The quest to build the world’s fastest SUV is a strange and deeply irrational one?like constructing the supercar with the greatest wading depth?yet it’s one that luxury manufacturers seem to be taking very seriously. Especially those within the Volkswagen Group, where this unlikely contest has become a battle royale of one-upmanship. First came the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S and its sub-8-minute lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, then the Bentley Bentayga with its fractionally faster 187-mph top speed. And now we’re facing the prospect of the Lamborghini Urus, with company CEO Stephan Winkelmann assuring us that the SUV will be the fastest in the world.
?Our car will be the first time Lamborghini has a turbocharged engine, a V-8,? he told us, at the launch of the new Huracán LP580-2 in Qatar, ?and it will be the fastest SUV for sure. That has been a key objective.? Pressed on whether he meant quickest over a lap, flat-out, or with some other measure of performance, Winkelmann?s response was unequivocal: ?In terms of top speed, in terms of acceleration, in terms of everything,” he said. “It has to be, it?s a Lamborghini.?
As well as confirming earlier reports that the Urus would come with a high-output turbocharged V-8?presumably a close kin to the one that powers the Cayenne Turbo?Winkelmann also dropped broad hints that it?s also likely to be the first Lamborghini with the option of a second engine, in this case a hybrid powertrain to follow...