Exotic, extrovert, extreme: Lamborghini’s latest is all these and more.
By Ghaith Madadha
Succeeding the Sant’Agata-based manufacturer’s long-serving and best-selling Gallardo supercar, the Huracan LP610-4 is Lamborghini’s most accessible car yet. But this doesn’t mean any of the brand’s visceral appeal is missing from this stunning follow-up.
The Huracan, named after a nineteenth century fighting bull and the mythical Mayan god of storms, is faster and more advanced than its predecessor. It shares both an engine, and a rigid and light carbon-fiber and aluminum space frame construction with its Audi R8 cousin.
The wide and squat Huracan is also more sculpted and taut than its predecessor. It features squinting headlights, gaping intakes, rear boomerang lights, quad exhausts, and is influenced by its aggressive Aventador stablemate’s complex lines and angles. The Huracan radiates a palpable and urgent sense of tension and momentum, with jutting air splitter, dramatically rising bonnet, cabin-forward layout, rakish roofline, muscular shoulders, pinched-in waist, and rear air diffuser.
Resisting trends towards smaller turbocharged engines, the Lamborghini Huracan retains its razor-sharp responsive, naturally-aspirated 5.2-liter V10 engine. Its powertrain, tweaked for a 40 BHP power hike, delivers scalpel-like throttle response and urgently long-legged reach. Its 10-pot tenor delivers a spine-tingling soundtrack, from low-rev mechanical staccato, resonant metallic mid-range snarls and baritone bellows, to searing top-end wail interrupted by guttural lift-off and down-shifts coughs.
Seductively sonorous and sensationally swift, the Huracan delivers 602 BHP at 8250 rpm and 413 lb/ft torque at 6500 rpm in an explosively progressive manner. Its high rev limit, ultra-precise and responsive throttle control, coupled with tenaciously grippy four-wheel-drive, allow sure-footed cornering finesse and consistently versatile strides, without interruption, sudden surges, and grip loss. With thick 245/30R20 front and 305/30R20 rear tires and four-wheel-drive digging hard into tarmac, the 1422kg Huracan rockets through 0-100 km/h in 3.2 seconds, 0-200 km/h in 9.9 seconds, and onto 325 km/h.
Mid-mounted behind the cabin for 58 percent rear-biased within-wheelbase weighting, the Huracan’s engine pulls hard from tick-over, digs deep for mid-range muscle, and is viciously intense as it urgently hunts the redline. It replaces its predecessor’s 6-speed single-clutch robotized gearbox with seamlessly smooth and swift-shifting 7-speed dual-clutch automated gearbox, which is superior in every way, especially sequential manual paddle-shift mode. Three progressively sharper and swifter automatic gearbox settings also alter exhaust note, steering weighting, and damper firmness to incremental degrees of focus.
With rear-drive instincts and four-wheel-drive road-holding, the Huracan drives with default 30:70 front-to-rear four-wheel-drive power split. However, a center multi-plate clutch actively reallocates up to 50 percent power forwards and 100 percent rearwards through hard-driven corners. Meanwhile, a limited-slip rear differential variably distributes power left and right for grip, agility, and most effective translation into forward motion.
With traction, razor-sharp throttle responses and intensely progressively power delivery, the Huracan confidently blitzes out of corners. Sophisticated double wishbone suspension with nuanced adaptive magnetic dampers automatically become taut through corners to suppress body lean, but smooth out imperfections on straights. Its meaty steering combines crisp, quick, and tidy responses with reassuring high speed directional stability. Meanwhile huge ventilated perforated disc and multi-piston brakes prove indefatigably effective.
The Huracan attracts attention wherever it goes, especially in our test version’s lime green paint job. It’s Lamborghini’s most ergonomic car yet, with improved headspace, cabin dimensions, instrumentation, layouts, and gearbox paddle-shifter positioning. Cozily comfortable with supportive seats, it features high quality fit, finish, textures, and leathers. It features USB/Bluetooth-enabled stereo, A/C, satnav, cruise control, and ever-useful reversing camera.
Specifications
Engine: 5.2-liter, mid-mounted, V10-cylinders
Gearbox: 7-speed dual-clutch automated
Driveline: four-wheel-drive, limited-slip differential
Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 602 (610) [449] @8250 rpm
Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 413 (560) @6500 rpm
0-100 km/h: 3.2 seconds
0-200 km/h: 9.9 seconds
Top speed: 325 km/h
Length: 4459 mm
Width: 1924 mm
Height: 1165 mm
Weight (distribution F:R): 1422 kg (42:58)
Suspension: Double wishbones, adaptive magnetic dampers
