Urus

Segment
SUV

The 5,000-foot deep Lake of Baikal is in southern Siberia, Russia is the little-known home of the Days of Speed festival where the Lamborghini Urus just broke the Russian record for speed and acceleration on ice. Over the 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) the Urus averaged 114 kmh (about 70 mph) from a standing start.

The driver was Andrey Leontyev, who is an 18-time Russian record holder and a regular in Russia's version of the Guinness Book of World Records clocked a top speed of 298 kph (185 mph). During practice, Leontyev went even faster at 187.6 mph. Official data was registered by the FIA and RAF and will be published in April.

"Lamborghini always sets ambitious and bold goals. This extreme challenge has once again proven that the Urus super SUV delivers the inherent performance expected of a Lamborghini in terms of acceleration and top speed as well as handling, to unlock any road: be it a highway, off-road route, or even ice. We are excited to see the Urus' official results published," said Konstantin Sychev, Head of Lamborghini Eastern Europe and CIS.

To get that speed on the ice, the Lamborghini Urus uses a Torsen central self-locking differential for AWD. Torque is split 40/60 to the front and rear axle, though in certain circumstances 70% of the torque can go to the front or a full 87% can go rearwards. The Urus also features active torque vectoring via a rear differential that can send power to either side.

Power for the current Urus SUV-there's a more powerful version coming later-is rated at 650 hp and 626 lb-ft of torque. That comes from a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 good for a sprint time of 3.6 seconds, 0-124 mph in 12.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 189 mph.

We think the natural competitor to the ice Urus is the lightning-fast Porsche Taycan EV. With the traction control off, on ice, we've seen the Taycan rip to well over triple digits, though it will always come down to putting that power to the surface. The Urus used stock 22-inch Pirelli Scorpion winter tires to break the record. Maybe we should start a Wisconsin ice drag event next winter.