Lamborghini could easily make a 1,000bhp+ Temerario STO… and here’s how

According to Lamborghini’s tech boss Rouven Mohr… you ain’t seen nothing yet. The Temerario’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 – the mad one that revs to 10,000rpm and develops 789bhp (800PS) – isn’t breaking sweat yet.

“We operate our combustion engine at 200PS (197bhp) per litre [in the ‘base' car],” Mohr explains in a matter-of-fact, German engineer-type way. “We can run it at, say, 220PS (217bhp) per litre [in future].”

That means, maths fans, another 80 horsepower. But then you add the hybrid element (currently 148bhp). “Electric is quite easy to increase power: just increase the voltage,” Mohr continues. “A four-digit number is possible for the engine. We can do a big step, it’s clear.”

The idea of the ‘entry-level’ Lamborghini supercar pumping out twice as much power as an original Gallardo is a faintly terrifying one. But hey, that’s progress in the supercar realm. Rouven explains that’s why his team chose a V8 instead of a downsized V6… which was also on the table.

“In the last years of the Huracán, the power requests increased dramatically. Especially in the last four or five years, we had to admit that the 640hp V10 was not state of the art performance.”

Mohr agrees that a huge slice of the V10’s appeal was its soulful wail, and insists much time and effort has been lavished on getting the twin-turbo V8 Temerario to make a noise that’ll be just as memorable and exciting. We’ll wait and see (or hear). But back to that idea of a V6 Lambo.

“We were evaluating internally which engine we want to do. There was the V8, or there was a V6. We also considered a new V10, but to fulfil the [future] emission regulations it would lose 20 per cent of its power. It's clear that the old V10 was at the end of the lifecycle.

“There was a discussion with the V6 and the V8, because the pure performance figures are achievable with a V6. But we thought the brand positioning would be a step too big, coming from the V10 to a V6. We don't think that the V6 is fitting to our brand.” Ouch, 296 GTB owners.

“The second thing is on the emotion: the potential for emotion is very important for us. A V8 with the flat-plane crankshaft has higher potential than a V6, so that was another reason we chose the V8.” Sore, Ferrari F80 fans?

Rouven says the all-new V8 engine has been in development for around five years and has cost in the ‘high tens of millions’ of Euros to develop. That’s why there’s so much performance headroom in the powerplant – it’s doing the heavy lifting in the next decade of big-selling Lambo supercars.

Our old friend the Huracán racked up 35,000 sales in just over a decade. So the Temerario has big boots to fill.

Still, we mourn the V10. And we put it to Rouven that Porsche does just fine selling 911 GT3s with a 9,000rpm flat-six in the back, even though its power has stayed pegged around 500bhp for about ten years. His response?

“I strongly believe [keeping the same engine with less power] would be not the right choice for our brand,” he argues. “By the way, I love the Porsche 911, and the GT3 is a fantastic car,” he adds with a smile.

“It's a driver's car, but it has a completely different customer base. And the mission of the car is a completely different one. It's 100 per cent dedicated for racetrack purposes.

“Therefore you have a completely different user profile of our car. Our base car is not mainly a racetrack car. It has a huge bandwidth between daily drivability and high performance. You can also go on the track, but it's not a track tool like the GT3.”

Did Lambo make the right call in swapping that ear-shredding V10 for an even higher-revving turbo-hybrid V8? And how high do you reckon they’ll crank the power up? Give us your reaction in the comments…