I’ve driven nearly 200 cars in my short five-year career in automotive media, trying out vehicles from almost every automaker that sells cars in the United States.
The most memorable of these rides? The Lamborghini Revuelto, a 1,001 horsepower weapon painted in Blue Cephus that gave me four days behind the wheel. Based on the stares I got, people in metro Detroit didn’t know what to think.
Lamborghini Revuelto offers more speed than I’ll ever need
Cars are getting faster than ever. Even some vehicles viewed as basic can accelerate hard these days. EVs have been another gateway for high horsepower cars for the average buyer. But supercars have always been in a tier of their own when it came to performance. While the speed gap may be smaller today, exotic car companies have to do more to stand out. Many companies are using hybrid systems and turbochargers to add as much power as possible to their cars.
But one thing that remains constant with Lamborghini is the large V12 engine. While the car I drove seemed slightly quieter than its in-family Aventador, the Revuelto can still be ear piercingly loud. When starting the car, you’re automatically in EV mode. But a turn of the dial to strada (standard mode) awakens a raging bull. The quiet EV start up was helpful for not scaring my neighbors in the morning or at night when leaving the house.
A lot of people online slander hybrid performance cars because of the added weight of the batteries. Many of those people have probably never driven these cars firsthand. The gas-powered engine itself provides 814 horsepower while the hybrid system adds an additional 187 horses. When it comes to power, automakers have to do whatever they can to make the new cars faster than the older ones. The most powerful Aventador, the Ultimae, had 780 horsepower.
Most of the power in the Revuelto was unnecessary on the road as I could go from 0 to a speeding ticket in the blink of an eye. But it was very exciting to hear the screaming exhaust as I would take off at a stoplight and the traffic that was right next to me was now far behind. Doing a hard acceleration in a tunnel or going through an underpass is required when driving a car like this. The roar of the exhaust would echo and make it sound even louder.
The car handled very well and was a blast to drive on curvy roads. The ride quality wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be considering the vehicle is so low to the ground. It was comfortable to drive at regular speeds, but nobody drives a Lamborghini at regular speeds.
The stares
If you ever drive a car like this people will stare at you — a lot.
When it comes to exotic cars, the Revuelto may be the most exotic-looking of them all. I would casually be driving in traffic and the reactions were quite interesting. Whenever I used my turn signal people just got out of the way as if they were intimidated. At stoplights drivers in random cars would try to race me for no apparent reason. Even though the Revuelto is faster than almost every vehicle I’ve ever seen on the road, I had to resist the bait and let those random cars have their moment.
I brought the Lamborghini to our office in downtown Detroit so I could show it to my coworkers and film some videos for stories about it. While I was waiting for the video team to set up I managed to have a fanbase of random people staring and taking photos.
Many people gave general kind compliments. Some were confused trying to figure out what I was driving and some folks asked what I do for a living. I joked around and told them random jobs I did in the past that couldn’t possibly give me the opportunity to drive a Lamborghini. The look of confusion when I would sarcastically tell people I am a DoorDash driver or work at Arby’s was pretty entertaining.
Phenomenal but no cup holder?
It’s hard to find anything I disliked about this car during my time with it. Since this is the first supercar I’ve driven in years, I was reintroduced to supercar visibility while sitting inside it. The wedge shape the Lambo is known for looks stunning but makes it hard to see out of the car. Pulling up to a stoplight, it can be hard to see what color the light is if I’m too close and I’ll have to lean in an awkward angle to see it. Thankfully, all the advanced safety features such as blind spot monitoring, parking assistance and 360-degree camera helped greatly with the maneuvering.
The car is so low to the ground that it was a problem at times. While we were filming the car in midtown Detroit, I turned down a road with a speed bump. Instead of risking scraping the bottom of the car I decided to take a U-turn. Entering some parking lots I had to think about the angle I took when pulling in. The front lift system raises the ride height a few inches so I could get in and out of driveways safely but there were still some areas that looked too steep for me to enter.
Also, a $750,000 car without a cupholder is hilarious. But at least there was a little net that could hold a water bottle — a $1,000 option.
The last drive
The Revuelto was only a short-term loaner, but I managed to take coworkers, friends, family members and even my 90-year-old grandmother for a ride. Because of how loud the car was, she thought we were accelerating a lot faster than we were. After about five minutes, she said, ” ‘OK, take me back home.’ “
On the last day, I took it out for one final drive. I spent about an hour just tooling around town on twisty roads and enjoying the car. While I was heading home I kept thinking, “Do I have to give it back?”
When the driver from the fleet company came to retrieve the car, he asked me to explain how to drive it since he hadn’t driven it before. I gave him a rundown of how things worked and he took off. I looked at the car leaving my neighborhood, listening to that V12 one last time. I still say high-end luxury automakers like Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Mercedes-Maybach are my favorites.
But this Lamborghini has me questioning things just a little bit.
Keenan Thompson is a car culture reporter for the Detroit Free Press. Contact Keenan at kthompson@freepress.com. Follow him on Instagram at @keenanautos. To sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: I drove a Lamborghini around metro Detroit. The stares were something
Reporting by Keenan Thompson, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Keenan Thompson, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
