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Tested: 2023 Lamborghini Urus Performante Lives up to Its Name

We're not quite sure who this brutalist, trackoptimized, and incredibly quick Lambo SUV is built for, but we clearly know what it stands for.

The SUV arms race has gotten to the point where automakers are oneupping even themselves, introducing higherperforming variants of their already highperformance machines. The 2023 Lamborghini Urus lineup is a case in point. Last year's Urus made 641 horsepower, but someone, somewhere decided this was insufficient, so they cranked the output up to 657 horses and called it the Urus S. But even that wasn't enough, because they've also gone and built a Urus Performante, which makes the same power as the S but is decidedly more hardcore on account of lightweighting measures and a more performanceoriented suspension and tire package.

Had either been available, the Urus S would have been the choice to do battle with the Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT and Aston Martin DBX 707 in our earlier comparison test. Like them, the S has heightadjustable adaptive air springs to go with its active antiroll bars, torquevectoring rear differential, and rearwheel steering system. It might have given the Porsche a run for its money because the Lambo is built on the same platform as the Cayenne, but with a 4.3inch longer wheelbase. It utilizes the same suspension layout, eightspeed automatic gearbox, and 4.0liter twinturbo V8, but with the latter tuned to make 657 horses instead of the Porsche's 631 horsepower. Thing is, money might also have been its undoing, because at $233,995 to start the Urus S is about as expensive as the Aston, which lost out to the Porsche on account of price.

As for our extroverted Viper Green Performante, it literally lives on a different plane of existence from the S and those others. In a nutshell, it ditches the idea of heightadjustable air springs in favor of coil springs. The chosen fixed height indicates an indifference toward ground clearance, as the Performante's permanent crouch slumps 0.8 inch lower than the "normal" height of a Urus S and matches the lowermost aero posture the S acquires at speed. If that wasn't enough to put paid to the very idea of offroadability, the Performante's socalled Anima drive selector lacks all three offroad modes: Neve for slippery work, Terra for basic offroading, and Sabbia for sand. In their place is Rally, which sits at the tailout hooligan end of the spectrum, atop Strada (street), Sport, and Corsa (track).

HIGHS: Undeniably quick, a certified Gmachine, oddly compelling cabin.

With the performance attitude firmly locked in place, the engineers set to work optimizing the chassis to suit aggressive pavement work and little else. Those lowering springs are firm to give the Corsa drive mode sufficient teeth—not to mention the ability to keep this lowerslung machine out of its bump stops. The active antiroll bars and torquevectoring rear diff have been reoptimized, and the center differential is decidedly more rearbiased than on a standard Urus. But the Performante's ace in the hole is its tires, Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R quasicompetition trackloving gumballs with a 60treadwear rating that undercuts the 80treadwear Pirelli Corsas on Porsche's Turbo GT.

Mash the throttle and the Performante delivers, but it's not an acrosstheboard drubbing by any means. Though we've tested a quicker and stickier Cayenne Turbo GT, for this breakdown, we'll reference the Cayenne Turbo GT from the comparison test. The Performante is 0.2 second quicker to 100 mph, fourtenths quicker to 130 mph, and a tenth or two quicker in our 5to60, 30to50, and 50to70mph acceleration tests. But its 3.0second 60mph time is a tenth slower than the Cayenne's, and it's an 11.2second tie at the stripe at the quartermile—albeit with the Performante rolling 2 mph faster. What gives? The transmission ratios are identical, but the Lambo's diff ratios are fractionally lazier and its tires are an inch taller. Its effective gearing is therefore taller, and the shift points simply hit different.
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