Lamborghini Urus Performanté

The most powerful variant of the Lamborghini Urus 'SSUV' is here, and it's been fittingly named the Performanté.

Meet the updated and upgraded Urus Performanté. Surely there can't be much to improve on the original Urus, however Lamborghini have found a way, proving so by being the fastest SUV time up Pikes Peak with a time of 10:32.064. To put this into comparison, the previous record was set by the Bentley Bentayga; a staggering 19 second gap between the two cars. The Performanté keeps the same 4.0L twin-turbo V8 seen in the regular Urus, however the engine is dialed up to produce an extra 16bhp to 657bhp and a 0-100km/h dash of 3.3 seconds. This is supercar territory; hard to believe a 5-seater, 2150kg family SUV is capable of these statistics.

The main changes between the two variants is through the hardware and the aerodynamic styling. The original air suspension system has been swapped with stiffer springs with adaptive dampers, resulting in a 20mm decrease in ride height. There's also a new Rally mode - time will tell how many owners actually use this. It's widened by 16mm and lengthened by 25mm, thanks to the new carbon fibre bumper.

The Performanté uses a new, sharp, carbon kit which not only looks aggressive; but results in a 50kg drop in weight. There's a new rear wing, optional exposed-carbon bonnet, extreme diffuser and grille and humungous 22 or 23 inch wheels. The designers at Lamborghini sure weren't shy on using carbon, with the bumpers, roof, diffuser, front splitter, wheel arches and spoiler all being made out of the lightweight material. All of these extras to the design lead to an eight percent increase in overall downforce while also reducing drag. It's pretty safe to say that the Urus Performanté is a rather quick SUV.

Although the Urus Performanté is still based on the Porsche Cayenne, Lamborghini aims for the Performanté to be in contention with the Aston Martin DBX 707 and the all new Ferrari Purosangue; both incredibly fast cars. The Lambo sits at a reasonable $34k more than the Aston, but a staggering extra $157k would give you the V12 Purosangue. Is it worth it?

Price: $419,446+ AUD