Design walkaround: Urban Automotive’s Lamborghini Urus SE Widetrack

Driving a Lamborghini is already a statement – a guaranteed head turner and conversation starter. But Urban Automotive pushes that idea further with its take on the Lamborghini Urus SE, amplifying its presence through a bold widebody treatment finished in an unapologetically vivid orange (very much CDN-approved).

The boldness of this modded Lamborghini isn’t a surprise, as modifying vehicles to stand out even further is Urban Automotive’s bread and butter. Urban was formed in 2013 after founder Simon Dearn became frustrated at the lack of dramatic aftermarket modifications, which helped shape the company’s ethos. Now Urban has developed an ‘OEM plus’ design style that stays true to the original brand but continues to push boundaries in a subtle, yet impactful way.

To learn more about the Lamborghini Urus SE Widetrack, CDN visited Urban Automotive for the pre-reveal to chat to lead designer John Hancock.

Car Design News: What was your approach when modifying this Lamborghini? 

John Hancock: Urban has previously done styling programmes for the Urus and the Urus S, but with the launch of the SE, Lamborghini chose to change quite a significant portion of the vehicle so, effectively, we had to start again. 

We have an ‘OEM plus’ manta, so we try to be sympathetic to the vehicle that we’re working on. We try to dial up and pick up on the Lamborghini design cues. If we were to do a Range Rover, we’d do it in a totally different way. I like to think we do the things that the manufacturers don’t – we widen, lower, make them a bit more aggressive, put huge wheels and tires on, lashings of carbon fibre everywhere. We tried to take Lamborghini and make it more Lamborghini.

CDN: What does the personalisation process look like? How much design freedom does the customer have? 

JH: We try to take the customer with us on a journey. We do hold their hand a little bit, but we try to pander to their desires in many ways. Sometimes there is an obvious design choice to avoid, then we very politely suggest they do something otherwise. We’ll do a render of what they request so they can live with it for a little while and then if they choose to go ahead with their initial idea, then that’s their decision.

In terms of design, we start by scanning the entire vehicle, then we reverse engineer the scan because we need to have good data to put our elements into. Effectively, we are resurfacing the entire vehicle as a copy to 0.1 of a millimetre, which takes some time. Then we sketch – always starting with pen and paper, before moving onto photoshop, coming up with multiple proposals for what we think will take it to the Urban modified level. Then we go through the 2D design process then, once we are happy, we get stuck into 3D and start developing the vehicle. 

CDN: How do you ensure that each piece fits perfectly? 

JH: Let’s start by saying that this vehicle took us seven weeks, which is unprecedented. It was really satisfying as a designer to get back the final physical product in this time scale. 

The pieces come in day after day; they are fitted and test fitted. All of the components have had no hand fitting at all – they just fit straight away thanks to the programmes we use and learnings from what we’ve done previously. 

CDN: How many designers are in the Urban Automotive team? 

JH: There are four of us, we hope in the very near future to double that number. I head up the design team – I’m a traditional pen and paper guy but I also use photoshop sketches and Alias modeller. We’ve then got two dedicated Alias modellers and a design engineer. 

CDN: Take us through the vehicle, starting from the front face. 

JH: We have a three-piece lower splitter all in exposed carbon fibre – this particular vehicle has satin carbon, but we can do gloss, matte, forged or chopped carbon as well. We’ve got a full replacement carbon fibre bonnet in the body colour with some exposed areas. Then you have our ‘dragon scale’ vents which are fully functional – Lamborghini first did this on its Performante version, so we chose to take that and elevate it in an Urban way. 

On the bonnet itself, we’ve got these front nostrils, which are inspired by the Aventador SVJ.

We used 3D printed components for the grille and the meshes which are UV and heat resistant as well as waterproof. 

One of the design challenges is getting everything to fit and function as well as it possibly can. An example of this at the front are the parking sensors and ASAS camera which have beams to sense proximity, so all our components need to avoid that beam.

Moving round the side, the wheels have been popped out 20 millimetres per side, so 40 millimetres overall. We’ve chosen to do a carbon fibre wide arch around the bespoke 24-inch tire. The vehicle is also slightly lowered to make it a bit more aggressive. Running along the bottom is our sill aero feature, which is inspired by the 1960s Miura. 

CDN: What about the rear? 

At the back we’ve got a full replacement rear bumper all in carbon fibre, which is handmade in the UK. We’ve also really exaggerated the diffuser straights to give it more aggression – but again having to work around the sensors. 

The exhaust billets are milled from solid aluminium, with each one weighing about six or seven kilograms. Then we’ve got a double vented diffuser, which allows air to pass through.

The tow covers are something our competitors will overlook – meaning if you need to get towed, you’ll have to take the entire rear bumper off to get to the fixings – so we spent the time and effort to make it practical. There’s a 3D printed catch, so you just put a screwdriver in, the 3D print flexes a little and you can remove it to access the tow hooks. 

On the rear bumper, we’ve got these lower canard areas, designed to flow through from the sill, so we’ve accented the lower portion of the vehicle to plant it on the road and give it a real presence. 

Then we’ve got our new double stacked spoiler, which acts as a functioning aero section. 

CDN: What are some of the misconceptions of modified vehicles that you’d like to squash? 

JH: It’s the time and the effort behind the scenes that people don’t see to achieve that end result. I’ve had situations where we’ve done the 3D print tests, something’s been less than a millimetre out and we’ve changed it, because we were not happy. We are trying to make sure our end result is up to an OEM standard.