The Lamborghini Urus will never fail to amaze me. Not because of its capabilities or its uniqueness, but because this high-end sibling of the Audi RSQ8 and Porsche Cayenne sells as a status symbol. From Chelsea to Calabasas, it’s the Lamborghini for people who don’t want the pain of a Lamborghini, and now there’s a new variant called the Urus SE Performante. Spoiler alert: It’s massively powerful.
It’s worth noting that the standard plug-in hybrid Urus SE is no weakling, with its four-liter twin-turbocharged V8 and hybrid system cranking out a combined 789 horsepower. However, the SE Performante offers more, a full 800 combined horsepower from a tweaked version of the same powertrain.
This results in a top speed of 193.86 MPH, pipping the Aston Martin DBX707 and Bentley Bentayga Speed and making the Urus SE Performante the fastest production SUV in the world. However, it’s not the quickest SUV in the world. Beyond ballistic entries like the quad-motor Rivian R1S and Tesla Model S Plaid, the Urus SE Performante’s 3.3-second zero-to-100 km/h time is a mere tie with the combustion-only DBX707.
That’s a rather curious tie for such a gulf in power, and weight might be the reason for it. Lamborghini has fitted a titanium exhaust system 22 pounds lighter than the standard unit, saved 8.8 pounds with a new integrated brake module, cut 7.27 pounds from the noise, vibration, and harshness package, and offers a technical textile upholstery that’s nearly six pounds lighter than leather. The end result, unfortunately, still weighs 5,452 pounds. That’s 512 pounds more than the Aston Martin and nearly 400 pounds more than a Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT.
Granted, the Urus SE Performante is very angry. With gills and flared arches and a somehow even more angular face than the regular Urus SE, it serves as an absolutely outrageous display of income. This one, painted in a particularly retina-searing snot rocket hue, has all the right accents to make it look pre-Mansory’d. More subtle specs are available, but they just don’t have the same appeal to the sort of person who’s put carved lions outside of their fresh teardown build.
Mind you, there is one cool thing about the Urus SE Performante, a new option on the drive mode selector marked “Rally.” Select that, and all the onboard computers set Lambo’s current top-dog SUV up for throwing gravel. With high-speed dirt running in mind, Lamborghini’s also gone and fitted two-chamber dual-valve air springs that allow for independent adjustment of height and spring rate.
The Lamborghini Urus SE Performante is exactly the sort of car for someone willing to pay more than $20 for a smoothie. The ostentatiousness is the point, a way of flexing on everyone else at the gym and in the school pickup line. I have a feeling these things will soon be everywhere in posh neighborhoods near me, and probably in posh neighborhoods near you as well. Ain’t that something.
Top graphic image: Lamborghini
I’m just going to say that AFAICT, the Lambo Urus is the official car of douchebaggery, entitlement, and reckless speeding in Los Angeles. Some of the most egregious and newsmaking high speed/fatal accidents involve Urus(es) and frankly, when I see one (which is sadly pretty often) it just screams how lousy a human being is likely behind the wheel, taking over the crown in that respect from the G-Wagen.
Generalizations… yes. With a basis in reality… also yes.
I saw one of these on cops, and still couldn’t recognize it as a Lamborghini.
I think the plural of Urus(es) is Uri, or Uranuses, depending on context.
Imagine buying one of these to flex on people and then getting mogged in traffic by a $35k K4 Sportback in a better color, with better wheels.
Maybe things are getting better after all.
Besides the color being cool this thing is hideous. Once more the VW group forgets how to make beautiful cars.
Give me a loaded up RS Q8 for half the price please.
“Hey, is that the new BYD?”
Karen will only learn how to put it in “D”.
I don’t know that I’d notice 11 more HP, but I would probably miss the 7.27 pounds of NVH materials. And I would certainly miss the extra $$.
While it looks kind of cool, I don’t think I need the switch guard over the start/stop button. I’ve never accidentally hit that button.
I finally saw a Urus in person. Nothing about it says Lamborghini. It’s just an SUV with styling that isn’t even as wild as a Hyundai. Being fast isn’t terribly interesting anymore. This thing could be a Kia.
One of these almost ran me over in K-town in 2018, which is how I learned that Lamborghini makes an SUV 🙂
A VW Touareg transformed into complete and utter trash.
If you ripped the Lambo badges off and threw a Honda “H” onto the center of the grill, I would totally believe this was a new Honda Civic hatch. It’s got big Gen10 Civic energy.
Or de-angrify it about 50% and it’s the Buick Envista.
Most of the ones I see are boring colors and my brain registers last generation “RAV4”, but the funny thing is I see more RAV4s in bright colors than Uruses (overall number, not percentage, obviously there are way more RAV4s around, so more will be seen in bright colors). This happens with the Buick Envista, too, but I almost never see those in real colors.
The reason the Urus demands a premium over the A8 is that the cladding and grill are fine Corinthian shiny black plastic.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/adf88006-bb82-47e9-a171-a4583e17f8f8
There are no posh neighborhoods near me…
*yawn*
Also I just relatively recently realised that the Urus is little more than a modestly facelifted Q8, making the second time ever in Audi’s history that their cars are the cheaper version of something (first one being the R8). Up until that point they had just been overpriced versions of Volkswagens for people with no interest in driving.
…I mean, there’s an Urus that occasionally shows up at Cars & Coffee, so that’s definitely a possibility, but what the Hell is an Erewhon? Sounds like some kinda Elven name. Or Star Wars species.
Did a quick online search, and “Erewhon” appears to be either a 19th-Century Utopian novel or an upscale European grocery chain.
I suppose the Urus could fit either.
Classy, I guess. And probably nonexistent in IL south of Joliet.
…other than the book, which my local Barnes & Noble might have.
It’s strictly a SoCal thing. Members will recognize it as the place where Delmar, being carried piggyback, coated his dad in baby barf while they were there to pick up a special Mother’s Day treat for Elise.
I’d like to think David parked the Comanche, or if he still had it at that point the J10 out front but he probably took the i3.
Ellwood: “You don’t like the car?”
Jake: “No, no I don’t like the car.”
It seems to be a grocery store where the whole point is you show you can spend much more there than anywhere else.
Ha, buddy if you have to ask you can’t afford it. (I also had to Google it because I thought it must be some kind of weird typo)
Looking at their website, honestly the prices aren’t as inflated as I expected. $14 for 1LB of organic, grass-fed ground beef isn’t stratospheric; similar product at my local King Soopers is $9, so I thought the Erewhon one would be like $30.