Lamborghini Revuelto 2024 review – a worthy successor to the Aventador?

Lamborghini is undoubtedly a changed company. The last track-based launch I attended for a new V12-powered variant with the Italian manufacturer was at the Circuit de Catalunya. It was back in 2015 for the wild Aventador SV, a car with 740bhp and capable of lapping the Ring in under seven minutes if you have the speed, car control and sheer bravery of Marco Mapelli (the lap is worth watching if you have a spare 6:59.7 today). The format for that SV launch was simple: rock up, spend ten minutes talking about the various engine, aero and suspension changes, jump in a car and follow a test driver with his hair on fire… 

I remember emerging from the cool shade of the pit garage to see a line of SVs looking sharp-edged and slightly terrifying. One journalist timidly asked, ‘Do we need helmets?’ The instructor looked confused. ‘Do you want helmets?’ he replied. Not quite with disdain. But certainly a hint of pity. ‘Erm, I suppose not,’ came the shaky response. And that was that. Moments later we were flat-out on a track most of us didn’t know, in Lamborghini’s maddest supercar since the… well, maybe ever. The anarchic spirit of Lamborghini was truly alive and well. 

> Lamborghini Aventador Ultimae v Lamborghini Countach

Things are different in 2024. We’re in Rome to drive the new Revuelto. And there’s paperwork. Reams of the stuff. There’s a detailed and bespoke programme for each participant, none of which read ‘Turn up, get in, drive for your life, get drunk at dinner, leave.’ When we arrive at the Vallelunga race circuit, various pit boxes are designated for different presentations. Including one entitled ‘Connectivity’, and another that allows you to walk around the chassis and exploded engine and drivetrain components in a VR world. Crash helmets? You can barely walk up the stairs without somebody insisting you wear one. Compliance has come to Italy. Even to Sant’Agata.

It would be a crushing realisation if it wasn’t for the line of Revueltos in all the great Lamborghini colours parked nearby. Yellow, orange, green… we’re just missing Viola metallic for the full set. And the noise. The big, complex, unmistakable noise of a normally aspirated Lamborghini V12 engine that echoes and booms as the cars shuffle into position in the pitlane. The Revuelto has adopted hybrid technology, yes. It has four-wheel steering, torque vectoring, a front axle driven purely by electric motors. It probably has good connectivity (I skipped that presentation). But, Lamborghini’s new flagship also has a new 6.5-litre V12 that revs to 9500rpm and produces 814bhp all on its own. In total, it makes 1001bhp, which means 0-62mph in 2.5 seconds and a top speed of over 217mph. The Revuelto costs from around £450,000.  

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All of which is great. However, a new car that follows in the footsteps of Miura, Countach, Diablo, Murciélago and Aventador is held to different standards somehow. Speed is not enough. In fact, it’s almost secondary to all the other traits and myths that flow through the supercar kingdom’s maddest bloodline. A mid-engined V12 Lambo needs to inspire awe and fear. It needs to create a sense of wonder. These are the great intangibles. The things that CFD, simulation and pure engineering efficiency alone can’t create.

Lamborghini knows as much. Yet the building blocks for the Revuelto go big on technology. It’s why that signature engine is still alive and it’s why the new big Lamborghini isn’t quite like any other big Lamborghini that’s gone before. The basis of the car is a new carbonfibre ‘monofuselage’ chassis with the addition of a carbonfibre front subframe and crash structure, plus an aluminium rear structure to support the engine, gearbox and rear suspension. The 6.5-litre V12 sits longitudinally, like in a Countach, Diablo, Murcielago or Aventador, but it’s rotated 180 degrees and a new eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox sits behind it, mounted transversely. This frees up the old ‘transmission tunnel’ to house a 3.8 kWh lithium-ion battery, which feeds two axial-flux motors on the front axle (rated at 110kW each). There’s also a third electric motor mounted above the gearbox. 

As you’d expect, the Revuelto chassis is lighter – by 10 per cent, while the new front frame is 20 per cent lighter than the Aventador’s aluminium structure – and torsional rigidity is up 25 per cent. The new V12 weighs 218kg, saving 17kg, whilst the eight-speed dual-clutch ’box is lighter than the seven-speed unit fitted to the Huracán. Even so, including the electric motor it weighs 193kg, a huge amount more than the Aventador’s at-times nightmarishly clunky ISR single-clutch gearbox. 

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I should say the ISR ’box could deliver fast and really positive shifts but the programming was deliberately ‘emotional’, for which read ‘crappy’. Anyway, that unit’s mere 79kg build does point towards the one area where the Revuelto can’t compete with the Aventador. All that sophistication, the promise of torque fill and torque vectoring, plus an electric-only range of around six miles, adds up to 1772kg dry. The Aventador Ultimae weighed 1550kg dry. 

Sadly, this test will be a very one-dimensional peek at a car that would appear to have nuance and configurability at its core. Jump into the Revuelto, notice how much more room there is and yet how the driving position still has remnants of Aventador about it (oddly upright and not fully immersed in that carbon structure in the way of, say, a McLaren or even a Maserati MC20), and then scan the steering wheel for clues about how to operate this monster. On the left side of the wheel is a rotary switch that allows you to select Città, Strada, Sport, Corsa and Corsa ESC Off modes. It affects magnetic dampers, four-wheel drive and torque-vectoring strategy, traction and stability control, gearbox programming, throttle response, powertrain settings and the active aerodynamics. Refreshingly, whatever the mode chosen, the steering speed and assistance remain consistent. Hallelujah.

Its counterpart dial on the right of the wheel selects Recharge, Hybrid or Performance mode, which mostly do what they say on the tin. City mode is EV only and limited to 178bhp; Strada provides access to 874bhp, aero set to maximum stability and relatively comfortable dampers (we can’t vouch for this as yet); Sport bumps the power to 895bhp and is about agility and is said to be the most ‘drifty’ of the modes, and Corsa turns everything up to maximum and is designed for lap time and all-out performance. As we’re only driving at Vallelunga and our instructors still have more than a hint of old-school Lamborghini about their approach to setting a representative pace, today is all about Corsa/Performance. Feeling the Revuelto at its rawest and most fierce. Oh, and trying to keep up. 

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Sensations come thick and fast. The steering is very light and has that clean, smooth feel that’s typical of ePAS and the complete opposite of the Aventador’s heavy, sticky-feeling rack. In combination with the rear steering – which can turn up to 5 degrees for low-speed manoeuvres but in dynamic situations is inputting just 0.5 degrees – the Revuelto feels instantly more agile than any Aventador I’ve driven and gives an impression of lightness that’s welcome and unexpected. The gearbox is transformed, too. Here it fosters ‘emotion’ simply by giving almost uninterrupted access to 1001bhp. It’s fast, hits with just a little jolt for dramatic effect and feels right up there with the best from the likes of Porsche and Ferrari. Maybe it’s not quite as manic and mechanical feeling as a 296 GTB’s, but then the Revuelto does have a 6.5-litre V12 to fall back on… 

The powertrain is simply fantastic. There isn’t the pure, singular howl of an Aventador SVJ at high revs, but for response, reach and blood-draining acceleration the combination of the new V12 and the electrical boost is beyond reproach. Even on the wide expanses of Vallelunga, the Revuelto is the sort of fast that makes you feel super-powered and very puny all at the same time. A Ferrari SF90 feels just as absurd and smaller too, but the amazingly precise response of a big V12 with the added hit of electrical assist is so much more special in operation. 

The comparison with the SF90 is instructive because the two cars’ differing approaches are so obvious and tangible. Despite both relying heavily on the technological tools at their disposal, the Lamborghini has deliberately tried to hide the various levers it’s pulling and create a very natural, almost classical dynamic feel and balance. The torque vectoring may be over-speeding the outside wheel in low-speed turns and doing the opposite to aid stability in the really fast turns, but you don’t feel that. Nor is there the sense that the four-wheel drive is constantly massaging and managing the balance. In an SF90 there’s a lot of manipulating going on and you know when the front axle is fully engaged and trying to drag the car straight. It’s fascinating but often counter-intuitive, and the lack of consistency can make the car a bit of an enigma to untangle. The Lambo is a breeze to read and exploit by comparison. Mostly this is a very neutral car – much more so than early Aventadors – but it also reacts with real energy as you attempt to balance it under power. There’s a delicate sense of poise and adjustability that’s at odds with the sheer forces at work.  

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However, the Revuelto is still a big car with a very big engine and heavy gearbox swinging around behind you and, at times, there’s no disguising it. It jinks and sways under heavy braking, and as well as the predictable power oversteer that’s very easy to work with and finessed really well by the ESC (which can use the rear electric motor to create drag on the engine rather than cutting sparks), the car will also swing into oversteer pretty quickly if you turn in on the brakes. Following the wrung-out instructors is fantastic, but further highlights the fight going on to keep such power and weight tied down, the Revuelto bucking and hopping over lateral bumps and looking a right old handful even though from the inside it is mostly very calm. 

Overall, though, the car is a massive leap on and copes really well with the challenge of this superb racetrack. New ten-piston carbon-ceramics have radically better feel than the brakes of the Aventador or even a Huracán, which still suffer from dead travel and then very grabby bite. The engine truly is outrageous, and the crazy thing is that even with 9500rpm to play with it’s still very easy to hit the limiter, such is the rate of acceleration and the effortless way the V12 revs out. It feels like it would run another 1000rpm without strain. Even on standard Bridgestone Potenza Sport tyres (the Race variant seen on the Huracán STO is not available for this car) it’s fast, too, matching the STO’s lap time and probably for less effort. 

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Driving exclusively on track has certainly shown how vivid the Revuelto’s performance can be and demonstrated the light-touch feel of the technology chosen to evolve this proud breed. But we have missed out on seeing it out in the world amongst normal traffic and it’s tricky to decipher if the new big Lambo has the animal appeal of the old cars. One thing is for sure, the Revuelto doesn’t have the design purity of early incarnations of its predecessors. It’s a busy shape already.

So there’s much more to learn about Revuelto, but the signs are extremely good. Let’s just say those precious laps were worth the reams of paperwork. And that the helmet policy was wise considering the performance potential of Lamborghini’s new supercar. The thick padding did rather muffle the 6.5-litre V12, though. I guess that just makes the next meeting with the Revuelto even more tantalising. Maybe up in the hills on a cool spring day, windows cracked open and that V12 pinned to 9500rpm if we can find the space to really wind it up. We’ll seek out some tunnels, too. Same as it ever was.

Lamborghini Revuelto specs

This story was first featured in evo issue 316.