Never one to back down, Lamborghini has raised the supercar bar higher than ever with the Aventador’s hybridized V12 successor.
It often seems as if the world’s supercar makers are in a battle with each other, rather than one to create cars with even the smallest amount of real-world purpose.
Let’s be honest, it’s not as if anybody was complaining that the outgoing Lamborghini Aventador was short on either power or personality, thanks to an output of 574kW in the last-of-line Ultimate version accompanied by a V12 soundtrack that could reanimate the dead.
But the new Lamborghini Revuelto has been switched to a new hybridised powertrain capable of generating an astonishing peak of 747kW. That’s a 30 per cent increase.
With a V12 assisted by no fewer than three electric motors, it is reckoned by Lamborghini to be capable of blasting from 0–100km/h in 2.5sec, and from 0–200km/h in a scarcely believable 7.0sec.
For reference, that second number is just half a second slower than the Bugatti Chiron over the same benchmark. All of which sounds completely ludicrous, right?
But after driving the Revuelto for the first time on the Porsche-owned Nardò test track in Italy, the big surprise was just how easy it is to drive – much more so than the old Aventador. The electric powertrain adds performance, but it also helps make the Revuelto much more dynamically friendly than you would expect something so crazily fast to be. But for the considerable risk of being arrested, this is a Lambo you can drive hard on even a brief acquaintance.
A proving ground might seem like a timid place to launch a new car, but Nardò’s 6.5km-long handling track is one of the toughest challenges in the automotive world. This is where many brands both inside and outside the Volkswagen Group hone their quickest products, and it has been Lamborghini’s home-from-home pretty much since it joined the clan in 1998.
As well as driving the Revuelto, I’m also getting the chance to compare it back-to-back with its immediate predecessor. Lambo also brought along its own Aventador SVJ, the turned-up variant that took a Nurburgring Nordschleife production car record as recently as 2018.
It looks spectacular in the metal. When the Revuelto was first shown there were some doubts about the design direction, especially the sheer size of the dog bone-shaped aperture in the front bumper that contains headlights and radiator inlets.
But I can confirm the Revuelto has a superstar presence up close, with the complicated forms in the design making more sense the longer you look at them. Beneath the origami detailing lies a very traditional Lambo-wedgy front end, shunted-forward cabin, and the huge rear deck over the V12 engine.
Climbing in brings the first revelation. Lamborghini admits that one of the few things Aventador owners complained about was the tight-fitting cabin, and the Revuelto has been given significantly better leg, shoulder and head room. It’s not exactly limo-like inside, but for the first time in a Lamborghini, I’m not putting the seat to its rearmost position to maximise leg length. And, unlike in the Aventador, I can wear a crash helmet without knocking against the roof over bumps.
There is more visible technology, with three digital display screens – instruments, a central touchscreen, and a narrow letterbox display to relay shock-and-awe numbers to the passenger. The Revuelto has also been given oddments storage, another first for a Lamborghini supercar, and even a pair of Porsche-style pop-out cupholders.
The next novelty is the fully-electric Città mode. This is definitely not one that most owners are going to use for anything other than novelty value, or sneaking away undetected early in the morning. EV-only range from the 3.8kWh battery pack is a tiny 10km and subjective performance feels closer to a Lada than a Lamborghini. It’s a neat party trick, but you won’t be surprised to hear that almost all of my time with the car is spent with the V12 running.
Despite hybridisation, the combustion engine is definitely the starring feature. Compared to the Aventador, the V12 has been turned around 180 degrees, now driving a gearbox from the rear rather than the front. The transmission is also all-new, an eight-speed twin-clutch instead of the old seven-speed automated single-clutch. With new racing motorbike-style finger followers in the valvetrain, the V12 can now rev to a towering 9500rpm and makes 627kW in its own right.
Electrical assistance comes from three electric motors, one at the back inside the gearbox and a pair at the front, each turning a wheel. Each of the e-motors has a peak output of 110kW, but the limiting factor is the maximum discharge rate of the battery pack, equivalent to 139kW, with this split according to where it’s needed.
No surprise, the V12 dominates the experience, delivering huge thrust and sounding spectacular when it gets extended. Even on a big, open track, the experience is close to overwhelming at first. My brain is ordering upshifts well before the digitally rendered rev counter gets anywhere near the stratospheric redline at first. But experience soon proves the engine pulls harder and harder all the way to the limiter, with the snappy new gearbox changing more quickly and less painfully than the Aventador’s single-clutcher.
The hybrid system is working hard in the background. The Aventador’s V12 was a superstar engine, but natural aspiration denied it the low-down torque of turbocharged rivals. But the Revuelto uses electrical assistance as an effective substitute for this, with huge, lag-free punch available at any engine speed. Even with the transmission left in its fully automatic drive mode, the Revuelto still launches hard when the throttle is pressed, electrical torque arriving even as the gearbox considers how many ratios to kick down.
Selectable drive modes bring radical changes to the Revuelto’s personality. The softest, Strada, doesn’t make it into a relaxed GT, but it slackens off the throttle response, smooths out the gearshift and turns down the adaptive dampers. It feels much more pliant than the Aventador ever did.
Sport brings the drama with (much) more engine noise, firmed-up suspension and a snappier accelerator, plus more permissive settings for stability control. Corsa is primarily intended as a track performance mode, maximising grip over slip for those who want to go rather than show. Corsa also liberates the full peak power output. In Sport, the Revuelto is limited to 667kW and in Strada to 651kW.
The chance to compare the Revuelto to the Aventador SVJ is the best way of seeing just how much has changed. In terms of straight-line performance, it isn’t even close to being close – following the SVJ into Nardò’s kilometre-long main straight in the Revuelto (with chief test pilot Mario Fasanetto in the older car) the difference is stark. Even with the Aventador being pushed so hard I can see puffs of grey smoke from its exhaust tailpipes every time Mario changes up, the Revuelto just reels it in, with much more thrust but also better traction.
But it’s in the corners that the difference feels even more apparent, the Revuelto making the Aventador feel both large and leisurely. This categorically isn’t the case – the SVJ remains a top-end supercar by any objective reckoning, and it actually weighs a sizeable 200kg less than the Revuelto does.
But the new car’s battery of active systems, including rear steering as well as the ability to juggle torque electrically, means it manages to feel lighter and more agile – keener to turn into slow corners and much more stable in faster ones. The Aventador’s mechanical all-wheel-drive system finds impressive traction in tighter bends, but the Revuelto’s hybrid system somehow manages to find more.
Pushing harder, something I’m positively ordered to do by the Lamborghini engineering team, proves that the Revuelto stays predictable up to and beyond its toweringly high limits. The permissive stability settings in Sport mode allow significant rear-end movement without intervention, and the electric motor at the back has another dynamic trick, allowing regenerative traction control that can reduce wheel speed without cutting power to the engine.
When it does start to slide, it does so progressively and without any sense of happiness. It feels like a car that really does want to both work with and flatter its driver. You don’t need to travel back far in Lamborghini’s history to find a time when its V12-engined cars were, frankly, terrifying to push hard. The Revuelto feels positively friendly.
Not that it won’t get quicker, of course. The engineering team admit they are already looking at ways to increase performance further, and a harder-cored equivalent to the Aventador SVJ is a nailed-on certainty. Although the standard Revuelto possesses plenty of throttle adjustability, it lacks the scintillating ability to trade grip between ends of something like the Huracan STO. There is clearly more to give.
But even in its bog-standard, as-launched form, the Revuelto still feels like something truly special. It might be the answer to a question that nobody is asking, but what a spectacular answer it is.
| Key details | 2023 Lamborghini Revuelto |
| Price | TBC |
| Engine | 6498cc V12 petrol, hybridised |
| Power | 747kW @ 9250rpm (system peak) |
| Torque | 725Nm @ 6750rpm (combustion peak) |
| Transmission | Eight-speed double-clutch, three electric motors, all-wheel drive |
| Weight | 1772kg ‘dry’ |
| 0–100km/h | 2.5sec |
| Top speed | 350km/h |
| CO2 emissions | NA |
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