2024 Lamborghini Urus Performante Review – AutoMart Review
The Urus has taken Lamborghini sales to new heights, and with a recently announced plug-in hybrid variant, those charts will only be pointing skywards. To further expand its portfolio and to compete with other hardcore performance SUVs, the Urus has been given the Performante treatment, transforming it into a focused, track-ready five-seater with the physical performance to match its financial success.
Like the CSL treatment from BMW, the Urus Performante gets a quick diet, losing 47 kg from the standard Urus S thanks to extensive use of carbon fibre and removal of sound-deadening materials from the interior. The chassis has been lowered by 20 millimetres, the track is wider by 16 mm, and a choice of 22-inch and 23-inch tires wrap around the standard and comically large carbon ceramic brakes.
More tangible upgrades include the standard Akrapovic exhaust and a centre differential re-programmed for more rear-biased behaviour. This subsequently allows for a new Rally driving mode for grin-inducing sideways action on loose surfaces. But the most palpable revision is that the air suspension has been replaced by steel springs with adaptive dampers to lighten the Performante and provide a more connected feel to the road.
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The visual muscle mass gained over the Urus S is noticeable—like it spent an entire winter hitting a German-owned gym, then shopped at an Italian boutique for a cardigan stitched up in Verde Turbine Lucido. It’s a paint colour offered through Lamborghini’s Ad Personam program and exudes military green vibes. The shade is unique, belligerent, and stands out from the generic yellows and blues we have seen strolling around.
The Performante’s bagged stance gives off more wagon vibes than SUV ones, and when parked next to a current-generation RAV4, the Urus’ roofline sits lower—this is on the 23-inch wheels too, which fill up the wheel wells quite nicely. The only visible Performante badge is on the lower side sills in script, but owners have the option of spec’ing theirs with full carbon fibre on the roof, side sills, front and rear bumpers, and hood vents. The only piece missing from our test vehicle is a carbon fibre hood.
The interior flourishes in carbon fibre and Alcantara. The entire seatback? Alcantara. Even the bottom of the door panel, the entire dashboard, and the five seats are covered in it. The only plastic surface we could find was the rear armrest cupholders. Have you ever been to Italy? Me neither, but I can smell it from in here.
The Alcantara-lined seats are supportive, comfortable, and feel very much like the ones in the Audi RSQ8, but with a Performante script on the side bolster, Urus script on the seat, and Lamborghini crest on the headrest. The driving position is excellent—you feel low and attached to the floorbed, and sit at the height of a BMW X3. The rear seats are spacious, as they should be given its shared wheelbase is longer than the Cayenne’s.
The steering wheel can be optioned in leather, Alcantara, or a mix of both, but we’re not fans of the grips and much prefer the Huracan’s. The paddles don’t feel as satisfying and emit a plastic, almost toy-like noise when engaged. The integrated media buttons are very convenient and we’re glad they aren’t haptic touch sensors like in Mercedes and Ferraris. These click with positive feedback and leave zero ambiguity with button recognition. The top and bottom touchscreens are ripped out from the Audi Q8 but for the better, as the interface is superior and more user-friendly than the one in the Huracan.
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The hodgepodge of switches and levers on the centre stack appears intimidating at first, but it’s not as complicated as operating a fighter jet, even if that’s what Lamborghini wants you to think. The red flip-cover ignition switch never gets old and is a party trick that only Lamborghini successfully pulls off without looking tacky. The flat contraption above it resembles an airplane’s throttle mechanism and engages reverse gear, while the cha-ching cash register levers on the left and right are for selecting the drive modes: Strada, Sport, Corsa, Rally, and Ego. The rest of the cabin is typical Audi-esque ergonomics and design. Those who can’t get over its shared origins with the Q8 will just have to look elsewhere, but it’s not like the Bentley Bentayga or Aston Martin DBX are immune to the same kind of criticisms of communal parts.
Some may opt for the Performante for the superfluous looks and cabin upgrades alone, and Lamborghini expects 30% of all Urus models to be Performantes, but the real meat on the bones is in the uprated performance, if the name didn’t already give it away. Up front is a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 in the same engine tune as the Urus S, delivering the same 657 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque. An 8-speed ZF automatic gearbox runs the show and it’s snappy and direct. It dispatches shifts in the blink of an eye with the ferocity of the best dual-clutches out there, and the polish and seamlessness that ZF gearboxes are known for. The Performante will sprint from 0-100 km/h in 3.3 seconds, two-tenths quicker than the Urus S and only one-tenth off of a Huracan Technica. Unsurprisingly, acceleration is fervent and the pick-up feels more immediate than a BMW M5 Competition or even the Audi R8 V10 Spyder.
Prodigious grip combined with prodigious power is a magical recipe. The Performante throws G-forces at your neck in ways that we have never experienced in an SUV. At first we tip-toe into a speedy right-hand corner, fearful of reprisal and understeer, but the fat P Zeros envelop us in a state of security and inject more confidence the faster we attack. Its sheer will to rotate cannot be understated. There’s even a special ‘L’ logo on the tires because these Pirellis were specifically engineered for the Urus. This is a track-ready SUV primed to attack apexes, soak up curbs, and unravel lengthy straights with its V8 afterburner. Experiencing the Performante has reset our expectations and made us realize that we shouldn’t be categorizing it as an SUV, but rather a jacked-up hatchback.
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The steering is rich in road detail and immensely satisfying to turn, showcasing its reactive front end and rear that is equally eager to follow thanks to active torque vectoring and rear-wheel steering. Oodles of lateral grip make it effortless to exploit the Performante on a winding road, you can take a lot of liberties with corner entry speed, and the way the progressive and linear carbon ceramic brakes reel it back from unholy speeds is mind-blowing.
The switch to steel springs results in a punishing ride but the gain in road engagement is ten-fold. You can feel the tarmac ebbing and flowing beneath you as the chassis oscillates. In terms of road comfort and stability, it’s not as bad as some make it out to be. Smooth roads are easy but traversing over expansion joints and train tracks will send shocks to your spine, the ride losing fluency the slower you go. The Performante is stable and settles nicely at higher speeds and we’d say it’s just about bearable over long distances. But this is a track-tuned suspension after all and is expectedly unforgiving, alluding to the deeper layers of performance hiding underneath its epidermis that can only be unlocked outside of city limits. This isn’t a family vehicle that will feel rewarding when running errands in Strada mode, but it will handle those tasks like any well-equipped Audi Q8.
The exhaust isn’t particularly Lamborghini-like when fired up either, but shift into Corsa and the valves open and rumble with heavy bass and resonance strong enough to shake the Urus from side to side on idle, like you’ve been stuffed into a packet of Shake ‘N Bake. The soundtrack is theatrical, adds a sense of occasion, and the ability to hear more intake noise stands out over the Audi RSQ8 and Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT. It is also a few decibels louder and more aggressive than the base Urus exhaust with pops and bangs on throttle overrun and a mellifluous scream up to 6,800 rpm. While not the most distinctive V8, you can hear it coming from a mile away. That said, we compared the Performante to a base Urus modded with an Akrapovic exhaust and they sound nearly identical. The Performante had a cleaner and louder low-end rev but it’s not worth upgrading to from a base model if noise is all you are after.
This leads us to the big question: who is the Urus Performante for? Its stiff ride won’t appeal to geriatrics looking for a stylish getaway car for their midlife crisis. Young up-and-comers will likely fancy a more tenacious Huracan or Revuelto instead. Families will find solace in the Urus S that does it all without the rumbly ride. Rather, we think the Performante is the one-car solution for those who need the looks, the badge, and the performance in one package. The compromised ride is a hardship worth enduring, and the less you think of it as an SUV and more of a performance wagon, the better, like an Audi RS6 with more power, style, and curb appeal. In that light, the effervescent Performante provides it all.
Author: Craig Clowes
Images: Lamborghini
