► We speak to CTO Rouven Mohr
► Does the V8 trade emotion for efficacy?
► The decisions behind the engine
Lamborghini’s legendary V10 is no more. Last seen in the outgoing Huracan, the wailing 10-cylinder has been dropped by the new Temerario and replaced with a hybrid V8 twin-turbo unit. Designated L411 internally, it uses two turbos and three Yasa e-motors for a solid step up on paper: power is 907bhp, it launches to 62mph in just 2.7 seconds and top speed is 213mph. But it screams one obvious question.
‘Why turbo?’ pre-empts Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer, Rouven Mohr at the UK launch of the Sant’Agata’s new baby. ‘We’re coming from a naturally-aspirated V10 that everyone loves and is from the emotional side – a very fantastic engine.’
We agree. The V10 was so much more than just headline figures, delivering one of the most emotive driving experiences around – and of the few without forced-induction to boot. In a world of more hybrids and turbocharged engines, it was a privilege to drive, rewarding you the more you chased its sonorous redline.
Replacing it wasn’t taken lightly, and the V8 twin-turbo Lamborghini chose was the product of an intensive search for a successor. Whatever replaced the V10 had to achieve two key goals: First, to bring more power to compete with the increasingly powerful competition. And next, to create a similarly emotive experience to go with them.
V8 or V6?
‘There was a V8 turbo and there was also V6 turbo – or there was a new naturally-aspirated V10,’ says Mohr of the options. ‘The turbo choice was quite clear, mainly driven by the performance level that the segment has reached,’ he adds. ‘If you look at especially the last five years in this segment, the power increase is quite significant.’
The Gallardo launched with around 500bhp and the Huracan with 600bhp – but that pales in comparison to the 900 plus horses the Temerario packs in. The goalposts have moved, and Lamborghini’s engineers needed a new weapon to aim at them. ‘We had to find a solution to close the gap, and to overtake,’ Mohr admits.
NA or turbo?
Introducing an all-new naturally aspirated V10 was unfeasible for two key reasons: product positioning and durability. To account for power losses due to emission laws, Lamborghini engineers would have had to develop a fresh V10 with a significantly increased displacement – ultimately putting it too close to the 6.5-litre V12 in the Revuelto flagship.
Increasing the rev limit was the only another solution – but that too came with a drawback: ‘You’d have to rev 12000rpm or something like that,’ says Mohr. ‘On the production scale of [the Temerario] it’s simply not possible. You can do it for a hypercar – or if you want to produce 500 cars. But for this kind of volume, it’s not an option.’
Sticking with forced-induction was the most logical approach, but after that it seems Sant’Agata’s engineers were focused on the spirit and emotion at the heart of its new supercar. There was a choice between a V6 and a V8, and while the V6 would’ve likely provided enough power – you only need to look at hypercars like the Ferrari F80 and Mercedes-AMG One – Mohr and his team picked the V8: ‘A V6 would be too big a step to go to from the V10,’ he reasons. ‘And on top, from the pure emotional potential, the V8 with a flat crankshaft, has bigger potential from the pure emotional sound.’
Adding character
A V8 twin-turbo delivered everything in terms of performance – but it lacked the character and spirit of what had come to before. ‘It was another V8 twin-turbo on top of the already existing 10,500 twin-turbos that you have on the planet,’ Mohr admits. Efficient, balanced – and a bit boring – it was obvious solution to the problem, but needed more to follow the Huracan’s V10.
‘We needed a little bit roughness in the engine,’ admits Mohr. ‘This is provided with a flat crankshaft, because we have automatically some vibrations in the car that we want to have.’
With an extra edge on the noise department, Mohr’s team next looked at response and engagement. Filling the gap left by the 10-cylinder wouldn’t be easy – unless the Lamborghini had a unique party piece compared to its competitors:
‘We said, “okay, what if we would do an engine that revs up to 10,000rpm because so far, no one did it,” Mohr tells us – noting that the super-limited AMG One’s V6 doesn’t really compare to the Temerario’s use case: ‘This engine was really designed on a white sheet of paper,’ explains Mohr. ‘There is not any component carrying over from another engine – or even from the LMDh engine’
Sharpening response
To achieve super-linear response across the entire 10,000rpm rev range, Lamborghini had to fit huge turbochargers, which came with their own problem. ‘This is only possible if you have the electrified components, because otherwise the engine is dead in the mid rev region – especially from the lagginess.’
Enter the final part of the equation, three Yasa e-Motors – two on the front axle – and specifically one sandwiched between the engine and eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. The latter motors removes turbo lag entirely, and all three add to the 789bhp and 538lb ft of torque from the V8 alone.
The final result
‘We combined the best things of a naturally-aspirated engine,’ Mohr says. ‘The best things of a turbo and [hybrid tech]. If you mix up these things, you end up with some very unique behaviour.’
That’s one phrase for it: the result is an engine that has the mid-range boost of a forced-induction engine combined the reward for revving to the redline a naturally-aspirated engine brings. Throw in a crankshaft designed for racing character rather than outright performance, and L411 is as close as you can get to the V10 of before.