Lamborghini makes one of the most drama-filled supercars on the planet. And when the Italian carmaker announced that they will be building a sensible four-door, practical SUV, surely it has to incorporate some of that Lambo flair that every young boy lusted for.
The Urus rides on the MLBevo platform shared with other SUVs under the Volkswagen Group such as the Audi Q8, Bentley Bentayga and Porsche Cayenne. Stare at the Urus straight on and you’ll find familiar styling cues like any other Lamborghini on the headlamps, strong bonnet lines and elaborate intakes. The front splitter and large Y-shaped air intakes were inspired by Lambo’s first SUV, the LM002.
I remember stepping into the cabin of an Aventador S and that feeling is best described as overwhelming, but the Urus, however, is quite the opposite. Everything is where you expect them to be and the buttons have a familiar VAG click to them. Convenient features include a multifunction three-spoke steering wheel with vibration dampers, Lamborghini Infotainment System (LIS), fully-digital TFT display, heads-up display and more.
Focusing on the centre console and you’ll find three levers laid out like an aircraft. On the left, you have what Lamborghini calls the Tamburo drive mode selector, gear selector on the centre and the EGO Drive Mode configurator on the right. Lamborghini has also incorporated the fighter jet style cover on the start/stop switch just like an Aventador and Huracan.
You might have noticed that the Tamburo switch on the demonstrator only comes with Strada, Sport, Corsa and Neve (snow) modes as Sabbia and Terra off-road modes have to be ordered as an option. Moving onto the large gear selector and its operations are not as straightforward as you may think. To engage reverse, simply pull the lever downwards but to engage drive, you’ll have to manually flick the paddle shifters to enter first gear. Park and full-manual on the paddle shifters can be done by pressing the P and M buttons respectively.
The EGO function allows the driver to configure the Urus’ throttle response, steering and suspension damping independently to their preferred liking. Once the car is set up accordingly, simply pull the lever downwards and the car will adapt to your preferred settings.
Pictured here is a five-seater Urus but customers have the option to a four-seater layout where the middle seat is swapped for a centre armrest with cupholders and storage space. One observation is that despite the sloping roofline, the Urus was surprisingly accommodating for 180 cm tall adults with a decent amount of legroom. Note that a Urus optioned with a panoramic sunroof will have tighter headroom. Besides a cabin that can comfortably accommodate four or five, the Urus will also happily swallow 616 litres of cargo behind its boot or up to 1,596 litres with the rear seats folded.
However, nothing impressed us more than the fact that the Urus features Bahasa Melayu option as one of the default system language, something even our national cars do not even offer! The Malay language integration is properly done too, not some shabby Google translate. 
Powering the Urus is a 4.0-litre bi-turbo V8 pushing out 650 hp and 850 Nm of torque that is transferred to all four corners via an eight-speed automatic transmission. The four-wheel drive has a 40:60 front to rear torque split by default but will send 70 per cent of its grunt to the front or 87 per cent to the rear when needed.
The result is a 2,200 kg Super SUV that can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.6 seconds, 0 to 200 km/h in 12.8 seconds and commands a top speed of 305 km/h. Besides the staggering straight-line performance, Lamborghini has introduced adaptive air suspension, rear wheel steering and Carbon Ceramic Brakes to ensure that the Urus can carry its weight around the tight corners.
Besides its dynamic performance, Lamborghini did not forget to engineer the drama factor into the Urus. The exhaust note gets more ferocious as you step up the driving modes, so it’s ever gear change. The pops and bangs during upshift and overruns can be clearly heard from the otherwise muted cabin. Just listen to it:
The next time you catch this raging bull roaming on our streets, don’t need to rub your eyes because customer deliveries of the Lamborghini Urus have already begun in Malaysia just in time for the holiday season with more deliveries scheduled for 2019.
IMAGE GALLERY
Lamborghini Urus 4.0L V8 in Malaysia
