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Welcome to the Total Car Score podcast,
bringing you the world of cars from inside the car.
And now your hosts, Carl Brower, Lauren Ficks, and Javier Mota.
Hello, Total Car Score podcast listeners.
This is Carl Brower, and I will be hosting this episode of Total Car Score.
I was in Monterey Car Week recently, and along with Javier and Lauren,
the three of us met up and we talked and had a great episode that you've already heard.
We also had our solo adventures, and that included my ability to attend the week
as a host of Lamborghini, which I am very grateful for.
Lamborghini was kind enough to invite me up very last minute, but it worked out.
And I got to attend, and I got to drive the Lamborghini Rivalto up to Monterey
from Orange County.
It's about 400-mile drive, and this is a very expensive supercar.
I was not even aware of how much they were exactly until I got that one.
They start at $608,000, and they go up to well over $700,000
when they're equipped like most of these Lamborghinis are equipped.
And I will be doing a full road test on it and a video on my Carl Brower cars YouTube channel,
and there'll be more details about the vehicle.
But for this episode, I want to talk about the hybrid drivetrain that's in it
because in a few minutes you're going to hear from the main engineer at Lamborghini
responsible for the V12 hybrid drivetrain.
And this is the first hybrid drivetrain that Lamborghini released in the Rivalto,
the first model to experience or to feature a hybrid drivetrain.
They've already also released the Lamborghini Urus SE, which I also had recently,
and that video is already up on that one on my channel,
and there's a Forbes story that goes with it.
But I had not driven their first hybrid model,
which was the Rivalto until I drove it up to Monterey recently.
And while I was there, they introduced the limited production fenomino,
and I'm probably saying that wrong, but it comes from the word phenomenal
in both Spanish and Italian, fenomino,
and it was their newest very limited production Lamborghini.
They're only going to make 29 of them,
and the hybrid drivetrain that in the Rivalto makes 1,001 horsepower,
and I think it's 783 pound-feet of torque.
It makes 1,065 horsepower, so 64 more horsepower, not a huge jump,
but it is now the most powerful Lamborghini ever made, this fenomino,
with a very similar drivetrain.
It's the same basic drivetrain,
but it's been tweaked for some more horsepower in that car
versus the Rivalto that I drove up.
Here's the important part.
Lamborghini is electrifying their model range,
but they are not cutting back on performance.
When they put the hybrid drivetrain in the Urus SE,
they didn't turn it into a six-cylinder or a four-cylinder.
They kept the eight-cylinder that had already been in the car.
They just added power to it by putting in a hybrid component.
They did the exact same thing in the Rivalto.
They didn't take two cylinders away and make it a V10 or a V8.
They kept it as a V12 as their top-line supercar has been for decades.
They just added power with the hybrid drivetrain.
I feel like a lot of hybrid performance cars get bogged down from buyers
and the performance community because they're like,
well, you put a hybrid drivetrain in it,
you're taking away the passion and the fun and the purpose of a car like this.
I tend to agree with that truthfully.
I kind of am on that train of thought because usually that's what happens,
is that hybrid components add weight and they often pull cylinders
and pull kind of what was the heart of the performance vehicle
and they try to supplement it with electric motors and battery packs.
Lamborghini didn't do that either for the Urus with its V8
or more importantly for the Rivalto with its V12 engine.
They just made both of those drivetrains more powerful.
Now, they did add weight and I drove that Lamborghini Urus
and it gained 700 pounds.
I think it went from about 4,800 pounds to 5,500 pounds,
which made me quite concerned,
but it got such a big horsepower boost
that it's still the fastest Urus that's ever been made
faster than the normal non-hybrid version ones
and it held up really well when I drove it around corners.
Lamborghini's engineers were masterful at hiding
the extra 700 pounds and I couldn't really tell
when I drove it aggressively on a twisty road.
So it was really fast and it also still handled really well.
The Rivalto gains a couple hundred pounds.
I think it goes from about 3,900.
Give or take around 3,900 for the Aventador,
the previous V12 supercar that was the top end,
top line supercar from Lamborghini to around 4,100 pounds
with the Rivalto and its hybrid drivetrain.
But see the Aventador in its best form,
the Altimae was the name of the most powerful Aventador
made 770 peak horsepower and the Rivalto makes 1,001.
So it gained like 230 horsepower
and it only gained around 200 pounds.
So its pound per weight ratio is still far better,
the Rivalto's than the Aventador's
and it is the fastest Lamborghini ever made.
It does zero to 60 in two point,
well they said 2.5 seconds Lamborghini
and the car and driver got 2.2 seconds out of it,
zero to 60 time.
So it's fast and I felt it
and here's the most important part though.
It also sounds fabulous.
I mean when the engine fires up
it like scares people because of how much noise it makes
and it's got all the exhaust whale
that you want a really expensive V12 powered mid-engine supercar
to have in spite of the fact
that there's also a hybrid drivetrain
and three electric motors and a battery pack in there.
So all this to say is Lamborghini knows
how to hybridize or electrify
or whatever you want to say,
their performance vehicles without in my opinion
screwing them up like a lot of other companies do
when they electrify them.
They've not lost any of their edge
in terms of exhaust note or performance
and that's really brilliant
and the person who's largely responsible for that
is who we are about to talk to from Lamborghini.
So with all that as a background
let's jump in to this very interesting
and telling interview
with the head of V12 development
and the guy responsible for
not only the Rivalto's drivetrain
that I've experienced
but the new Fenomino limited production
more powerful hybrid V12
that was featured recently at car week
and at the quail premiere.
Here we go.
Well, we are here
not only at 2025 Monterey car week
but we are on the concept car lawn right now
and we are talking to Matteo Ortence
who is the head of development for the V12 product line
which is kind of an important product line
kind of the top end line
for Lamborghini.
So let's talk about
not just that product line
but what you introduced here this year
this Fenomino amazing limited production car.
What would you say was the driving inspiration
when you sat down to work on this car with the team?
What was the goal that you had in mind at the beginning?
So we had a couple of goals with this car
because on one side for us it's a bread and statement
so this is representing who we are.
In two ways.
On the design the car you see that
Mithia Borquet our head of design was
having in mind this idea of the hyper elegant concept.
So on one side we want to show the mascots of the car
the power of the car
but to keep the car very clean.
As you can see there are no external wings
added wings or appendix in the car.
So we wanted to have the maximum potential on the
aero load in the front of the back button
using any wings.
So this was the idea behind and keeping
the elegance of the car itself.
On the other side for us is a technological laboratory.
So we wanted also to show what we are able to do
with our super sport car platform
that was born in 23 with Roberto
that we use also with Temerario
presented here last year in 2024
in order to show what are the boundaries
of this platform because we have a big potential there.
So that's why it's not just design
but a lot of technical content behind.
Now this one makes more power
than the Revolta's V12
and it's the most powerful Lamborghini
production vehicle yet.
Is that correct?
Yes.
And what was the ways you got a little more horsepower
what were some of the technical elements you did
to get that increased power out of this V12?
Well this is exactly when I was telling you
that we push the boundaries of the platform
so we increased the horsepower of the thermal engine
in the Revolta is 825 horsepower
here we have 10 horsepower more by the thermal unit
and then we have 245 horsepower
by the electric part of the car
how we did it
so for sure we improved the battery management system
so we learned in last year's how to improve also
on that side
and on top of that we have a new battery
so Revolta is 3.8 kilowatt hour gross battery
here we have a 7.0
so it's almost a double
and this is allowing us to have more energy
and to use more energy and power to the wheels.
Now what I found fascinating Matteo
is a lot of times when a car company
moves from traditional internal combustion
to hybrid or plug-in hybrid
you lose cylinders
and you try to supplement those
you guys did not
lop off any cylinders
you maintained the V12
to supplementing it
with the electric motor
and the battery hybrid components
which I thought was brilliant personally
but what was kind of the thinking on the Lamborghini side
as to not losing cylinders
just enhancing with hybrid power channel?
So for us the V12 is not just an engine
so it's our heart
it's our tradition
it's our legacy
this is one of the reasons why to buy our cars
and we don't want to compromise on that
then this can be enriched
by the electric components
in order to have even more fun to drive
more possibilities
for example torque vector in the front
fully independent
because of the two electric engines in the front
but this is something on top
we will never compromise on the heart of our car
that is the V12
and also in this car
we are underlining
also with a big exhaust
because we want to show that the engine
is still the natural aspirated V12
60 degrees as we like
Well I was fortunate enough to drive
a Rivalto up from Los Angeles to Carwy
and that's been my first experience
with the drivetrain in that vehicle
I did have an Urus a couple of months ago at the SE
the level, the volume
and the tone
and the passion of the exhaust note
again has not been compromised whatsoever
so it seems like clearly
you didn't want to lose anything
this was purely a supplement ad process
when you put on the hybrid components
you didn't take away anything
it is and that's why also
we were not the first one to step into the hybridization
we wanted to be sure that technology
was ready to give something more to our customer
and this is exactly what we did with the Rivalto
and this is what we did again
also with Phenomenon
increasing the fun to drive
so this is something that for us is
giving more power, more freedom
also a wider spread of use of the car
for example you can go out of your garage
from the city center just in pure electric
this is something more that we could not do with the old cars
now we can do it
but we will never compromise them
when we have to have fun
to drive in handling, to drive
having a bit of fun on the corner
so this is part of our DNA
and we will never compromise on that
it sounds like you're pretty optimistic about the future
of not just performance in general
but specifically Lamborghini's ability to leverage
the evolving electrification
for performance that matches
their style, their passion, their history, their heritage
is that correct to say you feel
like the future is very bright
with electrification and Lamborghini?
Yes, I'm optimistic
because we saw what was happening with the Rivalto
and I give you already the outlook for the future
we don't want to compromise on V12
also in the next year
so we believe that we can go on
we believe that our customers want
that we go on with the V12
so we'll work to keep this engine
this kind of engine also
in the next steps of our products
Matteo, thank you for your time
this has been a great discussion
and congratulations on another stunning vehicle
and not just vehicle
but drivetrain design
that apparently you're directly involved with
it must be a very exciting time
It is, thank you very much
take care
That's a wrap for this episode of the Total Car Score podcast
Want more expert takes on the hottest cars, industry trends
and insider insights?
Join Javier Mota, Lauren Fix and Carl Brower
every week for the ultimate auto talk
Hit subscribe, like and share with your friends
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See you next time
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About this episode
Lamborghini's hybrid V12, featured in the new Rivalto, is a game-changer for supercars, maintaining performance while embracing electrification. Host Carl Brower shares his firsthand experience driving the Rivalto, highlighting its impressive 1,001 horsepower and exhilarating sound. The episode includes an insightful interview with Matteo Ortence, head of V12 development, who discusses the design philosophy behind the Rivalto and the limited production Fenomino. Lamborghini's commitment to preserving the essence of their V12 engines while enhancing performance with hybrid technology is a key theme, showcasing their innovative approach to supercar engineering.
In this episode, we’re at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance with Lamborghini Chief Engineer Matteo Ortenzi. He reveals how his team preserved the raw emotion and unmistakable supercar character in Lamborghini’s latest V12 hybrid models — the Revuelto and the Fenomeno.
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