2024 Lamborghini Revuelto Tested: The Mad Scramble

Yahoo

11-02-2025

From the March/April issue of Car and Driver.
The Revuelto is named for a Spanish bull with a rebellious streak, but this new Lamborghini is more than rebellious—it's revolutionary. Its closest sibling is the Aventador it replaces because they both have a V-12 engine, but the similarity begins and ends there.
With no turbochargers, the sound of the mighty 6.5-liter V-12 is as glorious as ever. Much of it breathes better, from the reworked air intake to a compression ratio that's been jacked up from 11.8:1 to 12.6:1 and finally to an exhaust that flows better at high revs. How high are those revs? The redline is now a mind-boggling 9400 rpm, and peak output is 814 horsepower at a scorching 9250 rpm, some 45 horses and 750 revs more than the exiting Aventador Ultimae. Oh, and the engine sheds a claimed 37 pounds in the bargain.
Moreover, engineers stripped the V-12 of its forward-mounted transmission (the often maligned and always jarring seven-speed automated manual), spun it around 180 degrees, and mated it to a new eight-speed dual-clutch transaxle made by Lamborghini. Placed behind the engine as God intended, this new gearbox is only 22 inches long because it is laid out laterally around two input shafts—one for the even-numbered gears and another for the odd ones—and sits parallel to the half-shaft output flanges. Unlike in its predecessor, shifting is smooth whether you are puttering around town, hammering it in the hills, or making a quarter-mile pass. As with the best dual-clutch automatics, it's near impossible to spot the shifts in a speed trace.
The Revuelto has all-wheel drive like the Aventador, although it's provided by electric motors, not any connection to the V-12. Instead of a transmission tucked between the front seats, there's a 3.4-kWh battery pack. A 147-hp, 110-lb-ft motor buried within the transmission housing can drive the rear wheels when the conditions are right and, along with regenerative energy under braking, keeps the battery topped up.
But the front end is where the action is, because each front wheel is connected independently to its own axial-flow AC motor making 147 horsepower and 254 pound-feet. In straight-line driving, the motors either propel the front axle in unison to the tune of 187 horsepower (the battery's output limit) for a grand total of 1001 ponies, or they both recuperate significant energy while slowing down the Lamborghini.
The results are stunning, if not electrifying. The Revuelto scorches the pavement to 60 mph in 2.2 seconds, 0.4 second quicker than the Aventador LP750-4 Superveloce, and the Revuelto leaves the line with all four tires scrambling for traction. The century mark comes in 4.6 seconds versus 5.8, and we're just getting started. The new Lambo hits 150 mph in 9.9 seconds, an improvement over the old car's 13.0, and crosses the quarter-mile in 9.7 seconds at 148 mph against 10.4 seconds at 136 mph for the Superveloce.
But that's just straight-line performance. The Revuelto positively murders corners, with an otherworldly ability to drive deep in toward the apex, without any hint of understeer. The benefit comes when the torque vectoring combines with rear-wheel steering to make the car seem to shrink around you. The full 508 pound-feet of cross-axle torque vectoring (plus 254 pound-feet on one side, minus 254 pound-feet on the other) can come into play as needed, as one side essentially powers the other. This proves mighty impressive on the tight downhill sweepers in the Anza-Borrego Desert, where the car seems far more nimble than its 4290 pounds would suggest. Granted, much of the newfound weight is centered in the transmission tunnel, but the hellacious torque vectoring is doing major work here. In testing, the 265/35ZR-20 and 345/30ZR-21 Bridgestone Potenza Sport tires generate 1.10 g's of grip versus 1.04 g's for the Aventador SV, which lacked rear-wheel steering and any front-axle torque vectoring.
All of this comes with an entirely new suspension, which does away with the theater of the Aventador's pushrods and horizontally oriented dampers. Instead, the Revuelto's control-arm setup uses stand-up coil-overs and magnetorheological dampers in a more traditional layout. The new dampers do wonders for the ride, and we daresay it was rather pleasant in its Soft mode. Larger sidewalls that help cushion blows also contribute to the smooth ride. And because the engine is not always on, the Revuelto employs electric assist for the steering, and the engineers at Lamborghini nailed the tune.
That's right, this is a plug-in hybrid. The EPA estimates the Revuelto delivers only five miles of battery-electric driving, so we almost forgot. And Lamborghini says it takes just six minutes for the engine to replenish it, so it hardly matters that the charge port is hidden from sight in the front trunk. (There is a special latch you can engage to allow the hood to lock with it popped enough for the cord to exit.) This actually reminds us why the Revuelto uses axial motors: Their compactness leaves enough space for a front trunk capable of swallowing a carry-on suitcase (and then some), and they're better at regenerating electricity than the typical radial-flow AC motors.
In the mode called Città ("city" in Italian), the Revuelto stays calm and quiet as it moves under electric power with the engine off. The engine remains asleep until the transmission warms up, even if you select Strada, Sport, or Corsa mode. As you'd expect from an Italian V-12, it fires up dramatically before settling into a warm idle. Surprise neighbors by driving by them under electric power and then firing up the engine. You could motor around noiselessly in Città mode until the battery runs out, but why bother? It's just five miles.
A number of controls (including, annoyingly, the turn signals) are on the steering wheel, but unlike Ferrari, Lamborghini's controls are physical buttons or switches. There are four protruding knobs mounted around the horn pad, and some have buttons within them. On the upper left is the switch for the drive mode, and pressing its center button in Corsa engages launch control. The upper right controls the hybrid mode (Recharge, Hybrid, and, in some settings, Performance). The lower-left knob is for the dampers (Soft or Hard), and its button employs the all-important low-speed front-axle lift system. The knob on the lower right is for aero (Min, Auto, and Max). On the spokes between the knobs are turn-signal buttons on the left (yes, buttons—that's a sore point), and buttons for the wipers are on the right.
The mid-mounted 8.4-inch vertical central touchscreen can show HVAC, audio, or navigation. Other choices include optional wireless smartphone mirroring. What we didn't master until late in the game were the additional five-button arrays hidden on the back of the steering wheel, with the one on the left there to manipulate the left-hand display of the instrument cluster and the one on the right for managing the audio. Each array's center button nub is a bit hard to find at first, but once you find it, the rest is easy.
The views to the front and side are expansive, but the central mirror shows little more than an admittedly glorious view down the vee of the fully exposed engine. The steering wheel tilts and telescopes generously, and Lamborghini nailed the driving position, even for this six-foot-two writer. Huge fixed shift paddles protrude from the steering column, but they have ample coverage. You must remember to flick the right one to engage first gear, however, because the central shifter only has reverse, manual shifting, and park. The Revuelto comes with cupholders that swing out of the passenger's-side dashboard, and there's decent cargo space behind the seats. In fact, because the Revuelto has a 3.1-inch-longer wheelbase than the Aventador, is over three inches longer overall, and lacks that forward-mounted transmission, Lamborghini says there is space inside for a bag of golf clubs.
Golf clubs and cupholders in a Lamborghini? We told you this car was revolutionary.
Numbers are important for any car, especially one that looks like the Revuelto, but what money really buys here is the experience. A Porsche Taycan Turbo GT is quicker to 60 mph, but while the Taycan might lead to blurred light and puke, it can't bend reality like the symphonic sound made by Lamborghini's naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V-12. It's an ensemble—drums, horns, voices, even some triangle. It's so moving that I basically forced Buyer's Guide director Rich Ceppos into taking it out to feel it accelerate to over 160 mph. A Lamborghini V-12 is a psychoactive experience. It changes you, rewires your brain, and alters consciousness. That's why it starts at $612,858. —Tony Quiroga
There I was in the Revuelto on Virginia International Raceway's Back Straight going, oh, an indicated 175 mph. Was I just successful in making that sound routine, no sweat? In reality, I was trying to get my brain to switch from "OMG!" to "Uh, where should I brake so I don't send this missile flying off the track into oblivion?" Boss man Quiroga, who has tested many a mega-horsepower machine, had returned from his lap, shaking his head. "Ceppos, you've gotta try this thing." When I rolled out of Oak Tree at 40 mph, I nailed it—and whooee! About two-thirds down the straight, I braked back to reality with room to spare. Six hundred-some-odd grand? Worth every penny. —Rich Ceppos
Too much isn't possible. Ridiculous and overdone are compliments. Outrageous and unreasonable might be selling points in the brochure. The Revuelto is so fast that there's no straight-away long enough to click through all the gears. Supercars are becoming more easygoing, but not this Lamborghini. Designers buried the door handle so deep that you need a professional catfish noodler to find the release. The amount of buttons on the back of the steering wheel would prompt a dermatologist to schedule a biopsy. If you lean on the back end after a drive, you'll catch fire. When I took it to the grocery store, I came out to a handwritten note left on the windshield. "I love your car. I'm Italian!" I love it too. It's Italian! —Elana Scherr
The Revuelto's inner strength.
Lamborghini builds the Revuelto around a "monofuselage," which increases the use of carbon fiber compared with the Aventador. Built on a separate line at the Sant'Agata Bolognese plant, this carbon-fiber tub comprises several types of material, depending on need and whether they are visible. The front subframe is entirely made up of forged carbon fiber, versus aluminum on the Aventador. Lamborghini says the Revuelto's front crash structure has double the strength of the Aventador's, and the entire monofuselage is 10 percent lighter, with 25 percent greater torsional stiffness. The engine carrier and rear suspension mounting points are aluminum, but the latter is largely made up of two hollow megacastings for reduced weight and increased strength.
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