S6E48 — Lamborghini proves a hybrid V12 can still be a supercar

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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

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Lamborghini Rivalto

Lamborghini Urus

Lamborghini Aventador

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