From the LM002 to the Urus, Lamborghini has a history of creating sometimes controversial SUVs and monster trucks
Lamborghini created a buzz with its exotic Urus SUV concept at the Beijing auto show in April, but a quarter of a century ago it generated a veritable hurricane of hyperbole when it launched its ancestral inspiration, the LM002, a sort of Countach-cum-monster-truck.
A top speed of 210 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of eight seconds might sound a bit lethargic for a V-12-engined mid-1980s Lamborghini but road testers of the time thought the numbers were pretty startling considering the new LM002 stood almost two meters tall and weighed in at three tons.
With the intro of the outrageous - in terms of sheer size, power, performance and princely $210,000 Canadian price tag - LM002 in 1986, Lamborghini was planning to make big knobbly Pirelli Scorpion tire tracks in largely unexplored market territory.
If it couldn’t corner like a Countach, well, it could certainly be driven through much deeper sand, an important attribute to the oil sheiks high on its customer targeting list.
The four-door production LM002 emerged in 1986 and was launched at the Brussels auto show. It was built around a tubular frame with aluminum body panels and stretched 4,790 mm between its bumpers (about 350 mm shorter than a modern Cadillac Escalade) and weighed 2,725 kg.
Lamborghini unveiled the spiritual successor to the LM002, a radical 600-horsepower SUV concept called the Urus, at the Beijing motor show earlier this year.
Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said the four-door four-seater SUV is “a perfect match for the Lamborghini brand.”Jackson Lowen
Lamborghini is not specifying what type of engine will get the SUV to the approximate 600 hp figure, but it seems likely to be either a variation of the current 560-hp V-10 in the Lamborghini Gallardo, or a tweaked version of the turbo V-8 that’s found in the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, or perhaps even a V-12, as was shown in Bentley’s awkwardly named EXP 9 F SUV concept.Jackson Lowen
Winkelmann said the Urus would weigh about 100 kg less than its rivals, thanks to Lambo’s exclusive heft-reducing carbon fibre technology.Jackson Lowen
Lambo wants to be best in class for carbon dioxide emissions in the high-end SUV segment, and the Urus is expected to receive a plug-in version of the new turbocharged Audi V-8 that also appears in the Bentley Continental GT V-8.Jackson Lowen
Unlike the blocky LM002, the Urus will be styled in line with its more exotic two-door siblings.
This new Lambo SUV will breathe fiery on-road performance instead of brutish off-road capability, featuring a relatively low roof but a variable ride-height, and a paddle-shift dual-clutch transmission.
The interior of the Urus.
There will be no more column stalks for turn signals, wipers or headlights, as dispensed with in the Ferrari 458 Italia as well.
The Urus should arrive to market by 2016...
...but it’ll never replace the original Rambo Lambo.