Lamborghini calls it the ‘Temerario Zone’: that frenzied finishing sprint beyond 7,000rpm when the engine lunges for its 10,250rpm limiter.
Your instinct, based on driving any number of ‘ordinary’ cars, is to change up before the digital needle even touches this final third of the dial. And in truth, the Temerario’s plug-in hybrid system, comprised of a 3.8kWh battery and three electric motors, means there is always ample torque to short-shift.
Hold your nerve, though, and the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 doubles down, its tone hardening from a bassline blare to a piercing mechanical crescendo. At this engine speed, a Lamborghini engineer later tells me, each of the eight pistons is moving up and down 86 times per second. It’s an explosion of raw kinetic energy that feels anything but ordinary.
Take it to the track
Given it will reach the benchmark 62mph in first gear, however, opportunities to explore the Temerario Zone on the road can be frustratingly few and far-between. Thus I left with mixed feelings after attending the launch last year.
You can read my Lamborghini Temerario road review for the full story. But the problem in a nutshell is that, unlike its Huracan predecessor, which felt exhilarating from the instant you ignited its bombastic, naturally aspirated V10, the Temerario needs the expanse of a racetrack for its V8 to really howl – and to show off its heightened, hypercar-baiting performance.
So, when Lamborghini invited me to Vairano, an automotive proving ground near Milan, to drive the updated, 2027 Temerario flat-out… Well, I didn’t need asking twice.
Temerario updated for 2027
Paolo Rachetti, product line director for the Temerario, is hesitant to divulge exact details of the changes made for this 2027 model year. Certainly, the car looks identical: a wedge of intersecting angles with hints of superbike around its hind quarters. Its jet fighter-style cockpit is also unaltered, with two seats, much-improved infotainment and an optional track telemetry system. A 112-litre ‘frunk’ is practical by mid-engined Lamborghini standards, too.
Essentially, we’re talking software tweaks rather than anything you will spot in the showroom. But Rachetti does reveal these include making the twin-clutch gearshifts more pronounced and the V8 more vocal – the latter helped by having less insulation in the engine bay.
I get the sense that Lamborghini has been stung by criticism of the Temerario being less of a livewire than the car it replaced. Efforts have been made to sharpen things up, without limiting its broader spread of abilities: “We learned that one in three Huracan owners drives their car every day,” reveals Rachetti. “We wanted to make the Temerario more comfortable, and easier to live with on long journeys.”
Which is all very well, of course, but a Lamborghini still needs to blow your head off when required. It’s part of the job description. And so it is that I find myself at the end of Vairano’s two-kilometre straight, with Corsa mode selected, the hybrid system in its Performance setting and launch control engaged. Left foot on the brake, right foot hard on the throttle: time for take-off.
Launching with control
Even on a damp circuit and lightly treaded Bridgestone Potenza Race tyres, a full-bore launch in the Temerario feels absolutely brutal. The combination of four-wheel drive and ever-ready electric torque fires you off the line with a gut-punch of violent acceleration. As a driver, it’s actually quite unpleasant. As a passenger, you will feel downright nauseous.
Amidst the maelstrom, you sense the traction and stability systems working overtime to limit wheelspin or any deviation from the straight-ahead. Indeed, the software does all the heavy lifting; you simply keep the throttle pinned and hold tight.
The bellow of the V8 builds in line with your speed, becoming savagely intense as you pull the right paddle to snatch another gear. This is an engine with motorsport-derived technology, including titanium conrods, 11,000rpm-capable sliding finger followers, a flat-plane crankshaft and alloy casting, and its scream at high revs is pure GT3 race car.
How fast? I glimpsed an indicated 300km/h towards the end of the main straight, which equates to 186.4mph – the fastest I have ever driven a road car. Equally impressive, though, was how rapidly the Lamborghini slowed down again. Huge carbon-ceramic discs with 10-piston front calipers work with regenerative braking assistance from all three electric motors, providing the confidence you need when travelling at north of three miles per minute.
And we can slide away
Things then get slower but more sideways, as I test the Temerario’s dedicated Drift mode. Selected via a button on the steering wheel, this allows three levels of progressively greater yaw angles when the car starts to slide. Rachetti suggests that level one is usable on the road, making the car more playful without risking a backwards-through-hedge incident. Levels two and three are best explored on a circuit.
Approach a corner, foot off the gas, turn the steering wheel, a sharp stab of throttle and then counter-steer to correct the slide. It sounds easy in theory – and in level one it is, with the Lamborghini’s front electric motors helping to stabilise the drift. In levels two and three, however, it is still possible to pirouette ungracefully onto the grass, as I swiftly discover. All in the name of research, of course.
In truth, the Temerario can oversteer exuberantly in Sport mode – calibrated to be more “fun to drive” than maximum-attack Corsa, which is focused on lap times – so Drift mode feels a bit surplus to requirements. And with upwards of 1,800kg to throw around (Lamborghini quotes a dry weight of 1,690kg), this doesn’t feel like the Temerario’s raison d’être. It’s more adept at precision driving than sideways showboating.
Into the Temerario Zone
Appropriately enough, my day concludes with some hot laps of Variano’s handling circuit. The track is narrow, tightly coiled and quite technical, but its surface has now fully dried out. There is plenty of run-off, too – although I’m quietly hoping I won’t need it.
For the first few laps, I simply find my way, working out the right lines through several complexes of corners. What’s remarkable is how easily the Temerario can monster a whole, relatively quick lap without shifting from third or fourth gear. At 2000rpm, when most naturally aspirated or turbocharged engines have barely woken up, you can bury your foot and it just pulls – the hybrid tech filling the gaps in the power band to deliver a seamless rush to the redline. Like being tied to the end of a giant elastic band, it’s always ready to catapult you out of each apex.
It would be different on a faster, more open circuit, but here there are still few opportunities to use all 10,250rpm. Perhaps my brain simply needs recalibrating, but I have to make a conscious effort to enter the Temerario Zone, rather than simply relying on the sledgehammer torque of the electric motors. Like driving a Porsche 911 Turbo S, you can make very rapid progress without trying too hard.
Put the effort in, though, and you will reap the rewards. The steering is light yet full of detail, and the increased ‘thump’ on upshifts feels intensely exciting. Push harder and the chassis feels remarkably benign, holding its line tenaciously before edging into controllable oversteer. Drift mode? Completed it, mate. For a car with no less than 13 driving modes, the Temerario delivers impressively uncomplicated driving fun.
Verdict: 2027 Lamborghini Temerario
My session probably concludes at the right time, just as my confidence starts to become cockiness. Yes, the Lamborghini is easy to lob around, flattering you with subtle electronic interventions, but any car with 920hp requires a healthy amount of respect.
After scratching the surface previously, driving the Temerario on-track felt like seeing it with fresh eyes. I uncovered depths of talent (the car’s, not mine) that were hitherto hidden. How many owners will take their Temerario on a circuit, I’m unsure, but those that do won’t be disappointed. As the Revuelto also demonstrates, the days of Lamborghinis being dynamically inferior to rivals from Ferrari or McLaren are over. Indeed, this car already has the polish that only later versions of the Huracan – such the STO and Tecnica – managed to achieve.
Am I still conflicted? Slightly, because despite the MY27 updates, the Temerario still feels a bit reserved for 90 percent of the time on the road. While Lamborghinis of old were often fundamentally flawed, but brimful of character, this one is slightly too competent for its own good. An aftermarket exhaust would help, or better yet a new generation STO. Such a car is surely in the product plan.
Money-no-object – as is no doubt the case for some owners – the V12 Revuelto is still the Lamborghini I’d choose. But those fleeting moments when the Temerario gets beyond 7,000rpm still reverberate in my memory. When you’re in the Zone, there’s nothing else quite like it.
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