The Lamborghini Temerario Is a Fearless 213 MPH Supercar
Temerario is Italian for ‘fearless,’ but the car isn’t just an engine with a couple of seats strapped to it for straight-line thrills.
It’s a small car that has big shoes to fill.
Lamborghini set up shop at the Monterey Car Week event in California on Friday to unveil a new model called the Temerario. The car is set to replace the Huracan, which is the most popular supercar it has ever sold.
More than 20,000 of the quarter-million two-seaters have been delivered since it was launched in 2013 and became the go-to accessory for up-and-coming celebrities, sports stars and tech titans.
Its wedge shape and screaming V10 engine are unmistakable, but the Temerario is different. It still looks like a Lamborghini, but it has a hybrid powertrain. Don’t worry, it’s not trying to be a Prius.
It combines a turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine with three electric motors that produce a combined 920 cavallo vapore, which translates to 907 horsepower.
The engine alone produces 789 horsepower and spins to 10,000 rpm. That is faster than any mass-produced production engine in history. Lightweight titanium is used for the piston rods to handle the speed, which is as much about generating sound and emotion as it is power. The high-pitched exhaust note generated by an engine running that fast could put some opera singers to shame.
One of the electric motors is nestled between the engine and the eight-speed automatic transmission that drives the rear wheels, while the other two are each assigned a front wheel. A small 3.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack sits in the tunnel between the passengers, much like the setup found in the hybrid Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray.
The battery can be charged from an outlet and the Temerario can enter an all-electric mode that uses just the front wheels, but not for very long or far. The hybrid is mainly meant to use the electric motors to charge the battery under braking and then unleash the recaptured energy when the driver hits the accelerator. Sprints to 60 mph take just 2.7 seconds and the top speed is listed at 213 mph.
Temerario is Italian for “fearless” but the car isn’t just an engine with a couple of seats strapped to it for straight-line thrills. It is primarily constructed of lightweight and rides on a double-wishbone suspension like many racing cars use to improve its handling.
The front electric motors can also be used for something called “torque vectoring” where a computer shifts the power from side to side in curves to help the car stay in control, even if the driver is doing their best not to be. Active aerodynamics move bits of the bodywork around to adjust the downforce as needed.
If that makes it sound like a jet fighter, the cabin follows suit. The dashboard wraps around the driver like a cockpit and the start button is hidden under a metal latch that looks like something you’d arm a Hellfire missile with.
It’s far from a spartan space, however. The seats have 18-way adjustability, there are three digital screens on the dashboard and enough headroom for six-foot-five-inch tall passengers wearing helmets. NBA centers might need to wait for the inevitable, but not yet officially confirmed convertible version to be released.
And while they probably won’t be too worried about the price, Lamborghini hasn’t yet announced it or the exact date for when deliveries will begin, although it will be sometime in 2025. It will likely be in the region of $300,000.
One thing the Temerario won’t be is Lamborghini’s overall best seller. That title belongs to the Urus SUV these days, which makes up more than half of its sales.
The Urus has also gone hybrid this year as has Lamborghini’s top model, the Revuelto, which is a 1,001 horsepower supercar with a V12 that starts at $600,000. That’s the one you buy to celebrate your second album, getting out of your rookie contract or turning your company a unicorn.
The car business is about keeping customers coming back for more, after all. So much more.