Lamborghini’s launch event for the Temerario, conducted in late-series production prototypes, was undertaken entirely in short, fairly frantic on-track bursts, and in open-face helmets. So I can’t tell you anything about how it rides or handles on the road – although for a car that, insists Lambo, is often daily-driven, those are clearly important factors. Nor can I tell you how accessible its 907bhp might be in day-to-day driving. For all of that, we’ll await a car in the UK later this year.
I can’t even say, with total confidence, how it sounds – when you’re not wearing an open-face helmet with built-in ear defenders, that is. My impression was that it’s a little bit like a supercar from another town in the Emilia Romagna – because Ferrari, until its recent preference for V6s at least, has probably laid the most prominent claim to the prickly, gristly snarl of a fast-revving, flat-plane-cranked V8.
Is there the mechanical richness or combustive music here we’ve come to expect from Lamborghini? Not really; not if I’m being picky.
But then none of Maranello’s turbo V8s ever revved much beyond 8000rpm. The roughness of the Temerario’s engine transforms into fizzing vibration as it runs beyond normal crankspeeds. Because there’s always huge torque available, you could simply forget to keep your foot in.
But then, when you remember to, a car that feels searingly potent even less than halfway through its rev range becomes nothing short of extraordinary as it closes in on the redline. The Temerario doesn’t need to rev to 10,000rpm, honestly. The only reason to let it is because it can. Because you’ll want it to. And, trust me, you will.
The dual-clutch gearbox, meanwhile, is really quick-shifting, the brake pedal reassuringly firm-feeling.
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