2019 Lamborghini Urus SUV

There was a time not too long ago when the notion of a high-performance SUV was heresy. Nowadays, it's more like an inevitability. The 2019 Lamborghini Urus is here, and it's at once both surprising and totally predictable.

The Urus is an all-new five-passenger (four, if optioned accordingly) SUV from the Italian automaker known for wild-looking two-seat road missiles. It's not Lamborghini's first such vehicle — that honor goes to the brutish LM002 of the 1980s — but it is surely the most broadly capable vehicle the automaker has ever produced.

Eminently Versatile

All modern Lamborghinis benefit from the vast resources of parent company Volkswagen. But it's fair to say that the Urus benefits the most considering VW's prolific luxury SUV lineup. The Urus pilfers its twin-turbo V8 from the corporate parts bin and shares its fundamental platform with the Audi Q7, Bentley Bentayga and Porsche Cayenne. (VW owns all three brands.) This platform is a unibody construction sporting independent suspension front and rear, and it prioritizes on-road performance rather than clambering atop boulders on a trail.

But that doesn't mean the Urus is completely hopeless when the pavement turns to dirt. Lamborghini threw the kitchen sink of chassis technologies in the Urus to boost its capability on varying terrain. Its all-wheel-drive system has a Torsen limited-slip center differential, a default 40/60 front-to-rear torque split and an electronically controlled rear differential. At each corner are air springs that can inflate or deflate to manipulate ride height, plus continuously variable dampers. Its stabilizer bars are active and can decouple to improve wheel articulation. Rear-wheel steering is also employed to tighten the Urus' turning circle and improve high-speed stability.

The interplay of these systems (plus steering effort, damper firmness, traction control sensitivity, engine and transmission responses) has been distilled into up to six distinct drive modes accessible to the driver by the Tamburo drive mode selector. You can't miss it — it's the conspicuous-looking lever to the left of the equally conspicuous start button complete with scarlet flip-up door.

Pulling this lever toward you cycles the Urus through its modes: Strada (street), Sport, Corsa (track), Neve (snow), Sabbia (sand) and Terra (dirt). The latter two modes are part of an off-road option package that includes a front skid plate and underbody protection. In default Strada, the Urus has 7 inches of ground clearance. That drops to 6.2 inches in Sport and Corsa and rises to 8.4 inches in the remaining modes.

Engine and Brakes

Its twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 is an overachiever, kicking out 641 horsepower and 627 pound-feet with the help of twin-scroll turbos. By better isolating the exhaust pulses from each cylinder, these turbos support the engine's elevated power without sacrificing response.

Evidence of this engine's corporate roots can be found in its cylinder deactivation feature that allows it to run in four-cylinder mode at light load. A socially responsible Lamborghini? Well, not exactly. It delivers 14 mpg combined (12 city/17 highway). The engine is mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, giving it a broad gearing spread. Lamborghini says the Urus will accelerate to 62 mph (100 km/h) in just 3.6 seconds and 124 mph (200 km/h) in 12.8 seconds.

Of all of the Urus' visible features, the brakes best convey its potency. They're carbon-ceramic, and they're absolutely giant. The front brakes boast 17.3-inch discs and 10-piston calipers, while the still-huge rear brakes (which somehow manage to look puny inside the largest of the available wheels) have 14.6-inch discs and six-piston calipers. Lambo offers 21-, 22- and 23-inch wheel varieties, all wrapped with suitably steamroller-y tires.

Inside the Cabin

Unlike the polarizing exterior sheet metal, the cabin of the Urus successfully strikes a balance between flamboyance and luxury. Its craftsmanship is to a high standard, and all the materials you'd expect in a car of this class make an appearance — carbon fiber, metal, leather, wood and synthetic suede abound. The front seats are heated, and ventilation and massage are optional.

For such an imposing vehicle on the outside, the Urus is cozier inside than you might expect. There's plenty of space up front, but tall backseat passengers might notice the plunging roofline grazing their scalps. The cargo hold is big enough to hold a weekend's worth luggage for four. And then there are the words we'd never thought we'd type about a Lamborghini: Options include a trailer hitch and a hands-free power hatch.

What's It Like to Drive?

The Urus' talents run broad and deep. Its billing as the quickest SUV available doesn't do it justice, because its composure when thrown into a wide variety of settings is what makes the strongest impression.

It tackles pavement with a gusto that belies its size and weight and corners with very little body roll. The quick steering is well-weighted, and it abets the Urus' flat cornering demeanor to make for a shockingly agile and eager beast. On a racetrack, the Urus hides its weight well, moving fluidly from corner to corner more like a well-sorted sport sedan than a hulking sport-ute.

However, even brakes as colossal as the Urus' have their limits. During our drive, they started to fade after a couple of maximum-attack laps. This Lambo is a powerful, heavy vehicle that cannot escape physics. Still, we can't help but be impressed by the Urus' poise in on-the-limit driving. We also piloted the Urus on a lumpy dirt path, where the extra clearance provided by its air suspension was welcome.

Its engine may be German-made, but it has the sparkling personality of an Italian. There's a flood of torque available at any engine speed, which makes power delivery well-suited to the real world. The only turbo boost lag you can elicit is when you bury the accelerator pedal from a standstill. Meanwhile, the eight-speed automatic changes gears nearly as crisply as a dual-clutch transmission.

Driven in anger, the Urus delivers the kind of speed associated with all-out supercars of the very recent past. Yet when you're simply trickling along in the city, the Urus is quiet and absorbs road irregularities gracefully. Its eight-speed slurs shifts as unobtrusively as a luxury sedan's. It simply exhibits no bad manners.

Choose the Right Tires

There's a caveat to the Urus' broad-spectrum skills: tires. In each of the three environments we drove the Urus, Lamborghini fitted the test vehicles with markedly different tires. On the street, it wore Pirelli P Zero summer tires; on track, it had high-performance P Zero Corsas; and on dirt, it was equipped with off-road-capable Pirelli Scorpions. It's fair to say none of these vehicles would have performed as well outside of the associated environment without their specific tires.

To Lamborghini's credit, all of these tires were developed specifically for the Urus, and the lot of them, plus three additional Scorpion variants, will be available at dealers.

Pricing and Availability

Yes, the Lamborghini Urus is the most performance-oriented SUV you can buy. Its breadth of capability, however, better defines it. Shoppers who have no plans to get the Urus dirty, whether in snow or where the pavement ends, might be better served by a high-performance luxury sedan like a Panamera Turbo. But for the truly committed, there might be no better alternative to the versatile 2019 Lamborghini Urus.

Starting at $200,000 before destination, the Urus won't be commonplace outside of wealth-encrusted enclaves. Even so, Lamborghini expects the SUV will double its total sales volume. If true, that would arguably make the Urus the automaker's most important model. It's at dealers now.