- Lamborghini’s R&D boss has hinted that future versions of the new Temerario supercar could make more than 1,000 hp.
- Rouven Mohr said that it would be easy to extract more power from the current 789 hp hybrid V8 powertrain.
- Lambo could have achieved the same power with a V6 but thought customers wouldn’t accept the drop from a V10.
No one outside of Lamborghini has even driven the company’s new Temerario yet, but the automaker’s R&D chief already has us geed up about the even hotter versions that will follow in years to come.
Former Audi man Rouven Mohr told Top Gear the 789 horses (800 PS) the baby supercar’s new hybrid V8 powertrain currently pumps out is only the beginning, and that both the combustion and electric systems have plenty more to give.
Related: Lamborghini Temerario Is A 907 HP Triple-Motor PHEV That Vibrates To Get You Excited
“We operate our combustion engine at 200PS (197bhp) per liter,” Mohr says of the launch configuration Temerario. “[But] we can run it at, say, 220PS (217bhp) per liter.”
The new 10,000-rpm, twin-turbo V8 has a 4.0-liter capacity, so makes 789 hp (800 PS) as of now, way more than the old Huracan’s naturally-aspirated V10 could dream of – even the track-ready STO topped out at 631 hp (640 PS). But Mohr is saying the V8 could pack on 79 hp (80 PS) of muscle for an 868 hp (880 PS) combustion total.
And that’s not accounting for the triple-motor hybrid kit. The base Temerario’s motors make 148 hp (150 PS) but Mohr claims that extracting more is simply a matter of cranking up the voltage going in.
So how much power might we be talking about for a future STO or whatever Lamborghini calls its hotter Temerario given that the current model already makes 907 hp (920 PS)?
“A four-digit number is possible for the engine,” Mohr told Top Gear. “We can do a big step, it’s clear.”
Mohr also revealed that Lamborghini considered equipping the Temerario with a V6 having established that a motor with only six cylinders could hit the company’s performance targets.
“But we thought the brand positioning would be a step too big, coming from the V10 to a V6,” Mohr explained. “We don’t think that the V6 is fitting to our brand,” he continued, adding that a V8 can create a more emotional feeling for a driver than a V6 can, without specifically calling out rivals Ferrari and McLaren, both of whom use V6 power for their base cars.
Mohr says Lamborghini even briefly discussed the possibility of creating a new V10 but dismissed the idea after realizing it would have to give up 20 percent of its power to meet future emissions regs.
