Featured Car: 2024 Lamborghini Revuelto

It’s amazing; seems that just yesterday, hybrid vehicles were complete oddities in the car and light truck world. Today, the tech can be found in everything from pickups to…hypercars?

In the case of Lamborghini’s latest hypercar, that hybridization means one thing: power. This is a 6.5-litre V12-powered mid-engine road racer that even without its three electric motors, is good for over 810 horsepower. Add that EV boost and you’re over the 1,000 hp mark – and yes, you can plug it in and drive on EV power – for about 10 km.

Oh, and you will look the absolute business while you’re at it — no matter your speed — because this is a Lambo designed in the purest essence of the brand. That means ultra-aggressive headlight lenses with almost sinister Y-spoke DRLs, as well as all the cuts and strakes and intakes you could ask for, aggressive wheel designs and of course, scissor doors. Indeed, no Lambo flagship worth its salt is going to go without those. Oh, and let’s not forget the engine left completely exposed to the elements; no glass cover here because why would you want to shroud the beating heart of this whole operation?

Not only do those doors look good, but they make entrance and egress a little easier. Sure, you have to duck a little more than you would is a car with traditional doors but it makes folding the rest of your body in under the wheel that much easier.

Once inside, the cockpit follows the recent Lamborghini trend of looking just like that — a cockpit that you might see in a modern jet fighter. The gauge cluster is fully digitized and that’s nothing new these days but the fonts and different alignments you can select from add so much more of the special to the proceedings.

Speaking of special: it doesn’t get much more special than to have to flip open a door to expose your car’s start/stop button before you can press it but lo and behold, that’s here to and it’s a novelty that won’t ever get old. Oh, and just so your passenger won’t feel left out, they get a digital readout of their own so they know just how far your stretching that V12. Gear cog-style drive mode select buttons, massive column-mounted shift paddles (just like in a race car!), flat-bottom steering wheel with an Italian flag applique at its base, the neon green trim and stitching; the hits just keep on coming — and we haven’t even set off yet.

While with a 10 KM range, the Revuelto may not be about full EV motoring, it’s definitely about making one’s hairs stand on-end with little more than a tickle of the throttle; accelerating to 100 km/h from stop is done in a scant 2.5-seconds and if you have the runway – literally, you’ll probably need a runway – you’re good for a top speed of 350 km/h. That’s 217 mph, if you’re asking, but that doesn’t really matter because no numbers on paper can prepare you for the sheer magnitude of the Revuelto’s acceleration. The V12 revs quickly – as V12s do – but it’s almost the eight-speed dual clutch gearbox’s ferocity of response that is the biggest thrill.

That’s especially the case when in the more aggressive drive modes such as sport and corsa, as these tweak a number of parameters including shift times, steering response, which wheels get the most power and so on. You’ll want to hone your reflexes in order to flip the massive column-mounted shift paddles in time because you wouldn’t want driver laziness getting in the way of all that acceleration, would you?

“Lazy”. That’s a funny word, here, because the Revuelto is so far from that in almost every facet. Though it is the biggest car Lamborghini makes, it doesn’t feel any more ungainly than does its smaller Huracán sibling. Even the smallest steering inputs return instantaneous response from the font-end, while the back – helped along by standard rear-wheel steering – follows suit, in lockstep ready to attack the next bend.

The engine plays a part in this in that Lamborghini has mounted the engine in such a way that it moves nicely as one with the car, meaning the heaviest piece of the vehicle has its heft hidden — just a little — and is allowed to work with the driver in spiriting the car forward and through turns instead of against them. It’s one of the reasons the Revuelto drives so much smaller than it looks.

The EV motors also come in to play when it comes to the handling; there is no driveshaft from the engine to the front wheels as they are powered only by two front EV motors. The motors will also apply negative torque to whichever wheel needs the treatment in order to help pull the Revuelto through corners and provide the boost needed for fast corner exits. When it comes time to slow things down, the standard carbon ceramic brakes get the job done in quick order. Then, the Revuelto can run on EV only, assuming the 3.8 kWh battery – which is mounted where the driveline normally would be, inside the transmission tunnel – has enough of a charge.

It may seem strange to talk about slowing things down in a car like this, but when you consider the supportive and comfortable seats, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and Sonus Faber audio system, going for a relaxed cruise doesn’t seem so outlandish, does it?