Lamborghini Urus 2018 first drive

The doors swing open – they feel lighter than a big SUV’s usually do; the frameless windows, see. The interior is more swooping and extravagant than in most 4x4s too. The centre console is high. You can have five seats but this one has four; all individual chairs wrapped in expensive-feeling materials. So too is the dashboard, where Lamborghini design meets occasional VW Group familiarity, and some new things: a two-step touchscreen rather like the Range Rover Velar’s, and a thick bunch of switches to scroll through the drive modes, start the car and select a drive function on the eight-speed auto.

There are six drive modes: Street, Sport, Track (in which the car lowers by 15mm) and three off-road modes in which the body rises by 40mm. Or you can choose your own adventure, by selecting what kind of angry you want to make your suspension and engine and steering weight. But let’s deal with track first because, somewhat uncomfortably, my very first steer and throttle press in the Urus is one that makes it depart from a pit lane.

Crikey it’s fast. And by gum it’s quite loud. The twin-turbo V8 is not overtly laggy and by 6800rpm finds a hard limiter. The official figures say this is a 3.6sec to 62mph car, and that it’ll go from 0-124mph in 12.4sec. It feels not a bit slower than that. The tremendous wallop of torque comes in from 2250rpm, so it doesn’t really matter what gear you’re in, either: in fact, so willing is the car to run towards limiter, where upshifts are a touch hesitant, you’re quite often better off leaving it in a higher ratio.

There’s noise, too, and quite a lot of it. You will hear how loud it is, they said; and they were right. But there’s augmentation going on here too. Through a natural symposer using the intake system’s natural frequencies, yes, but augmentation nonetheless. It’s good, but I think an AMG V8 sounds better.

What else does it do? Stop, tremendously well given the weight – carbon ceramics with 10 (ten) piston calipers are standard. And it rolls, too, despite lowering the ride height in sports mode, stiffening the dampers, and the adoption of 48V active anti-roll bars like you’ll find on its cousins. But that’s fine – a little body angle gives you something to lean on, the quick-ish steering weights up rapidly but doesn’t give genuine natural feel, and then you feel the differential doing its thing, straightening a cornering line and, well, in short, this car is daft-quick around a track. Which would be amusing for a few minutes if you owned one and knew what you were doing with it: because it would go more quickly than most sports cars.