LAMBORGHINI Huracan LP 610-4 Review

Even the Raging Bull nickname suggests that any Lamborghini is a vicious creature, more like Satan than Santa. Still, the Huracan has the technical assets required by such a noble goal, stuff like a double-clutch gearbox, adaptive suspension and more electronic aids. Heck, it doesn't even pack a rear wing, so you should never expect a conflict when driving close to pedestrians. Or should you?

Let's not allow ourselves to be fooled here. Sant'Agata Bolognese never made... normal cars. Any Lamborghini is a riot by definition, but perhaps the Italians decided to give this bull some manners. After all, it does replace the Gallardo. At over 14,000 units sold, the latter is by far the most successful model in the company's history. It's only natural for Lamborghini to aim for an even wider audience now.

That audience is won over in the way any Lamborghini convinces you to buy it - this is an emotional decision. To be a bit more precise, design is the key element here and with the Huracan, Lamborghini dared to go a bit... softer.

Place the Huracan next to an Aventador and you'll notice there's something a bit feminine about the V10 supercar's appearance. Sure, we're talking about the features of an amazon here, so the level of visual aggression is just as high as you'd expect it to be.

The Aventador and the Huracan do share one main feature though. You can pen their silhouettes by simply drawing a single line that goes all the way front the splitter-like nose to the raised tail. Nonetheless, compared to the Aventador, the lines of the Huracan are significantly simpler.

This was no accident. The designers aimed to simplify the aerodynamic stuff compared to the Gallardo. The best example is the disappearance of the massive vertical side air intakes. Future special editions will probably bring wings, but, for now, the Huracan doesn't even come with a retractable one like the Aventador. The idea may have been around even before the Gallardo was released.

Lamborghini reduced the drag coefficient compared to the Gallardo. Yes, the difference is just three percent, but that’s because supercars are all about downforce. When it comes to this, the new design produces a stunning 50 percent extra.

People around you won't care about such details though. In fact, as I noticed during the drive, when a Huracan is close, they don't care about anything else. Yep, the head-turning force is strong with this one.

And those who manage to look beyond the shell have plenty to see, as the cabin of the Huracan is even more aggressive than its exterior.

The interior is perhaps the area with the greatest changes compared to the Gallardo. As you enter, you are once again shocked by the simplicity. There's a hint of Sesto Elemento in here. Nonetheless, that was a concept with no other goal than to weigh below one metric ton. The Huracan has to spoil its occupants with all that is expected from a modern supercar, so there's great difference between the two.

You find leather and Alcantara everywhere and while the price of the car requires that, it’s still nice to enjoy the olfactory experience, while the dashboard is something that brings pleasant surprises. The traditional Raging Bull flamboyance is obviously here and this is now doubled by a stowage compartment beneath that massive center console. Who would’ve expected a Lamborghini with practicality moves stolen from the Toyota Prius?

The shiny toggle switches on the center console are a nice treat, but what really catches the eye is the set of dashboard air vents. Their add-on slender look somehow brings an impression of lightness.

The digital implementation of the dashboard makes things extremely easy to read and just as colorful as you’d like. The navigation, for instance, is now integrated into the instrument cluster. The 12.3-inch display, a trick we’ve already seen on the Audi TT, works brilliantly.

While nobody could mind the perfect ergonomics of the Audi switchgear, I would’ve liked to see the dashboard display itself stray further from the German mothership, especially since we’re talking digital stuff here.

Just like Ferrari, Lamborghini has now moved all the controls from the steering column to the steering wheel. The same can be said about the ANIMA driving mode selector, but we’ll talk more about this later in the review.

The steering column now only holds the gearshift paddles, so you’ll never end up putting on your wipers by mistake. By the way, the paddles are nothing short of brilliant metallic sculptures with excellent functionality. Still, turn signals are something that not even the supercar genre should dare touch. As you’re used to having them in the standard position, there can be times when it takes longer to react due to their “not-a-reflex” positioning.

My left knee is happy to report that the legroom issue of the Gallardo has been left behind. The interior could still use some extra space - then again, a quick glance on the spec sheet reveals the interior space boost couldn’t have been all that great when the wheelbase only gained 2.4 inches (60 mm).

The driving position is the usual ground-level-low and once you’re installed in the seat, you won’t believe your eyes. Compared to the Gallardo and the Aventador, there’s a serious improvement in terms of front and side visibility.

I couldn’t stress this enough at the moment, since I’ve just put the Huracan through the toughest practicality test without even planning to. I did nothing special in fact, rush hour traffic did all the work here. Inside the city, the Huracan proved surprisingly manageable for a Raging Bull.

The only gripe I had was with the engine lid. It’s such a pity that the glass engine cover is optional. The standard polymer unit not only deprives the world of admiring your V10 and deletes the carbon engine bay treatment, but also affects the rear visibility. While I can see what goes on behind me though the three horizontal blades, I would’ve preferred to go without them. Oh well, at least they’re a nod to the iconic Miura.

Parking a Lamborghini never used to be an easy task, but the Huracan changes all that. Aside from the front-rear sensors and the rear view camera, the credit goes to the Dynamic Steering. Once you reach parking speeds, you’ll be pleased by how easy things become. The electric steering can vary its ratio by almost 100 percent, so this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

This agility of the Huracan obviously serves you even better once out on the open road.

Sure, it hasn’t become a Porsche 911 Turbo all of a sudden (by far the most relaxed supercar we know), but the vehicle feels smaller in your hands. It only takes one serious maneuver to notice the accuracy of this Lamborghini.

There are two main reasons for the responsive handling of the Huracan. The hostilities are led by the new chassis, which is built around a carbon fiber central area. Basically, the rear third of the passenger cell, along with the center tunnel are made of carbon fiber. The rest of the chassis is aluminum, while the body panels are aluminum and composite. The result is a 10 percent weight loss compared to the Gallardo and a 50 percent increase in rigidity.

Yes, the Aventador has the whole passenger cell made of carbon, but there’s a $100 grand gap between the two cars.

Then there’s the magnetorheological suspension, which reacts as if the car had secretly established a Bluetooth connection to your brain.

While the Aventador is intimidating, driving the Huracan comes natural if you’ve been in a supercar before. Still, while Ferraris always like to remind you of their Grand Tourer side, the trademark Lamborghini effervescence is the feature that describes a drive in the Huracan. No rest for the wicked then.

Amusingly enough, this is a Lamborghini you can take to the limit with confidence. Once you start pushing really hard, you’ll notice a dose of understeer. This fades away once you advance through the three available driving modes, but even in “Corsa” (the wildest one), the Huracan stays neutral.

As with racecars, there are drivers who prefer a hyper-understeer setup and drivers whose cars spin if you turn the wheel more than 90 degrees, so there really isn’t any ideal setup. However, I would’ve expected Corsa land to bring the tail out under power, which didn’t happen.