2015 Car of the Year Finalist: The game-changing Lamborghini Huracan
Lambos are usually spotted in completely outrageous colors. We were honestly looking forward to something shocking in our suburban New Jersey driveway, test central for Business Insider.
Maybe something a little like this Lamborghini Diablo, in flamboyant orange. Lock up the kids!
What we got, however, was a midengine beast elegantly tailored in soothing, dignified tones of gray. We photographed the Huracán from every imaginable angle, in rain and glorious autumnal shine ...
... but we couldn't find a perspective that made that aggressive, sharklike profile, sweeping back to bold haunches on a low, wide, stance look anything other than exquisite. This is the best-looking Lambo we've ever seen, even if it errs on the conservative side.
The Huracán is the successor to the Gallardo, Lambo's best-selling car ever.
I took a spin in a convertible version of the Gallardo last year and found that rather more loudly clad Lambo to be a pretty easy supercar to drive.
We haven't yet had a crack at the Huracán's big brother, the fearsome Aventador.
The Huracán is designed to compete with Ferrari's 458, which also features a midengine configuration ...
... and the high-tech McLaren 650S, which we sampled earlier this year and were plenty excited by. Funny, the nerdy McLaren had a far more exotic paint job than the swaggering Huracán.
As with all Lambos, the Huracán takes its name from the world of bullfighting. In this case, the bull that gave the Huracán its name stomped around the ring in the late 19th century and was noted for its ferocity.
The imagery of the bull, in a fighting stance, is integral to Lamborghini's identity. Here it is on the badge that adorns the Huracán's hood.
And here it is on the headrest, crafted from supple leather.
In case you forget that you're in a Lambo, you can always sneak a glance at the steering wheel.
The official name of the car is the Huracán LP/610-4. That doesn't mean it has 610 horsepower. Rather, the Huracán cranks out 602 horsepower and a skull-crushing 413 pound-feet of torque, versus the Gallardo’s 552 and 398. And if you flip all the right switches, you have access to every bit of it.
And lest you conclude that this beast is all bull lacking human intervention, founder Ferruccio Lamborghini's name appears prominently both outside ...
... and in.
Out test car had a base price of $237,250, but as you can see, a "grigio lynx" Huracán with "Nero Ade" interior demands thousands in options. $282,125 was the damage once this Huracán was properly equipped with stuff like carbon-ceramic brakes and heated seats.
There isn't a lot of room in a ride like this for a massive infotainment screen. But Lambrghini, with a bit of help from its corporate masters at the VW Group, has done an admirable job of cramming a lot of data into the main instrument cluster, which is really just a big display.
Everything you need to know is right in front of you and completely digital.
It's possible to customize what you see. Here, the navigation is prioritized.
But here, in proper sports-car fashion, it's all about the tachometer. Note the redline, at 8,500 rpm.
It also looks extremely cool at night.
The center console is compact and relatively straightforward. Anyone who has driven an Audi (also a VW Group brand) will recognize the infotainment-system controller.
And by the way, despite all the German tech, this is still an ITALIAN supercar: Those are Italian words on the digital gauges.
Not a cupholder in sight. But a really small compartment to stash a smartphone, plus a USB connector.
Plus the narrowest glove box I've ever seen. Barely room for a pair of driving gloves.
Were you hoping for a back seat? Fool! There's scarcely space back there for a carefully folded Brioni jacket. You're either going to have to give up golf if you buy one of these or keep an SUV around for emergencies. (Lamborghini is aiming to introduce one of those in the next few years.)
There is some storage space under the hood. (The engine, remember, is located behind the driver.)
It's not much, but it will hold an overnight bag.
The Huracán spent plenty of time eyeing down my ...
... Toyota Prius!
I think the Prius was probably terrified most of the time.
Everything about the Huracán suggests a barely contained ferocity.
Day or night.
There are plenty of subtle and not-so-subtle details, from the door handles that close flush and present themselves on demand.
To the various scoops ...
... and louvered intakes that ...
... define the Huracán's taut skin and snarling front.
An interesting hexagonal motif recurs throughout the car. Here it is on a side-view mirror.
And here it is on an interior door handle.
And here it is again on some AC vents.
All that aside, what really makes the Huracán compelling is its V10 engine.
Lambo is so proud of this piece of engineering that they stamped the firing order of the cylinders right on the power plant. Just so you know.
Once that V10 gets finished transforming premium gasoline into a rude symphony of roars, screams, burbles, and backfires, the emissions are piped into the atmosphere through four of these. OK, let's face it, if you want to save the planet, the Prius is a better bet.
With the Huracán, you also need to be prepared to part with $3,550 each year to gas up, en route to a combined city/highway rating of 16 mpg.
The Huracán's 601 horsepower yields a zero-to-60 time of 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 202 mph, according to Lamborghini. These big old carbon ceramics, with attention-getting red calipers, make it all manageable. Also, the beast has all-wheel-drive.
Details abound.
More details.
Lambo has thought of everything. If you need to deal with roadway mishaps, a pair of comfy, durable gloves will spare your hands.
I donned different gloves — driving gloves — to test the machine for real. You'll feel like a fighter pilot when you flip up this red cover on the start button.
Yes. Yes. Yes. Press. Press. Press. The sound on starting might alter the motion of the planets. In any case, it easily drowned out the lawn mowers in my neighborhood and shook some yellow leaves from the frightened trees.
The cockpit-inspired switches govern other features. Do not turn off the traction control!
This is the Anima, a switch on the steering wheel that allows you to switch between driving modes: "strada," or road-going everyday mode; "sport," which is what it sounds like; and "corsa," or race mode, in which the Huracán enters a bonkers state of being and generates the kinds of noises that will make you forever curse the quiet.
The Anima is Lambo's answer to Ferrari's famous Manettino. The idea, derived from Formula One, is that you must keep your hands on the wheel at all times to fully enjoy the driving experience. No distractions from speed!
So what was the car like to drive? Well, it certainly brings out the child in the man.
But also the man in the man. The Huracán has two distinct driving identities. For a very powerful midengine sports car, in strada (road) mode, it does a passable imitation of a grand tourer. My wife slipped in beside me one evening and swiftly enthused over the complete and comfortable interior package. You can feel sexy in the Huracán when driving slow. OK, the craters, bumps, and irregularities of brutal Northeastern pavement keep you on your toes. But if you leave the dual-clutch 7-speed in automatic, you can motor along in contemplative peace, enjoying the old songs on SiriusXM radio and taking in the pleasant scenery.
Put the snarling bull into corsa, however, and you unleash a slice of hell. A hellaciously satisfying slice of hell. The paddle shifters behind the steering wheel link you to a nuclear reactor of speed and thrills, via that V10. But orchestrating a freeway run using third, fourth, and fifth gears as your instruments yields an aural experience, at the legal speed limit, that will leave you overjoyed to have a bank account that's 300 grand lighter. (That's not me driving, by the way — it's Tiff Needell from the UK motoring show "Fifth Gear," taking on a twisty road in South Africa.)
Some people have complained that with the Huracán, Lambo has taken all the deranged Lambo-ness out of their little bull. Those critics have a point. At no juncture do you feel that the Huracán wants to end your life in a blaze of velocity, molten metal, and giddily fulfilled adolescent fantasies. Which really just means that the Huracán is the first truly sophisticated Lambo to have been created by human hands on planet Earth. Lambos aren't supposed to be dignified. But the Huracán, without question, is.
And with winter coming, the Huracán now needs to go someplace where the sun is warm and the roads are long and winding. So long, little bull. So long.
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