Urus up close

Lamborghini is steadying itself to score two for two.

First the iconic Italian manufacturer hit a six with the Aventador J in Geneva. Now the rampaging bull is ready to unleash its latest concept, the Urus, at the Beijing motor show.

Urus is Lamborghini's first SUV design study, as noted in our separate news story. Any decision to place it in production will rest with the reception the car receives in Beijing. China is a rapidly growing market and the nongmin (peasants) are still revered throughout the country, but there's a burgeoning 'overclass' of buyers for prestige brands. And you don't get much more prestigious than a Lamborghini.

Urus marks a major departure from the Lamborghini brand we've come to know, but other prestige marques have successfully migrated to SUVs. Unlike one or two of those other brands, the Urus at least looks the part, to go with the expected high performance. While there won't be any doubt about the Urus's grunt, that will be a result of weight management as much as whipping up the neddies. So let's start with that...

“The important discussions to lock in right now are about target power, weight, packaging and CO2,” Lamborghini’s R&D boss, Maurizio Reggiani admitted to motoring.com.au.

“The biggest target from here is 50:50 for the weight distribution – though from the axle line it’s probably closer to 45:55 at the moment and we are looking to put as much weight in the back as we can – and from that, you know we are not even talking about a final powertrain yet.”

Reggiani and Lamborghini President, Stefan Winkelmann are both convinced the key to having the fastest, greenest super-SUV going around in 2016 will be slashing the weight-to-power figure. They have worked hard already with the Aventador’s in-house carbon-fibre team to find structural weight savings over conventional SUV thinking.

Reggiani claims Lamborghini’s carbon boffins have already found 100kg in weight savings over even aluminium spaceframe thinking by employing structural carbon-fibre elements in the chassis, the dashboard and the central tunnel. And, he promised, there is more to come.

“The weight-to-power ratio is the most important number with a vehicle like this because we have the most to gain with reducing weight, not adding power,” Reggiani insisted.

“Weight is important for performance, but we want 600 horsepower and to also have CO2 reductions.”

If Lamborghini hasn’t confirmed its powertrain for the Urus, it doesn’t mean they’re not thinking about it.

“We could be looking at a VW Group powertrain and we are part of the group, so that is sensible,” Reggiani explained.

He admitted that the Lamborghini management team wasn’t ruling anything out at the moment, even the twin-turbo version of its own Gallardo V10, which Audi used for its slow-selling RS6 Avant and which would hit the Urus’s horsepower target comfortably.

“It could be pure petrol power, it could involve some performance-boosting hybrid system. At the moment the important thing is to see what happens in the Group’s development because we have four or five years before we will have something to sell.

“Diesel would help with CO2, but not with weight and weight is the key. The only thing I know for sure about this car’s powertrain is that there will be no diesel. Not while I am here,” Reggiani insisted.

If the thought of sharing a powertrain with other VW Group family members might sting, Audi’s R8 already shares its chassis, gearbox, engine and suspension with the Gallardo, though the Aventador remains a strict stand-alone machine.

“Being part of a big group can only be good if it’s well managed. It is also the only way we can think of building this and what we do has to be very consistent with the VW Group’s development,” Winkelmann insisted.

The gorgeous Urus is the Italian supercar brand’s second attempt to secure its cashflow with a third model line and comes just three years after it showed the Estoque super sedan at the Paris Motor Show in 2009.

“In terms of ground clearance, it has to be a normal SUV but it has to be something that you can drive and not be disappointing when you are pushing it,” Winkelmann opined.

“The drivability and the emotion and the handling are much more important than the top speed in this segment for us, and this is a good attempt in the right direction.”

Reggiani is promising movable aerodynamics and constantly adjusting suspension ride height to achieve his boss’s goals.

“We will have movable aero to make it perfect in every condition,” he promised.

“The important points on its drivability are a consequence of the weight and power, but more strictly related to the suspension of the car.

“The most important part is the front suspension. It gives agility and steering precision and the feeling. Our front suspension will allow our car to be the best in class and the most sporting SUV in the world.”

Yet, coming just three years after the jaw-dropping Estoque’s debut, we asked Winkelmann why it had abandoned its super sports sedan and whether the low-rider still had a future.

“The Estoque… We wanted to do it in 2008 but we had no platform and then we got hit by the (financial) crisis, so we stopped,” he admitted.

“More recently, we made an evaluation of all the possible segments we could enter with a third model and this is the most emotional one and the one with the biggest future and the one with the fewest luxury competitors.

“And, even though the LM002 is not the reason why we are doing this car, we do have a history in it,” he added.

The success of Lamborghini’s design team in creating an integrated, aggressive SUV that at once stands alone and is also clearly a Lamborghini at first glance has put VW Group boss Martin Winterkorn in a difficult position.

A production version of the Urus would have to be built off the VW Group’s MLB architecture for SUVs, which will spawn its first model, the new Audi Q7, in 2014. Its only other certain starter is Porsche’s next Cayenne (though that isn’t due until at least 2017), but Bentley hopes to use it, too.

Yet Bentley’s first shot at an SUV flopped miserably, with its EXP 9 F concept car widely panned and openly laughed at during this year’s Geneva Motor Show.

“While our planning is for the car to be same price as a Bentley SUV, we don’t see any crossover. For us, it has to be a segment that’s useful for families as the first car in the family,” Winkelmann said.

“All of our owners have much more than two or three cars in the garage and they also have an SUV, but we also foresee upgrade buyers from premium SUVs.

“We are seeing 3000-3500 cars a year. 3000 is the right measure for us. It will be more than doubling of what we have at the moment.”

Despite this, Bentley has a far greater global reach than Lamborghini, with a wider customer base, more dealers and far higher fixed costs than the Sant’Agata outfit.

It’s a situation Winkelmann insists Lamborghini has arguments to counter, even if the VW Group has indicated it would prefer to build either the Bentley or the Lamborghini SUV, but not both.

“We believe this could be our future. The future of Lamborghini is in product enlargement. Last year we sold 1600 cars, which was a small recovery after the bad times of 2009 and 2010,” he said.

“The world car market is 62 to 63 million cars. The market for €100,000-plus vehicles with more than 400 horsepower — it's very cyclical. It’s very sensitive to economic down turns.

“There is a difference between the luxury buyers and the general buyers and the luxury car market, and even luxury sedans and two-door cars.

“We need in the future to have something to counter balance the ups and downs of our life cycle. We want to widen our customer base and to have a third model gives us a much more stable profitability.”

The obvious internet forum argument is that it’s a dilution of the Lamborghini brand to build an SUV or even a sedan like the Estoque, but Winkelmann will have none of it.

“Lamborghini history is not only about coupes. If you look at the Miura today, it looks more like a GT car than a super sports car.

“If you look at the Espada or the LM002, we are not a company that always did specifically sports cars.

LM002 was the predecessor of a luxury SUV segment that still doesn’t exist. There is still nobody in that luxury SUV segment.”

It helps Winkelmann’s position that both the United States loves SUVs and its new boom market, China, is beginning to get to grips with them, too.

“Our SUV needs to have a size in the segment that’s big enough to enter the rear comfortably and it has to have a size that works around the world in America and Europe and Asia Pacific,” he said

“In terms of growth, it’s the best segment we can step into and in the last three to four years it has changed dramatically.

“It’s the most potentially profitable four-door segment we can enter at the moment. One of the things we need is an every-day car for our customers and it has to add to the luxury position of the brand.

“Fifty percent of the SUV segment is in the U.S., so that’s one of the key markets for this type of car. If you look at Europe there are three main markets: Germany, the U.K. and Russia.

“Then there is the Middle East and China and India. We expect these to be the biggest markets, but not necessarily in that order.”

The second Lamborghini designed entirely on computer, the URUS is the first Lamborghini SUV of any kind since the LM002 – and an entirely more integrated piece of sculpture.

Though not without its challenges, Lamborghini Centro Stile boss, Filippo Perini, was relieved that the SUV’s design process was smoother than he’d anticipated.

“We were looking for new design language for the surfaces and we came up with the Lamborghini tradition in the front and a completely new back-end language,” he claimed.

“The key was to reduce the size impression of the concept, because it’s bigger than it looks, and we did that by using a 2.5:1 ratio between the panels and the glass.

“The lines in the front connect to the roof, and we had to do the front in a way that reduced the weight of the look of the car. It was very important to lose weight from the rear, which is why it’s so rounded there.

“The front is aggressive, too, but we tried with the lights to be aggressive in a polite way. We have an aggressive face, with some manners put in through the details.”

According to Perini, there is nothing on the car that can’t be put into production, even the 23-inch wheels, which boast production Pirelli tyres.

Perini insisted that there were moves afoot to allow the Urus’s cameras to replace side mirrors, which could change the laws by the time the car could be built.

“The system should be safer with a camera than a mirror because you can hook that up to danger-reading algorithms to make lane-changing much safer, and fuel consumption is lower too. Mirrors are a huge contributor to a car’s aero signature.”

Even the aero tricks can be built in production, with the rear deflector only providing downforce when it’s deployed at speed, otherwise it moves air across the rear window to reduce fuel consumption.

“The front was very tough for us because we work with a different way normally, and it’s hard for us to feel this front end.”

It will be a different story inside, too, with Perini promising the Urus will wrap around every occupant.

“Every driver and passenger will have the feeling to be part of the structure. A lot of carbon-fibre and other new materials, too.”

In combination with variable height, the height-adjustable front spoiler gives good approach angles and excellent clearance for obstacles, while giving stability at speed.

“It will be comfort and technology together in a beautiful mix. We need to have the room for four passengers, which is a key point.”

He also defended Lamborghini’s move to full computer design, even from the sketch phase, insisting modern design software was an “incredibly powerful” tool.

“People say it’s not creative to do it on computer. Bullshit.

“Also a pencil is not creative. If you don’t remove it from the draw, it stays in the draw and doesn’t create anything.”

In keeping with tradition, the Urus is a bull. Actually, it’s the first bull, because it’s the name of the long-extinct ancestor of modern domestic cattle.

Lamborghini claims the modern Spanish fighting bull looks similar to the Urus, which stood up to 1.8 metres high in the shoulder.

While it’s not a name that rolls off the tongue, it’s better than the LM003 would have been and might hopefully sell more.

The original Lambo SUV had a seven-year life from 1985, though only 300 of the 450 horsepower beasts were ever sold.

Everybody’s aware that if it’s built, this will be on the MLB platform. How will you make that handle like a Lamborghini?

The target is 50:50 for the weight distribution and the real key is lowering weight. We have the most to gain with reducing weight, not adding power.

Weight is something every customer can perceive in everyday driving with the car – and we want it to be an everyday car.

Looking at the axle line and the base of the windscreen, 50:50 isn’t really attainable, is it?

If you ask me what can be achieved, it looks more like 55:45, but we are trying to put the maximum weight in the rear.

What other tricks do you have to make it handle?

The important point is its drivability, and that’s a consequence of the weight and power but more strictly to the suspension of the car and even more strictly to the front suspension. It gives agility and steering precision and the feeling. That’s all I can say…

You have two engines now, plus the twin-turbo V10 from the RS6, but they don’t look like they’ll fit beneath that bonnet…

We have defined the types of powertrain that will be available for this packaging and we are a long way away, so there will be developments.

So it’s not likely to be a stand-alone Lamborghini engine?

We could be looking at a VW Group powertrain and we are part of the group, so that is sensible. At the moment, the important thing is to see what happens in development because we have four or five years before we will have something to sell.

Could this lead to a Lamborghini diesel?

There will be no diesel. Not while I am here.

Why this car and why now?

We believe this could be our future. Last year we sold 1600 cars, which was a small recovery after the bad times of 2009 and 2010.

We are seeing 3000-3500 cars a year. 3000 is the right measure for us. It will be more than doubling of what we have at the moment.

Why do you need a third model line?

The market for €100,000 plus vehicles with more than 400 horsepower its very cyclical and it’s very sensitive to economic down turns.

We need our future to have something to counter balance the ups and downs of our life cycle.

Can you do that without alienating the people who insist on sports car purity?

We need to widen our customer base and Lamborghini’s history is not only about coupes.

If you look at the Muira today, it looks more like a GT car than a super sports car. If you look at the Espada or the LM002, we are not a company that only did sports cars.

Does the LM002 lend you credibility in this segment?

It gives us a history in it, but the LM is not the reason why we are doing this car. To me, the LM002 was the predecessor of a luxury SUV segment that still does not exist.

Have you given up on Estoque?

We wanted to do it in 2008 but we had no platform, then we got hit by the crisis so we stopped.

We made an evaluation of all the possible segments and this is the most emotional one with the biggest future and with the fewest luxury competitors.

How will you guarantee it’s still a Lamborghini?

It needs to be big enough to enter the rear comfortably. In terms of ground clearance, it has to be a normal SUV but it has to be something that you can drive and not be disappointed by when you are pushing it.

The drivability and the emotion and the handling are much more important than the top speed in this segment for us, and this is a good attempt in the right direction.

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