SILENT MIGHT

Lamborghini's first all-electric car is a four-door 'ultra-GT', so it claims. We drive it... five years before it goes on sale

- JACK RIX

Within the kaleidoscope of stupid things car journalists get up to, driving concept vehicles has to be right up there (alongside badgering car execs to build more of the cars they sell the least of) as our biggest waste of time. Inserting yourself into a rickety shell plonked on top of whatever means of propulsion designers found lying about in the studio cupboard and hoping to discern, what? That the production car it previews won't sound, steer, stop, ride, handle or smell remotely like this, but here's a picture of us grinning while rolling down a hill in it anyway! It's a futile exercise at worse, a desperate plea for clicks at best. Either way it's not a great look and TopGear deplores it.

Except that's me, behind the wheel of a concept car, grinning for the camera while driving not very quickly down an extremely pretty road on the Monterey Peninsula in California. Hypocrite? Me? Better get my explaining pants on.

The concept car in question is the new Lamborghini Lanzador - sounds like a boozy holiday spot in the Canary Islands, or a faithful retriever, is actually... well, we're not entirely sure. An SUV? A supercar on stilts? Nope, it's something entirely new, says Lambo, an all-electric 2+2 'Ultra-GT' designed to draw a link between the Urus and its supercar lineup. It's the fabled fourth model that will join Revuelto, Urus and the Huracán replacement (all of which will be plug-in hybrids by the end of 2024) in showrooms in 2028 which, maths fans, is a hell of a wait. But CEO Stephan Winkelmann definitely isn't umming and erring on this one, it's locked in, a "concrete preview of the production vehicle".