Lamborghini's latest V12 is sensational to drive at Vallelunga – but there's even more to it than that…
By Matt Bird / Saturday, 7 October 2023 / Loading comments
1. It brakes like a boss
With as-near-as-makes-no-difference twice the power of a BMW M3 Competition, brakes are important to the Revuelto. Not only are the brakes larger in diameter compared to an Aventador Ultimae (now 410mm front, 390mm rear, with 10-piston calipers on the big ‘uns), the cooling has been revised and a brake booster introduced to improve performance and consistency. Chief Technical Officer Rouven Mohr doesn’t much love the pedal feel of an Aventador, and wanted a left pedal easier to modulate right up to the point of ABS intervention. While also introducing regen braking. Tough ask – but Lamborghini has absolutely nailed it. Braking from 160mph all the way down to second gear for one of Vallelunga’s hairpins can be done with complete confidence and accuracy lap after lap. The pedal stays firm, the stopping power remains immense. It really does allow minute adjustments of pressure, too – a real highlight.
2. The eDCT is OMG good
Forget the days of sub-par Lambo transmissions. The new transversely mounted e-DCT – mounted behind the engine for the very first time – is incredible. It can oversee every last bit of drama expected from a V12 Lamborghini going up or down the eight ratios, but with one of the Revuelto’s three 110kW electric motors also part of the transmission, a whole new world of flexibility is opened up. It can provide more power to the engine, it can charge the battery, or it can help run the Revuelto as a 4WD EV – which is just as spooky as it sounds. All this in a magic box of tricks just 56cm long, 75cm wide and 58cm high. Which can also cope with 1,015hp. Awesome.
3. It is wheely stable
It might be hard to picture because both are such large, dramatic cars, but the wheelbase of a Revuelto is fully 80mm longer than that of an Aventador. It works wonders for both interior space (we’ll get to that) and high-speed stability, which is useful when you can reach 124mph in seven seconds. The Aventador never quite engendered such an acute level of confidence. At a carefully coned-off first corner at Vallelunga, the Revuelto would carve through in fourth gear, exiting at 130mph still with something in reserve. With the driver marvelling at what just happened. Never has a V12 Lamborghini exhibited such composure at such speed.
4. Buyers can choose from 400 colours…
Lamborghini customers like personalisation. Nobody is buying a mid-engined, 1,000hp V12 to blend into the background, after all. Lamborghini as a company likes personalisation, too, as it means a nice margin can be made on every car, with a better bottom line less dependent on churning more cars out of Sant’Agata (good for exclusivity). Revuelto buyers will have 400 exterior colours to choose from, and 70 interior shades; it’s expected that every single example will have some degree of customisation. For what it’s worth, Lamborghini’s Centro Stile boss Mitja Borkert likes matt black or the dark greys/greens like Verde Gea, Verde Turbine and Grigio Acheso. But then he has been obsessed with making the driver of a Revuelto feel like a pilot, so perhaps that makes sense. Rest assured that the more traditional Lambo colours Giallo Belenus, Verde Scandal and Viola Pasifae still look fantastic as well.
5. …and they can have 22-inch wheels.
The Revuelto is the first Lamborghini V12 available with 22-inch wheels as an option; they sit on gigantic 355-section Bridgestone Potenza Sport tyres, and are paired with 21-inch front rims. The standard set-up is a 20/21 on the same tyre, which the car performs fabulously on, but the way the rear haunch so tightly hugs that optional wheel is compelling. Borkert makes special mention of the car’s stance on the big wheels, and it really is an arresting static object. (Make your own joke there about V12 Lambos spending the whole time parked). Please, though, let’s all agree – anything but black for the wheels. Whether standard, cast Venancio, forged Triguero or the optional, larger Altanero, all look better in Matt Titanium, Shiny Silver, or – best of all, surely – Matt Bronze…
6. It has cupholders
There are cupholders in a Revuelto. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s a first for this kind of Lambo. And surely welcome for actual customers – think how often a shop-bought coffee is in the car with you. Now a venti cappuccino can come with a side of V12. Also helping everyday usability is some bag storage behind the seats (thank you, longer wheelbase) and space for a couple of carry-on cases in the front. It all points to a flagship Lamborghini better suited to big road trips. Whenever one needs taking across the continent, folks, we’re available. Tomorrow, even. Or now.
7. It also has 1,015hp…
The Revuelto is the most technologically advanced Lamborghini ever made, by some margin. The leap from Murcielago to Aventador was large; this is a world record-crushing triple jump into the electrified future. Most fundamentally that results in a huge power gain, from 780hp for the final Ultimae Aventador to 1,015hp now. Typically a generation swap won’t gain more than 50hp. In a series production Lamborghini, one that’s (in theory) as easy to buy as an Urus, this is properly unprecedented. It’s not limited in the traditional sense and, if you’re willing to wait, it can be ordered right now. Not so long ago a four-figure power output was the preserve of multi-million-pound exotica; we worried that anything new with Veyron-equalling power (plus more than any of the hybrid hypercar holy trinity) would be purely battery-powered. To have the vast majority of 1,015hp from a naturally aspirated V12 really is as epic as it sounds.
8. …and the power of three Toyota Supras from a V12
Speaking of which… Lamborghini V12s are always great. And we know that hybridised hypercars can be sublime as well. But nothing quite prepares you for the Revuelto homing in on its 9,250rpm power peak and 9,500rpm redline. It’s utterly, utterly spellbinding. Especially with the electric running available on the other side. Change up when your ears suggest and it’ll probably be about 8,000rpm, with the best yet to come – the 6.5’s rabid, feral, furious charge to almost 10,000rpm is an experience to be repeatedly savoured. Ad infinitum. This L545 V12 might not be quite as all-new as initially claimed (in fact, it’s a very heavy evolution of the old Aventador engine, with the same bore and stroke) but it never, ever revved like this. Thank the overhauled valvetrain for getting all that metal gnashing around perfectly at previously unimaginable speeds. In 2023, powertrains get no more special.
9. It has more aerodynamic wizardry than ever before
The Revuelto offers up both more downforce and less drag than the Aventador Ultimae – the best of both aerodynamic worlds. In terms of numbers, that’s a 33 per cent increase in dynamic load at the front and 74 per cent at the rear, which helps with that high-speed confidence. It’s achieved via features like the front splitter, three-position rear wing, fins on the bumper, louvres on grilles… the usual stuff. Except, that is, for the wild rear diffuser. It’s easy to be distracted at the back of a Revuelto by the exhausts like shotgun barrels and a widescreen brake light, but the diffuser has to be inspected as well – it’s a work of art, incredibly dramatic for series production, and gives you a sneak peak at those outrageous tyres through the slats. When Lambo says such an item ‘has never been so extreme in a V12’, it’s always going to be special. There are four vortex generators under the back of a Revuelto, with air channelled to them from the front splitter, then onto the diffuser with improved slant angles against an Aventador. While also acting as a structural and cooling element for the V12. Some diffuser, eh?
10. There are still manual bucket seats as an option
In with all this groundbreaking technology is a welcome nod to tradition: buyers can have manually adjustable bucket seats if they want them. They really should, in fact, as the electric chairs wedge taller drivers into the roof if they have a helmet on, which isn’t ideal for a car seemingly so suited to track driving. The sports seats hold you better, too – win-win.
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