Raging hurricane

With theatrically aggressive designs, viciously powerful engines and albeit unintended boxing associations, Lamborghini is automotive machismo distilled. And just as Lamborghini’s emblem is no reference to former World Middleweight champion Jake ‘Raging Bull’ LaMotta or his gritty Robert DeNiro namesake film, neither is the latest Huracan model a reference to boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter or the numerous South American and Spanish football teams of the same name.

Instead, and even more macho than that, and in keeping with Lamborghini’s long-standing nomenclature referencing bull fighting, the Huracan is named after a particularly fierce late 19th century bull fighting, and by association the mythical Mayan god of wind, storm and fire. 

Quite possibly Lamborghini’s all-round best effort to date, the Huracan was launched one year ago as a successor to the celebrated Italian brand’s best-selling and then aging Gallardo supercar. Officially named the Huracan LP610-4 in reference to its 610 metric horsepower and four-wheel drive, Sant’Agata’s latest effort is more advanced effort that is more powerful and economic, faster and more accessible and more extreme yet more comfortable than the car it replaces.

Powered by an enhanced version of the Gallardo’s 5.2-litre V10 engine, the Huracan shares its technical platform and engine with Lamborghini’s Audi parent company’s second generation, unveiled at the Geneva Motorshow earlier this month. 

Dramatic design

Extreme and attention-grabbing, the Huracan is designed with the same outrageously rakish and seemingly lunging forward aggression that all Lamborghinis have been since the iconic 1974-90 Countach. With voluptuous front wheel arches, pinched-in waist and muscular rear shoulders and massive 20-inch wheels, the Hurcan has more palpable urgency, potency and momentum than its’ predecessor, and features more sculpted bodywork and definition, sharper triangulated motifs, air splitters and more jutting and hungrier gaping front and side intakes. Squinting horizontal lights lend a meaner and moodier look than the Gallardo’s stretched back lights, while rear views are dominated by wide bore quad tailpipes and black rear bumper and air diffuser.

With tighter more deliberate lines the Huracan’s sharply rising bonnet seamlessly leads to a rakish windscreen angle, low roofline and descending rear glass engine bay hatch flanked by slatted vents and trailing to prominent but nicely integrated spoiler and slim boomerang rear lights. 

Wide and squat, the Huracan’s tautly athletic body is built on a hybrid aluminium and carbon-fibre space frame considerably lighter and stiffer than the outgoing Gallardo’s aluminium construction. Weighing in at 200kg, the Huracan’s stiff and lightweight frame promoted improved handling precision, ride refinement and greater safety, with side impact protection benefiting from rear bulkhead’s fibres being laid in the direction of load travel. 

Searing and sonorous

Mid-mounted just behind the cabin for within-wheelbase weighting with a slight 58 per cent rear-bias, the Huracan’s ferocious all-aluminium 5.2-litre V10 is a charismatically long-legged instrument, which with naturally aspirated induction delivers a razor-sharp responsiveness and sonorously high-strung and nuanced soundtrack unmatched by a turbocharged power plant.

Utilising a hybrid direct and multi point injection system and with high 12.7:1 compression, the Huracan’s seductive V10 develops 40BHP over the Gallardo.

With 602BHP available at 8250rpm and 413lb/ft torque at 6500rpm and a reduced 1422kg weight, the Huracan’s performance boasts staggeringly brutal 3.2-second 0-100km/h, 9.9-second 0-200km/h and 325km/h top speed performance, yet returns relatively modest 12.5l/100km fuel efficiency for such a supercar.

Bolting off-the-line startling immediacy as all four driven wheels and thick sticky 245/30R20 front and 305/30R20 rear tyres dig hard and generate immense traction, the Huracan’s V10 engine rips through revs with electrifying intensity. 

As the Huracan’s V10 piles on the power with progressively linear urgency, its relaxed mechanical low rev staccato coalesces to a resonant metallic snarl that builds and hardens to a fuller, insistently searing and wailing howl, while lift-off and down shifts elicit guttural coughs. With tall rev limit and ultra-precise throttle control, one dials in precise and immediate power increments and carries vast in-gear leaps in speed for smoother, more consistent and versatile driving and delivery though corners.

Vice-like road holding

With meaningful pull from tickover, the Huracan’s linear engine digs deep in mid-range and delivers muscular versatility, and with torque peaking so high up, one almost resists the urge to upshift and is rewarded by a gloriously vicious and urgently intense top end. Replacing its predecessor’s choice of 6-speed single-clutch robotised or traditional manual gearboxes is a smoother, swifter and more refined 7-speed dual clutch automated gearbox, with imperceptibly seamless shifts.

Three-mode vehicle settings allows one to alter gearbox shift speeds, engine note, steering weighting and damper firmness to varying degrees of comfort or focus, while a manual gearbox mode more satisfyingly allows sequentially gears change through steering-mounted paddle-shifters.

Driving all four wheels the Huracan’s 30:70 front-to-rear power split under normal driving conditions provides a traditionally balanced and agile rear drive feel. 

However through corners, a centre multi-plate clutch can reapportion up to 50 per cent power frontwards or 100 per cent rear wards to maintain a vice-like grip and tenacious traction, while a limited-slip rear differential splits power along the rear axle and constantly fine tune it power split to where it can best be translated into forward motion.

Able to carry great speed with utter sure-footed road-holding, the Huracan’s sensationally devours winding hill climbs virtually bends the rules of physics and almost alters a driver’s perceptions of time and space.

Confident extrovert

With brutally intense yet linear power delivery and tremendous traction, one can come back on throttle early and confidently power out of corners. Meanwhile, sophisticated double wishbone suspension with intuitively nuanced adaptive dampers allow flat and poised cornering, and smooth and comfortable daily driving on straights and over imperfections.

Reassuringly stable and pinned down at speed, the Huracan feels buttoned down and settled over rebounds. Agile and responsive to directional changes, and with a quick flick of its meaty, direct and quick steering, the Huracan pounces into a corner with tidy crisp precision. Reining in its’ prodigious performance are tirelessly effective multi-piston ventilated perforated disc brakes. 

Not a car for the demure, the extrovert Huracan attracted numerous selfie-takers and random stop-and-chats, not to mention focusing the attentions of a school bus of boys. With numerous mod cons from USB/Bluetooth-enabled stereo, A/C, satnav, crucial reversing camera and high quality textures, fit and finish, the Huracan is more refined and ergonomic than its’ predecessor.

Better accommodating tall and large drivers, steering-mounted indicator buttons allow easier paddle-shifter use while headspace and front visibility were improved. Supportive seats and adjustable flat-bottom steering allowed a good driving position, but lower-set seats would improve headroom, driving position and upward visibility when driving through high rise urban locales.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 5.2-litre, mid-mounted, dry sump, V10 cylinders

Bore x stroke: 84.5 x 92.8mm

Compression ratio: 12.7:1

Valve-train: 40-valve, DOHC, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed automated dual clutch

Driveline: Four-wheel-drive, multi-plate clutch, limited-slip differential

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 602 (610) [449] @8250rpm

Specific power: 115.7BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 423.3BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 413 (560) @6500rpm

Specific torque: 107.6Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 393.8Nm/tonne

0-100km/h: 3.2 seconds

0-200km/h: 9.9 seconds

Top speed: 325km/h

Fuel consumption, urban/extra-urban/combined: 17.8-/9.4-/12.5 litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 290g/km

Fuel capacity: 80 litres

Length: 4459mm

Width: 1924mm

Height: 1165mm

Wheelbase: 2620mm

Track, F/R: 1668/1620mm

Dry weight: 1422kg

Weight distribution, F/R: 42 per cent/58 per cent

Steering: Electric-assisted rack & pinion

Suspension: Double wishbones, adaptive magnetic dampers

Brakes, F/R: Ventilated, perforated discs 380mm/356mm

Brake callipers, F/R: 6-/4-piston callipers

Tyres: 245/30R20/305/30R20