bugatti’s Tourbillon, for example, costs £4,000,000.
It’s hard to fathom needing more than the Lamborghini Revuelto. The numbers are dizzying. 1015bhp, 807Nm of torque, 0-60mph in 2.48secs, 0-100mph in 4.8secs, 0-150mph in 10secs dead. 100mph-160mph takes 6secs. This thing never runs out of steam, it’s relentless. It will also come to a standstill from 70mph in 46m – the legal requirement in the UK is 96m.
Whatever you do with this car it excels. It’s more of an experience than a mode of transport. Even sitting in traffic, watching the fuel gage go down, there’s the event of people’s reaction to it. Photos, beeps, requests to rev it, thumbs up. People love this car and interact with it positively.
You interact with it positively as a driver, too. The cabin is spacious and well appointed, even if it lacks a little in storage capacity. From the moment you open the scissor doors, it’s a welcoming environment with a central touchscreen and the increasingly ubiquitous touchscreen for the passenger. I’m not always convinced that you’ll want to advertise your speed to them, though.
I realise I’ve made it to the end without really highlighting that the Lamborghini Revuelto is a plugin hybrid. It’s a very Lamborghini take on hybridisation, the battery existing to maximise power output rather than reduce BIK rates. Perhaps most importantly, however, the battery extends the shelf life of the naturally aspirated V12.
That such an engine still has a place should be celebrated. It remains a masterpiece, providing unrivalled theatre at a time when theatre seems to be being regulated out of automotive existence.
