The
Lamborghini Huracán is actually a pretty good deal, by the warped
standards of exotic cars. Yes, the base price is $242,445, which is more
than the price of the average house in the United States.
But there are
plenty of cars that cost more and aren’t as quick. In fact, let’s leave
price out of it: If you’re lining up for a quarter-mile, there aren’t
many production cars on earth that can hang with a Huracán. You’re
talking the low side of 10 seconds, the province of superbikes and
seven-figure metal. Yeah, it probably gets around a road course all
right, too, but this is a car that exists for the straights.
The
Huracán’s obvious competitors are the Ferrari 458 Italia and McLaren
650S, a pair of adversaries that take a more holistic approach to
performance — they’re good at everything. The Lambo is the outlier,
extroverted and brutal, stiff-riding and loud and built to take you to
the other side of 200 mph. If you dare.
The
badge on the side of the car brags of 610 horsepower — 602 bhp,
translated from the Euro rating — which is impressive but not
preposterous, considering that the outgoing Gallardo made 552 horses.
The real secret to the Huracán’s Bugatti-challenging 0-60 time (Car and Driver
measured it at 2.5 seconds) is the transmission, a new seven-speed
dual-clutch unit that replaces the six-speed single-clutch box. Not only
can the new transmission perform clutch-drop launch-control starts, but
its instant upshifts mean that the acceleration is barely affected by
gear changes. The Gallardo could put on a pretty good show, but each
shift required a brief intermission — please visit the concession stand
and we’ll be back in a moment with third gear.
The
Lambo’s 5.2-liter V-10 makes its 602 horses at 8,250 rpm, and the active
exhaust system uncorks a bawling yowl that can probably literally be
heard a mile away. With all-wheel-drive, you could theoretically drive
this car every day, year-round. But the Huracán isn’t so friendly — it
never lets you forget that a drive should be an occasion unto itself,
one that demands presence and attention. You access the start button by
flipping up a red metal cover, an obvious and appropriate allusion to
weaponry. There are no cupholders, you heathen. And no cruise control,
either. Lamborghini says they’re working on it.
The
fact that cruise control is an option but carbon-ceramic brakes are
standard should tell you all you need to know about the Huracán. This
thing is all business. It looks like the Reaper’s sickle and gets gas
mileage like a truck and sometimes automatically downshifts to about
8,000 rpm even though you’re in manual mode. While most modern supercars
are all about making the driver look good, this little Lambo is
designed to challenge whichever mortal takes the wheel. And if it
decides you’re about to end up on WreckedExotics, the optional Dynamic
Steering will do a little bit of countersteering to compensate for ol’
molasses-paws at the helm.
The
Gallardo lasted 10 years and I hope the Huracán gets a similar run,
because this might be the last of the high-revving naturally aspirated
Italian spaceships. Ferrari is moving to turbos, and McLaren’s already
there. In five years, this car could be a glorious anomaly, a modern
carbon fiber and aluminum supercar that echoes back to Van Halen’s
“Panama” every time you hit the throttle. Let’s enjoy it while it lasts.
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