Perhaps, not many people have seen or heard about this Lamborghini Huracan. Perhaps just a privileged few may have come across it. When we say privileged few, we are apparently referring to those super rich that have unhindered access to multiple streams of income, no matter the source or how legitimate of illegitimate it is.
Well for those car freaks with penchant for everything that offers superb luxury on-wheels, the styling of the Lamborghini Huracan has been described as subdued by some, but in the metal, it has a simple kind of elegance to it that is both refreshing and appropriately intimidating.
You expect a lot of things to happen when you drive a Lamborghini Huracán. It’s a supercar, after all, capable of 202 mph and running from zero to 60 mph in an estimated 2.9 seconds. It starts at more than $240,000 and is powered by a 602-hp, 5.2-liter V-10. You expect intimidation and excitement.
Lamborghini is still a tiny company selling just a few thousand cars a year, but the £240,000 Huracan is expected to sell in bigger numbers than any model that’s gone before. Build quality sets new standard in the supercar class, while Lamborghini continues the aeronautical theme from the Aventador with a fighter jet-style flick-up cover for the ignition button. It’s not all good news, though, the indicators are controlled by a tiny switch on the steering wheel which is difficult to operate – it’s a similar story with the windscreen wipers.
It has leveraged the might of the VW Group’s engineering department to pack the Huracan with the very latest technology. The engine is a development of the familiar 5.2-litre V10 that people have come to know and love in both the R8 and Gallardo, albeit with a raft of modifications to its top end and exhaust system.
The Huracán’s interior, though, is the perfect mix of the exotic and the practical. Inspired by the ’67 Lambo Marzal, a hexagon-themed concept car, the cockpit has a retro flavor. The cabin is deeply Lamborghini in both look and feel, featuring a pair of ultra supportive bucket seats and a new 12.3-inch digital TFT screen that can be tailored to whatever kind of mood you might be in. Stop start also becomes a standard fitment to help reduce emissions and improve economy by over 10 per cent. The dual clutch seven-speed auto gearbox is also lifted straight from the R8 and replaces, at last, the clumsy e-gear six speeder from before. This means that a traditional manual gearbox is not even available as an option in Lamborghini’s most popular car.
As on the Gallardo, there are double wishbones at each corner with electronic dampers and anti-roll bars at either end. But this time these are joined by standard-issue carbon-ceramic brake discs and a new ANIMA button (which means soul in Italian), similar to Ferrari’s manettino dial. This sits on the steering wheel and alters the responses of the dampers, engine mapping, steering, gearbox, four-wheel drive and traction control.
The cabin is deeply Lamborghini in both look and feel, featuring a pair of ultra supportive bucket seats and a new 12.3-inch digital TFT screen that can be tailored to whatever kind of mood you might be in. It’s a great car, albeit in a new wave, old school kind of way. When you thumb the starter button and the V10 engine catches, for example, there is still the same sense of theatre in evidence as there was with the Gallardo.
The styling of the Lamborghini Huracán has been described as subdued by some, but in the metal it has a simple kind of elegance to it that is both refreshing and appropriately intimidating. It looks quite small on the road, too, even though it isn’t, and as a replacement for the 11-year-old Lamborghini Gallardo – of which some 14,000 were made between 2003-2013 – it borrows more than one or two ideas from both the existing Audi R8 and its forthcoming successor, which will appear next year.
On the move the car instantly feels more refined but also more comfortable and there is a sense of maturity to the ride, steering response, throttle weighting and even the exhaust note that elevates it well beyond its predecessor.
MIKE OCHONMA
