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Lamborghini Saving the Day: N/A V10s and 12s to Stay

Lookit. I’m not going to draw a line in the sand about induction. I won’t even say that I prefer one form induction (forced or otherwise) over the other, but I think we can all agree that having some big ol’ naturally aspirated engines in the world is a good thing and it looks like Lamborghini agrees.

“My dream is to maintain the naturally aspirated engine for as long as possible,” Lamborghini’s head of R&D, Maurizio Reggiani, told Autocar recently. “It is a sense of emotion in a super-sports car.”

The nature of Lamborghini’s sources of power recently came into question when Audi’s head of R&D announced that he didn’t really see the point of making big 10 and 12-cylindered engines. It didn’t take a strong sense of the automotive industry to wonder what that meant for Lamborghini, which is currently under Audi’s ownership.

Lamborghini, though, seems to understand the appeal of its brand. The ridiculous V12 has defined the Ferruccio’s cars since the very beginning, with the muscular motor pumping life into big Lambos since day one.

“Our DNA is the design, emotion, and performance, to make the experience of the car unique,” said Reggiani. “These are conditions that define a new car. We then try to put them in a more scientific way, making them ‘physical’ things so [you] can compare a new car to an old one or the competition.”

Although Lamborghini could make a smaller engine pump out as much power–and cut weight doing it–by turbocharging a smaller engine, that wouldn’t work for the Italian automaker. A smaller displacement engine, argues Reggiani, just can’t deliver the same emotional punch.

“Brand value is something, for Lamborghini, that’s full of emotion,” he said. “It can have a magnificent design as a super-cool Lamborghini but, if the car can’t do ‘emotional’ when you sit in it – [if you can’t] hear the noise or feel the tires working on the asphalt – then the job is not done. We try to perfect this every time. Design and engineering must work together. You can’t discount something in the car. You always drive it to enjoy it, to have fun and maybe to show off a bit.”

With the coming Urus, though, Lamborghini is introducing the idea of hybrid power. With a twin-turbo V8 and a plug-in hybrid on their way for the SUV, Lamborghini must face the low-C02 future. But for its supercars, at least, hybridization is not the answer. That’s because weight distribution can be less “strategic” in an SUV than it is in a supercar.

The Urus will be used, though, to develop lightweight hybrid tech that may eventually find its way into supercars. So while the short-term future still includes big, fire-breathing, many-cylindered engines, even Lambo has to face the future.

[source: Autocar]

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