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Lamborghini Urus references Countach and LM002

Lamborghini video of chief designer says Urus SUV pays homage to a pair of past masters.

What's the news?

We're getting close to seeing the Lamborghini Urus super-SUV unveiled in all its glory - December 4 is the red-letter day - and so here's a video of Mitja Borkert, the head of design at Lamborghini's Centro Stile, talking about his influences for the new machine.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, he's looked at Lambo's own back catalogue of machines and there are two in particular that he and the design team drew inspiration from - and if you're into cars, then you might be able to guess them both. The first is the Countach supercar, Mitja enthusing about the 'diagonal lines' you can see on the old Lamborghini when viewing it from the front. All fine and dandy, although whether the Urus would wear the LP500's socking great rear wing as well as the Countach is another matter...

The second is rather more obvious: it's Lamborghini's only previous stab at making an, ahem, SUV, the LM002. Derived from an aborted project to build military vehicles, the LM002 was powered by the, yes, Countach's 5.2-litre V12 or - if you needed more power - a special-order 7.2-litre marine V12. Its blocky styling made it look like an early attempt at a Hummer and, given it had no concession at all to weight-saving or aerodynamics and thus had fuel consumption figures that would make a Bentley Bentayga W12 blush with cringing embarrassment, the LM002 required a 290-litre (63.8-gallon) fuel tank just to get about the place.

The Urus shouldn't be so afflicted, though, as we know it will be powered by a hyper-modern twin-turbo V8 engine, which should offer power and fairly reasonable parsimony (relatively speaking, of course). So, the Countach/LM002 influences can be seen in its overall shape, which is two-thirds body, one-thirds windows. The low, rising bonnet and glasshouse in profile comes from the supercar, while the LM002 lends a triangular air vent just aft of the front wheels - which also bears the Italian tricolore - and the hexagonal-shaped wheel arches.

Lamborghini also says the interior design of the Urus allows the driver to 'feel like a pilot', with a low seating position and an encompassing sweep of dashboard and controls. The hexagonal theme, a Lambo trait, is continued with the design theme in the cabin, as well.

Anything else?

You can watch the video with Mitja, which includes a shot of the Urus barrelling through a dusty corner with some opposite lock (for those of you not so interested in design chat), right here.

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Published on December 1, 2017