2026 Lamborghini Temerario | UK Review
Lamborghini's V8-powered replacement for the Huracan is finally here - was it worth the wait?
Ever since the EU yanked up the handbrake on its policy to phase out combustion engines by 2035, one decade-old question, like a chewed-up tennis ball fired into an empty lorry container, must’ve resurfaced in the continent’s boardrooms: what does a successful hybridisation strategy now look like? There are no easy answers, and no one-size-fits-all solution either - though it is easy to imagine many if not most OEMs regarding Lamborghini with envy. Last year it took a prodigious and potentially contentious step toward completing its petrol-electric journey; yet even in the process of making it, sales boomed. While Porsche laboured under a battery-powered policy that now looks more tombstone than New Testament, Lamborghini powered to its best-ever result.
Granted, the ship is easier to steer when the constituent parts only number three core models; one heavily reliant on a shared platform, and two of them bona fide supercars that were always likely to retain combustion engines for as long as legally permissible. Similarly, while it has frequently gestured at its entry into the pure EV market, Lamborghini has discovered to its delight that repeatedly delaying its solution has not met with condemnation from disappointed customers. In fact, though PH is clearly not in a position to say for sure, we’d cheerily bet the Christmas party beer fund, both past and present, on it having fielded precisely no phone calls on the subject.
Those customers, it would seem, are far too busy jostling for position on the Revuelto and Temerario wait lists. The former, arguably the finest new (i.e. from a standing start) Lamborghini launched in a generation, is apparently sold out for the foreseeable future. Even the Temerario’s initial production run, a car not underwritten by the presence of a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12, is already allocated for the rest of this year. Which is some going for a hybrid newcomer asked to replace the V10-powered Huracan, a ten-year-old icon that managed the tricky task of becoming more popular as time went on. Little wonder, of course, when Sant'Agata Bolognese eventually coaxed a gung-ho masterpiece from its spaceframe.
We already know, courtesy of John H’s extensive go at Estoril last summer, that the Temerario is hugely quick - and no small amount of fun - on circuit. As well it might be with 920hp ultimately on tap and considerable time and technical ingenuity invested in its limit handling. For a comprehensive refresher on this latter aspect, not to mention a deeper dive into the car’s mechanical configuration, you should return there - though, for the purposes of a damp morning in south Wales, it is sufficient to know that where once there was a 5.2-litre V10, there is now a dry-sumped turbocharged 4.0-litre V8, aided and abetted by three axial-flow electric motors: two on the front axle and one sandwiched between the engine and the eight-speed, dual-clutch transmission.
If there were any concerns about the Temerario looking the part, then rest assured a Great British hotel car park, rendered in greyscale, would find it out. But the car does not need the long shadows of an Iberian sunset for it to appear striking, it is too exotically proportioned for that, too obviously sculpted with airflow in mind, and too vivid in Verde Mercurius paint (as it should be for £15,940). If it falls short of the lacerating, mercurial beauty of the Huracan - a supercar custom-made to fit the imagination of a small child - then it compensates with a veritable Easter egg hunt of nerdish details that only an adult would find interesting. Not least the flagrantly exposed rear tyres, which, when viewed from ground level, bring to mind a De Tomaso Pantera GT5-S. Talk about X-rated.
A similar level of grown-up commitment is required inside, where you will need to remember what all the rotary controllers and at least some of the more important steering wheel buttons do, most prominently the indicators. Beyond incessantly pushing them, you can mostly content yourself with switching between drive modes, the Temerario offering a choice of Citta, Strada, Sport and Corsa. But occasionally you might also want to consider toggling between discharging the battery or recharging it (via the engine, naturally) or between soft or firm damping or even, should the opportunity present itself, drift angle. All of that after disengaging the bits of ADAS you don’t want, and worrying about whether your nose should be raised up or lowered down. Yes, there is much to consider.
But so it goes in a very sophisticated hybrid supercar. You will at least get comfy quick enough, the Temerario being slightly more spacious than the Huracan and with a spectacular view out - though your hind quarters might not immediately thank you for selecting the hard-edged seats that come courtesy of the optional, and hugely expensive, Alleggerita Package. The manually adjustable, leather-clad, carbon fibre buckets contribute to weight loss, and do not feel out of place in a cabin that, despite now accommodating three TFT screens (assuming you select the £2,660 Passenger Display), remains on the right side of business-like. That business being, to the pointed exclusion of pretty much everything else, driving.
That is as it should be - although, predictably, save for a tellingly large hollow on the centre console to abandon your phone, you would be advised not to bring too many other items along for the ride. Nor wear your hiking boots; even a thicker soled trainer threatened to make the pedal offset seem mildly awkward. Not that you’ll be thinking about any of that when the time comes to flick the trademark red-coloured button protector skyward for the first time and thumb the Temerario into life. You would, though, be forgiven for dwelling bemusedly on the hybridised silence that ensues if you’re beneath Sport mode, and, not for the last time, pining for the evocative cough/bark of a V10 ignition.
At any rate, if you feel so inclined, and have either plugged in your car (something Lamborghini privately expects virtually no owner to do) or left it with sufficient life in the battery, you may begin your journey in Citta (or EV) mode. This is conspicuous for three reasons: firstly, that it exists at all given the trifling six(ish)-mile range afforded by the 3.8kWh battery; secondly, in a deliberate effort to not overly isolate you from the car’s fiery powertrain, there is a distinctive e-motor whine to proceedings; and thirdly, it is hard to imagine a situation, save perhaps to swerve your neighbour’s displeasure, where you might choose to use it. Which isn’t to say that it fails to serve a purpose - it does its job adequately well on the urban streets it was intended for - merely that its purpose, perhaps inevitably, feels at odds with the raucous combustiveness that bookends it.
Amusingly, there is nothing seamless about the transition if you have been EV-ing it about the place like a befuddled Nissan Leaf driver: the Temerario (literally) beeps in frustration if you deplete the battery or its modest acceleration parameters, and testily sparks the V8. This, it’s safe to say, you will notice. Yes, because the available output has increased by 800hp, but also for the unrepentant din it makes at very low revs. Big John, shrouded in a race helmet, politely declined to be drawn on the sound at slow speeds, except to concede that it is loud. It most certainly is. Unable to replicate the crisp, come-hither melody of its V10, Lamborghini has apparently sought the unbridled presence of a race engine. It is unapologetic and rampantly mechanical. It also takes some getting used to.
In other words, and in blindingly obvious contrast to its predecessor, no one is going to beg to stand in earshot of its idle. Nevertheless, they will still clamour to occupy the passenger seat, because if you break through its clattering wall of sound, something approaching awe is never too far away. Nor, it must be said, is real-world usability. As you might expect for something with turbos the size of (figurative) watermelons, the electric motors help backfill some of the missing torque, meaning the Temerario feels responsive and very lively from any starting place. But it is easily measured, too, resists seeming overwrought or addled by its available torque, and the Graziano-supplied ‘box is entirely content to be left to its own devices. As the revs pick up, the sound balances out too, exchanging its initial blather for something more conventionally V8-ish, if still short on pyrotechnics.
These, perhaps understandably, are preserved for those moments when there is time and space to strap on your big boy pants and push past 7,000rpm. Truthfully - and not coincidentally given Lamborghini’s insistence that its new V8 handily exceed the rev limit of the old V10 - the Huracan would require a decent length of road if you wanted to tap into the last 1,500rpm and work consistently through the gears. But the Temerario, tangibly invested with a much more senior delivery at any engine speed, and with at least 2,500rpm of final furlong to factor in, requires a conscious decision and the kind of unfettered horizon scanning favoured by supertanker captains. Because the intensity thereafter, not just in the accumulation of banzai-grade speed but also revs and ratios, must be seen to be believed.
And heard, too. The frenzied, vitriolic soundtrack, two parts intake rasp, one part blood rush, is a quantum leap from its stationary impression of an angry generator. Which makes it doubly unfortunate that you will hear one much more frequently than the other. Upshift just shy of 10,000rpm in second and you’ll be well beyond 80mph. Do it again in third and you’ll be well beyond even a good solicitor’s ability to mitigate the circumstances. Driving the Temerario on UK roads, even in sparsely populated bits of Wales, is like trying to drink an oil drum. You’re unlikely to find the bottom. A limitation that might also be directed at any number of bleeding-edge rivals, sure, but all the more notable here for how scintillating the car is when completely unfurled.
In some ways, the same could be said for the handling. It too is exceptionally easy to live with, thanks, first and foremost, to the kind of deft ride quality that almost rivals McLaren for a refusal to become flustered in the face of interminable gradient changes, no matter really whether you set the magnetorheological dampers to ‘soft’ or ‘firm’. Its weight gain - the Temerario is some 250kg heavier than the Huracan - is generally well concealed on the road, though its superior torsional rigidity pays dividends everywhere; married to its bump absorption is the hard-won sensation of wonderfully consistent direction changes. The steering might be a tad light, yet its rate of response is spot on. Achieving an intuitive, clean-limbed flow with it on sighted Welsh roads is no more difficult than counting sheep.
But there is also the nagging suspicion that you’ve resigned yourself (legally) to scratching the surface. Partly this is because the Temerario wants you to chase its explosive throttle to fully unlock its playful side, and partly it is because the heavier Temerario lacks the communicativeness that a Porsche or McLaren would muster at everyday speeds, meaning its deeper qualities tend to be glimpsed in fleeting moments, as with the extremities of its straight-line performance. Corsa, the angriest drive setting, is perfectly usable on the road, thanks again to its malleable suspension, though it is in Sport where the car feels more progressive and obviously biased toward its back axle (the front being helpfully manipulated by the torque-vectoring of its electric motors). Granted, a 3-degree day in January on winter tyres comes with its own guardrails, though it feels like you’d do well to get immediately under the car’s skin - something that seemed oddly more achievable in the Revuelto.
On the bright side, the Temerario certainly leaves you hankering for more time at the wheel, not just to be ravaged again by its astounding turn of pace, but to better appreciate its broader subtleties. In an era increasingly marked by one-dimensional, battery-exclusive performance, it hardly needs saying that it is a quality to hold dear. Yet it is also worth noting that it is not something that could be automatically attributed to the Huracan when it first launched. Lest we forget, for what seemed like a good while at the time, that car’s out-of-the-box intransigence and unfeeling character, half forgotten now in the light of what it eventually became, made the Gallardo’s shadow seem very long. Its successor suffers no such hangover.
Of course, from day one, the Huracan did also boast its V10, a mobile disco unto itself and sensational in a way that Lamborghini must have known it could not adequately replicate. All credit to it then for the very different engine it has wrought to overpower our collective memory. That it suffers from a shortfall in acoustic charisma is no great surprise, and would likely have been intrinsic to any replacement obliged to accept hybridisation. Its maker might have paid more attention to its voice when not doing much - but, at the same time, when required to blow your hair back, it staggers in a way that even precious few naturally aspirated engines can claim to rival.
Between those two extremes, you’ll find the Temerario very easy to appreciate in numerous other ways, and a blast on the right road. That it will blast a hole in your bank balance is something of a given, though you would hardly be alone in requiring a double-take to absorb the after-tax price of Lamborghini's option-heavy UK press car. The thought that buying a like-new Huracan Tecnica instead might save you the best part of £200k would weigh heavily on us. But not, it seems, on a long line of enthusiastic customers, who might reasonably argue they are more interested in the trailblazing, power-mad present than the recent past. As a hybrid supercar to blaze that trail, the Temerario is worthy of its long wait status.
SPECIFICATION | LAMBORGHINI TEMERARIO
Engine: 3995cc V8, twin-turbo, three axial-flow motors
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 800 @ 9,000-9,750rpm (920hp in total)
Torque (lb ft): 538 @ 4,000-7,000rpm (in total)
0-62mph: 2.7 seconds
Top speed: 213mph
Weight: 1,690kg (dry)
CO2: 272g/km
MPG: 25.2 (WLTP)
Price: £259,000 (as tested, £347,838 w/o VAT)
"That it suffers from a shortfall in acoustic charisma is no great surprise," will disappoint those wanting a return to V10's in F1 for no other reason than pant wetting noise but this design and tech moves Lambo forward nicely. Perhaps not in that green though.
I look forward to the upcoming SVT or whatever they are calling special Lambo's these days to add a bit of much needed aggression and flair to proceedings. A Lamborghini should never evoke a meh emotion on first sight.
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