Lamborghini – Peak Performance

Lamborghini’s newest, fastest and most powerful SUV ever, the Urus Performante, flexes its muscles on the world’s most dangerous hill climb

- By Nicolas Stecher

Despite the fact that it’s mid-July in Colorado, the pre-dawn air way up here at 9,300 feet above sea level is crisp and alerting. All around us is pandemonium: quick chattering Italians dart around a humming tour bus in tight red pants and matching sneakers, puffy Lamborghini-embroidered vests keeping the cold at bay. A fully camouflaged Urus Performante sits on blocks with its wheels removed, with cables and sensors spilling out of the hood in vivisection; engineers and mechanics tend to it diligently like a pre-runway supermodel. The sky above remains deep black, but a vibrant orange sliver on the horizon threatens to break over the inky valley.

In the center of the chaos calmly hovers Stephan Winkelmann, splitting the madness like Gandolf in an Orc war. Arguably the most dapper man in the automotive industry, he takes it all in with just a wisp of palpable excitement. The mere presence of the decorated CEO underscores what an important moment this is for Lamborghini—flying halfway across the world for less than 24 hours just to bear witness to the event, why we’re all here on this chilly hill: to notch the record for fastest production SUV up Pikes Peak.

This is, after all, Lamborghini’s best-selling vehicle ever, attempting to break the record of perhaps the most (in)famous, and dangerous, hill climb in the world. The Race To the Clouds, as it’s lovingly referred to. The fact that Pikes Peak happens to be in America, in Colorado, Lamborghini’s biggest and most important market? I’m sure that doesn’t hurt either.