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From the LM002 to the Urus, Lamborghini has a history of creating sometimes controversial SUVs and monster trucks

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Lamborghini created a buzz with its exotic Urus SUV concept at the Beijing auto show in April, but a quarter of a century ago it generated a veritable hurricane of hyperbole when it launched its ancestral inspiration, the LM002, a sort of Countach-cum-monster-truck.

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A top speed of 210 km/h and a 0-100 km/h time of eight seconds might sound a bit lethargic for a V-12-engined mid-1980s Lamborghini but road testers of the time thought the numbers were pretty startling considering the new LM002 stood almost two meters tall and weighed in at three tons.

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With the intro of the outrageous - in terms of sheer size, power, performance and princely $210,000 Canadian price tag - LM002 in 1986, Lamborghini was planning to make big knobbly Pirelli Scorpion tire tracks in largely unexplored market territory.

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If it couldn’t corner like a Countach, well, it could certainly be driven through much deeper sand, an important attribute to the oil sheiks high on its customer targeting list.

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The four-door production LM002 emerged in 1986 and was launched at the Brussels auto show. It was built around a tubular frame with aluminum body panels and stretched 4,790 mm between its bumpers (about 350 mm shorter than a modern Cadillac Escalade) and weighed 2,725 kg.

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Lamborghini unveiled the spiritual successor to the LM002, a radical 600-horsepower SUV concept called the Urus, at the Beijing motor show earlier this year.

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Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said the four-door four-seater SUV is “a perfect match for the Lamborghini brand.”Jackson Lowen

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Lamborghini is not specifying what type of engine will get the SUV to the approximate 600 hp figure, but it seems likely to be either a variation of the current 560-hp V-10 in the Lamborghini Gallardo, or a tweaked version of the turbo V-8 that’s found in the Porsche Cayenne Turbo, or perhaps even a V-12, as was shown in Bentley’s awkwardly named EXP 9 F SUV concept.Jackson Lowen

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Winkelmann said the Urus would weigh about 100 kg less than its rivals, thanks to Lambo’s exclusive heft-reducing carbon fibre technology.Jackson Lowen

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Lambo wants to be best in class for carbon dioxide emissions in the high-end SUV segment, and the Urus is expected to receive a plug-in version of the new turbocharged Audi V-8 that also appears in the Bentley Continental GT V-8.Jackson Lowen

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Unlike the blocky LM002, the Urus will be styled in line with its more exotic two-door siblings.

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This new Lambo SUV will breathe fiery on-road performance instead of brutish off-road capability, featuring a relatively low roof but a variable ride-height, and a paddle-shift dual-clutch transmission.

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The interior of the Urus.

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There will be no more column stalks for turn signals, wipers or headlights, as dispensed with in the Ferrari 458 Italia as well.

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The Urus should arrive to market by 2016...

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...but it’ll never replace the original Rambo Lambo.

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