Lamborghini Temerario promises speed, sophistication and luxury

Lamborghini is a very healthy bull at the moment, with the highest revenue and profit in the Italian marque’s 61-year history.

The Huracán has been a strong contributor to that, with orders sold out until production ends early in 2025.

The order book for Lambo’s super SUV, the Urus, is full until the end of next year and if you order its recently introduced flagship, the Revuelto, you’ll be waiting until 2026 to get behind the wheel.

It’s been a long journey to get there though, but Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann says that everyone in the company is now working as a team looking to the future.

“You need to have a team that is cohesive and that understands they must always look in the same direction,” he says. “At the beginning of the millennium the company was broke several times, but now we are a major player. It has not been an easy journey.”

That journey continues with the Temerario, which will arrive in SA in 2026. Revealed at Monterey Car Week in California in August, it replaces the Huracán, which has been the best-selling model in the brand’s history, selling nearly 30,000 worldwide since it was introduced a decade ago.

Styling is of course subjective, but the Temerario marks a new era of design that seems more contemporary and less brash.

Where Ferrari has always come across as sophisticated, the champagne drinker’s supercar, Lamborghini has been for the beer drinkers, those who are a little more extroverted.

That’s also a subjective opinion, but the Temerario looks more refined, more composed in its design. It reminds me of great Ferraris of the 1980s and 1990s like the F355. That’s probably not what Lamborghini’s head of design, Mitja Borkert, was going for but whatever the thinking, it works really well.

“The Lamborghini Temerario marks definitively a new milestone in our design language,” says Borkert. “We call it ‘essential and iconic’ with enhanced athleticism from its surfaces. From the first glance, this is a puristic, futuristic and yet fascinating super sports car.”

It’s also unmistakably Lambo, with its sharp nose, imposing narrow headlights and raised tail. It’s wider and lower than the rivals like Ferrari 296 GTB and the rear is nicely sculpted, with a diffuser that is less extravagant than you might expect and clear visibility of the large wheels in a similar way to the famous Countach.

Like the original Gandini-designed supercar, louvres in the engine cover provide both a touch of drama and help to cool the twin-turbo V8 beneath.

That V8 is brand new, developing 588kW and 730Nm of torque. However, it doesn’t do the job of taking the Temerario to 100km/h in 2.7 seconds alone. Like the rest of the current Lambo range, the Temerario is electrified, with not one, not two, but three electric motors to give a combined output of 677kW. The electric motor on the front axle produces 220kW and is able to let you drive silently through town in electric mode.

“With the Temerario, we have completed a key chapter in the electrification strategy included in our Direzione Cor Tauri plan,” says Winkelmann. “We also become the first luxury automotive brand to offer a completely hybridised range.”

That will be a drawcard for some but for others the real headline is that the V8 revs to a mighty 10,000 rpm with peak power around 9,400 rpm.

Even if you’re not one for the numbers, the prospect of screaming a V8 to a 10,000 rpm redline is music to any supercar owner’s ears, even the ears of onlookers. You have to admire the ability of engineers to create something that can run silently in electric mode one moment and then create a tsunami-like sound wave the next.

Various driving modes are available to make the most of all the power and sound on offer, plus there’s the option of a more track-focused version, the Alleggerita, which is 25kg lighter and more dynamic.

Both versions are said to offer even better drivability, while also offering more comfort and practicality, as much practicality as you would expect in a two-seater supercar that is. It’s now easier to get in and out of the car, there’s more leg and headroom and more luggage space.

It also features the next stage of the design team’s philosophy to make occupants “feel like a pilot.” This includes the front passenger, who has their own screen with access to vehicle data and functions. The focus, though, is very much on the pilot behind the wheel, from the race start button to the way the controls are all easily within reach with minimal distraction.

Materials including leather, carbon fibre and Corsatex suede have all been us to enhance not only comfort, but the feeling of luxury, of being in a car that you can enjoy beyond simply the thrill of performance.

Temerario marks a new era for Lamborghini, one that builds on the success it has achieved in the last couple of decades as it emerged from difficult times.

Due in SA in 2026, starting from an indicative price of around R7,525,000, Lambo’s latest electrified supercar promises not just more performance, but sophistication and luxury that it’s worth popping the champagne for.