A car built for extra speed and drama

The hybrid Temerario hijacks the senses and takes them for a joyride, while retaining all the Italian brashness and drama of a Lamborghini

- Rishad Saam Mehta

The tunnel swallows us whole. One moment, the autumn sunshine in northern Italy is glinting off the Temerario's sculpted bonnet; the next, we're plunged into artificial twilight. I stamp down on the throttle like I'm cueing the climax of a Tarantino chase sequence. The world outside the windscreen dissolves into an impressionist's fever dream. The tunnel's walls blur into streaks of amber and white.

I'm driving the Lamborghini Temerario, a car that hijacks the senses and takes them for a joyride. The Temerario represents a watershed moment. As the second model in Lamborghini's HPEV (high performance electrified vehicle) range-alongside the V12 Revuelto-it marks the end of the sonorous V10 that served as the brand's mid-engine heartbeat for the Gallardo and the Huracán. In its place: a new, high-revving, twin-turbo V8 hybrid powertrain. But this is neither downsizing nor an accountant's compromise. This engine is engineering ambition wrapped in Italian audacity.

The rear-mounted V8 sits behind my shoulders like a caged animal, its 800 horsepower supplemented by three electric motors. Together, they generate a combined 907bhp. The V8 combusts fuel in precisely timed explosions within eight cylinders arranged in a V formation, converting chemical energy into rotational force that spins the rear wheels. The turbos force more air into those cylinders, creating more power. This is age-old internal combustion science.