The Revuelto Is an Astronomical Leap Forward for Lamborghini

The Revuelto is the best possible outcome for Lamborghini fans. For years, enthusiasts feared the raging bull would drop its V-12 in the name of emissions. But thanks to hybrid power, the epic V-12 engine will stay alive until at least 2030. That propels this car into an entirely different league of performance.

Compared to Lamborghini’s last flagship, the Aventador, the Revuelto is an astronomical leap forward in handling, ride, and speed. After a couple of hours behind the wheel, ripping through the beautiful backroads of upstate New York, it’s clear this is one of the most capable performance cars on sale today.

The Revuelto isn’t just a reskinned Aventador with some electric motors slapped onto the drivetrain. It’s an entirely new car. The carbon monocoque was reshaped to allow more passenger space. Previously, anyone over 6 foot 2 inches would touch the roof. Now, there’s headroom and legroom to spare. The front crash structure, previously made from aluminum, is now made from carbon. 

The drivetrain receives an even more revolutionary change. Since the Countach, Lamborghini has put the transmission for its flagship in front of the engine, sitting in the central tunnel between the seats in a strange, not-used-anywhere-else configuration. That setup was tossed for the Revuelto. Instead, the transmission moves to the rear of the engine for a more traditional mid-engine layout. 

The gearbox is anything but traditional, though. It’s an eight-speed dual-clutch (another first for Lamborghini’s V-12 flagship) that’s designed to sit transversely behind the motor and perpendicular to the rear wheels. That helps improve packaging and it incorporates hybrid power from the Revuelto’s three electric motors in a totally new way.

Normally, a car with this configuration has two electric motors in the front (one for each wheel) and a third motor sandwiched between the engine and the transmission. Think of cars like the Acura NSX or the Ferrari SF90 Stradale. The Revuelto’s two front motors do the same here, but the rear motor isn’t mounted between the V-12 and the gearbox. Instead, it sits atop the transmission casing, totally separate from the engine. It even has its own shaft within the ‘box, complete with a fork and synchronizers, to connect and disconnect independently from the V-12. 

That means the electric motor can spin the transmission (and consequently, the rear wheels) without having to also spin the engine. So you can still have all-wheel drive, even when the engine isn’t running. It’s a genius piece of engineering.

Leaving the staging area, Lamborghini asks us to stay in Città mode. Italian for City, this the Revuelto’s pure electric setting. Slap the right paddle to put the car into drive, and a distinct clunk emerges from the rear end, signifying that the electric motor is meshing to the transmission. 

Silently, I ease onto the road and accelerate away, zero of the 12 cylinders firing. 

A small 3.8-kilowatt-hour battery pack slings the Revuelto quietly down the road. The pack is mounted inside the monocoque’s central tunnel, similar to what you’d find in a Corvette E-Ray. It’s enough energy to get the Revuelto going at a brisk pace and easily maintain highway speeds—but not for long. Lamborghini says the car can travel about six miles on pure electric power. Plenty to get you out of your gated neighborhood and onto a main roadway.

The real fun begins when you start playing with the four rotary knobs on the steering wheel. The most important one, highlighted in cherry red, is the drive mode selector. The car always starts in Città. From there, you can turn the knob once to move to Strata, or Street mode. This fires up the 6.5-liter naturally aspirated V-12, but instead of throwing it straight into gear, the Revuelto is smart enough to leave the car running on the electric motors, which allows the engine to properly warm up before popping it into gear. There’s even a message on the dash that informs the driver the engine is only being used to charge the battery before it’s up to temp. After a minute or two of warming up, you can actually hear the gearbox shuffling through gears until it chooses the right one for your current speed, before finally connecting the engine to the rear wheels.

From there you can go to Sport mode, which turns up the dial a bit further. After that is everyone’s favorite, Corsa, where you get full kill from the drivetrain to set the fastest laps. Turning all of the driver assists is as easy as holding the knob until you unlock the final mode, Corsa with ESC off. 

The knob on the top left of the wheel is even more fun to play with. It can control what the Revuelto’s hybrid system is doing, independent of whatever mode you’re in. Drivers can choose between having the V-12 recharge the battery, using the hybrid battery as a normal addition to the engine, or, in Sport or Corsa mode, set it to “Performance” to squeeze the most out of the electric motors and keep the battery topped off. 

The other two knobs are less vital but equally as fun to mix and match. The lower left knob controls suspension stiffness (there are only two options, Soft and Hard), while the lower right knob operates the rear wing’s angle of attack. Shuffling through each mode and setting gives you nearly 100 different possible combinations. It’s a ton of fun, and the closest I’ve ever felt to being an F1 driver while in a road car. 

Endless drive mode combinations are only a small part of what makes the Revuelto so exciting. This is the best car I’ve driven all year, and not just because it feels like a 20-year leap in progress from the Aventador. The new carbon tub is 10 percent lighter yet 25 percent stiffer than before, while downforce is up by 70 percent. Combined with the new rear-mounted transmission layout, this car drives far more like a Huracan Tecnica than any Aventador.

Except it’s better than the Huracan. Where that car would crash over bigger bumps, the Revuelto’s suspension is far more suited to imperfect pavement and real roads. But it doesn’t give up any performance. The hybrid motors mean this car can’t match the Tecnica’s supremely pointy front end, but it’s damn close. And for what you get in exchange—seemingly endless grip that makes you feel like the greatest driver on the planet—I’d say it’s worth the tradeoff.

The hybrid system is well-integrated into the experience, delivering a glut of torque absolutely any time you request it. But it’s still not the star of the show. The 6.5-liter 12-cylinder is mostly new for the Revuelto, with a new block, new pistons, a new valvetrain, and a handful of other new or updated items. In all, it’s 37 pounds lighter than the Aventador’s motor. It makes 813 horsepower all on its own, and the redline is a spectacular 9,500 rpm.

The V-12 is a work of art, with dump trucks of top-end power and an absolutely stunning soundtrack. The dual-clutch makes it feel incredibly light and eager to spin to redline, despite its incredibly long gearing (second gear tops out at around 90 miles per hour). I did most of my driving on public roads, so I wasn’t really able to stretch out the Revuelto’s legs much. But it’s safe to say I tried to stay within the last 2,000 rpm of that powerband as often as possible. It’s addicting. 

The drivetrain is leaps and bounds more agreeable than the Aventador’s old ISR single-clutch automated unit, especially when you’re just cruising at normal speeds. No more weird pauses or unpleasant lurches between gear changes. I was worried the Revuelto might lose some of its brutish character that came with the hard-shifting ISR, but a few shifts in Corsa mode alleviate any concerns. The automaker has tuned the dual-clutch to deliver extra-aggressive shifts in its sportiest mode, reminding you that yes, this is the big-boy Lamborghini. It tip-toes between thoroughly modern and authentically raw, without ever coming off as sterilized. 

The Revuelto is the platonic ideal of a modern supercar. It incorporates a smattering of exciting new, usable tech to make the exotic experience refreshing and more approachable, but doesn’t rid itself of what makes an exotic truly special (a big naturally aspirated V-12 engine). And it does all of this in a coherent way, with seamless and unobtrusive performance that backs up its wild design. With a starting price north of $600,000, it’s tough to expect anything less.