Lamborghini Urus Performante 2022 Review – International

The 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante is expected on sale locally in the second quarter of next year, priced from $465,876 plus taxes and on-road costs.

To put this in perspective, the standard Urus currently starts from $391,969 plus on-road costs in four-seater configuration.

It’s a lot of loot, but you don’t merely get a badge-engineered special for the added spend as the Urus Performante is the beneficiary of a raft of upgrades that leaves barely any facet untouched.

The engine tweaks are the least significant element of the Performante’s upgrades as an Akrapovic exhaust system and remapped ECU boosts power from the standard vehicle’s 650hp (478kW) to 666hp (490kW), while the peak torque figure of 850Nm remains unchanged.

Lamborghini claims the Urus Performante makes greater use of carbon-fibre composite body parts than any other SUV, as the bonnet, front and rear bumpers, splitter, wheel-arch extensions and rear diffuser are all fabricated from the material.

A carbon-fibre roof is optional, and you can order the bonnet in body colour or partially visible carbon-fibre as an option.

These components are the main contributors to a 47kg weight reduction, although the Performante is still no flyweight at 2150kg. Even so, it comes in about 70kg lighter than the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT.

The Performante’s aero package include new black front air intakes that deliver increased engine cooling, while a new air curtain draws airflow over the front wheels to reduce drag. Those vents in the bonnet aren’t just for show either, as they extract hot air from the engine and are said to also contribute to aero efficiency.

Out back sits a newly-designed spoiler with carbon-fibre fins that’s claimed to increase rear downforce by 38 per cent. A lightweight titanium Akrapovic sports exhaust is standard, endowing the Performante with an even fruitier soundtrack than the regular Urus.

Interestingly, the Performante ditches the standard Urus’ air suspension in favour of steel springs that lower the chassis by 20mm and increase stiffness by 90 per cent at the front and 51 per cent at the rear (more on this later).

The wheel tracks have also been pushed out by 16mm, while the pumped guards are filled by either 22-inch forged alloy wheels with titanium bolts or optional 23-inchers. Also unique to the Performante are specially developed Pirelli Trofeo R tyres (optional).

The ‘Tamburo’ drive mode selector has the usual Strada, Sport, Corsa and Ego modes, but ‘Rally’ is introduced in place of the standard Urus’ Sabbia, Terra and Neve off-road settings. This mode allows for more wheelspin and oversteer on gravel surfaces (more on this later too).

The Performante isn’t too difficult to distinguish from its standard sibling, as the lowered stance is accentuated by its prominent front and rear bumpers, which stretch overall length by 25mm.

Further visual differentiation is provided by the bi-colour livery as – in addition to the optional visible carbon-fibre bonnet – there’s black-painted door handles, while the front and rear aero addenda and lower side sills are also black.

The noir theme extends to the cabin as the cockpit features Nero Cosmus black Alcantara as standard with a new hexagonal seat stitching design (it’s dubbed ‘Performante trim’). You can substitute the Alcantara trim with leather, should you wish.

There’s also a new HMI graphic, with a dedicated design for the Urus Performante, which features on both the centre console screen and in a large arc across the main display.

Dedicated colour and trim options include extension of the Performante trim on doors, roof lining and seat backrests, with further Ad Personam customisation including interior matt carbon-fibre details, red door handles and a customised kickplate with the Ad Personam logo.

The core ingredients of the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante aren’t dramatically different to the standard Urus, but one of the key changes is in its use of steel springs in lieu of air suspension.

Lamborghini chief technical officer Rouven Mohr says this is largely because steel springs deliver more consistent and progressive response across the range of suspension travel, so this set-up is better suited to a vehicle that’s heavily performance-oriented.

This does mean the Performante loses the ability to offer variable ride height and it sacrifices a little in the way of ride quality, but few prospective buyers are likely to care.

It’s still supple enough to be used as a daily driver. As an added bonus, the steel-sprung set-up is 20kg lighter than air suspension.

The safety kit quota is unchanged from the standard vehicle, so you get eight airbags, plus electronic stability control (ESC), roll stability control (RSC), forward collision mitigation, highway assistant lane keeping assist and lane departure warning, emergency SOS, front and rear parking sensors and blind spot warning.

On paper, a power hike from 478kW to 490kW is hardly anything to get overly excited about, but it’s more the sharpness of throttle response and hard-edged sonic signature that get your attention in the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante.

Its 47kg weight reduction means the Performante has a best-in-class power-to-weight ratio of 3.2kg/hp, and this yields a 0-100km/h split of 3.3sec (3.6sec for the standard Urus) and top whack of 306km/h (305km/h standard).

These numbers put the Performante more or less on par with the Aston Martin DBX707 in terms of straight-line grunt.

The hardware of the ZF-sourced eight-speed auto is unchanged from the regular Urus but shift timing has been sharpened to the extent that you don’t lament the absence of a dual-clutch gearbox.

The ratio of the Torsen centre differential is also shortened from 3.16 to 3.4, adding to the Performante’s sprightliness.

Peak torque of 850Nm is on tap from 2300-4500rpm, so unlike Lamborghini’s naturally aspirated supercars – which shine in the upper reaches of their rev range – here you can surf the vast torque band to make rapid progress.

Mohr says the objective with the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante wasn’t necessarily to blow all existing SUV performance benchmarks out of the water, but rather to create “the world’s best driver’s SUV”.

“The idea was to build on the Urus’ responsiveness and feedback levels,” he adds.

Even so, Mohr says the Performante is about two seconds a lap quicker around the 6.22km Nardo Handling Track than the standard Urus. Lambo execs say it’s likely to be quicker than any other competitor SUV in terms of lap times on virtually any circuit.

A Nurburgring Nordschleife SUV lap record (currently held by the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT) could be on the cards, but it’s not yet decided. “I’m a fan of Nordschleife lap times for sports cars, but it’s less relevant for an SUV,” says Mohr.

Our agenda at the Urus Performante prototype pre-drive begins with a couple of laps around the Nardo Handling Track in a regular Urus to get a frame of reference and then jump into the Performante immediately after.

The contrast proves enlightening as, while there isn’t night-and-day difference between the two, immediately evident is the Performante’s sharper turn-in and higher grip levels – thanks largely to the bespoke Pirelli Trofeo R tyres that are offered as an option on the 22-inch rims (P Zero Corsa rubber is standard).

These alone are said to trim around 1.5sec a lap around the Nardo Handling Track.

You can tick the box for optional 23-inch rims, but Mohr says the best dynamic performance comes from the 22-inchers as the higher tyre sidewalls with these rims make for the optimum set-up.

Having dialled into the Performante after a few laps – you can check out our onboard footage here – it becomes clear the 1.6m-tall SUV can be tipped into corners at speeds that barely seem credible for such a lofty chariot.

Active roll stabilisation keeps the weighty SUV remarkably flat through corners, while sharpened four-wheel steering and a torque-vectoring rear differential make easy work of getting the vehicle rotated through the tighter sections of the circuit.

Apart from being mind-bogglingly rapid, the Performante is also forgiving and adjustable, so drivers of all levels will be able to tap into a good chunk of its dynamic ability.

Reassuringly, the mighty carbon-ceramic brakes also provide strong and consistent retardation over a series of hard laps.

A subsequent thrash around the Strada Bianca gravel track at Nardo brings home how much fun the Performante is on loose surfaces. With the electronic safety net loosened in Rally mode, it can be flung around with surprising ease, with no more than wrist flicks required to correct oversteer slides.

The ultra-high-performance SUV segment is becoming a cutthroat arena, as the likes of the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and Aston Martin DBX707 are hardly slouches.

The 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante might not be massively faster than this pair, but that hardly matters.

What matters is that it comes across as a cohesive, useable and hugely entertaining family-friendly rocketship.

Do you really need it? Probably not, as the regular Urus is rapid enough to satisfy most tastes.

But for those who simply must have that added zing and visual pizzaz, the Performante is an absolute hoot.

How much does the 2022 Lamborghini Urus Performante cost?
Price: $465,876 (plus taxes and on-road costs)
Available: Second quarter 2023
Engine: 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol
Output: 490kW/850Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: TBC
CO2: TBC
Safety rating: Not tested