Plunge the starter button of Huracán EVO and the fantasy bursts to life, no prayer to the Motoring Gods required. Huracán remains the most accessible and best point of entry for exotic car ownership. Unlike the exotica I drove as a young adult, which only honored the promise of design in brief periods of reliability, this diminutive sprinter delivers all the sensations and emotions of daydream desire—free of dread, fear and hassle, any time you want it.
EVO’s 640-horsepower Performante V10 is a musical instrument that with a rap or three of the throttle can soar from a deep baritone burble at 2000 to mid-range tenor and on to its mezzo-soprano shriek between 6000 and the 8000-rpm redline. Shift action of the dual-clutch gearbox is so precise and quick that one can compose a personal Sinfonia Esotica with engine and exhaust sounds. Torque peak of 442 lb. ft. is up fairly high at 6500 rpm, but when driven with style the engine is never without urge.
The original Huracán had 610 horsepower and could pass 60 mph in about 3.2 seconds. With Performante power and much more importantly five years of refinement to the scripting that controls gearbox, engine, all-wheel drive and traction control, EVO can do the business in under 3 seconds, time after time all the way to supper. To understand how far we have come, in the middle of the 1970s performance desert, a Countach could hit 60 mph in…6.8 seconds. Twenty-nine years ago I attended the original launch of the Diablo, driving across northern Italy to Lake Garda and back to Sant’Agata, and the factory claimed a 0-100 kph (62 mph) time of just a tick over 4 seconds. The performance renaissance that began in the late 1980s continues. Huracán’s sprinting never fails to impress.
Adoption of a central “super brain” ECU, dubbed Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata (LDVI), helps that performance, integrating the actions of formerly independent sensors, scripting and function in steering, engine, gearbox, all-wheel-drive, traction and stability control, enabling first-time buyers the ability to exploit the power and handling in relative ease. Cornering is improved by adoption of Lamborghini’s rear-wheel steering system first seen on the Aventador S, which sharpens response entering corners. It also facilitates graceful porte-cochère and downtown parking garage maneuvers working in tandem with sensors and cameras, Huracán ably executing tidy J-turns to rival a London cab.
EVO introduces a touchscreen in the center console waterfall, integrated well enough to almost look like part of the original interior concept. To anyone who has been in a VW Group luxury vehicle in the past few years—Lamborghini, Bugatti, Bentley, Porsche—the logic will prove familiar, though the graphic interface is uniquely Lamborghini. Touchscreens remain a double-edged sword, removing the clutter of many buttons and switches, but adding layers of menus and the juggling act of touch sensitivity. It’s a positive step, even for people like me who think control placement was perfected in the late 1940s and ‘50s. New owners should fire up the engine and invest an hour or more exploring the screen while idling in the drive—much to learn. The balance between shortcuts accomplished by touching the screen or a mechanical button is the challenge of call car companies.
It’s a Lamborghini, so there is sacrifice for the sake of physical presence, but it is not extreme like 30 and 40 years ago. For tall folks like me, a few attempts define best method of entry. Variations on the classic Steve McQueen Method studied by all male actors are entirely possible with a well-timed head feint. The door sill is low, the door itself a conventional design, so a well-executed tumble over the seat’s tall side bolsters does the job. Once you’re settled in, Huracán delivers comfort for a two-hour mountain Dawn Patrol, or a drive from Los Angeles to San Luis Obispo for a wine country weekend. For those of average height or less, the car is downright roomy. And pleasure drives are Huracán’s forte.
If you meet someone with a Huracán, don’t be shy. Ask for a ride, or at least to sit in the passenger seat while the engine war whoops to high revs. In my experience the folks who own these understand that the greatest pleasure is in sharing, letting others have a moment of fantasy fulfillment, taking a neighbor for a 10-minute ride they will never forget.
In the 1990s, the Alfa dealer in San Francisco horded many of the last cars in his stock, unwrapping a new one every few years so he could remain an Alfisti. One can argue that buying two Huracán EVOs and keeping one in an inflatable climate-controlled plastic bag for later enjoyment might not be a bad idea. If we are heading into a global transition to electric vehicles, and many of us have our doubts, imprinting the sounds of a naturally aspirated V10 to the mind seems imperative. Maybe Sinfonia Huracán should be the sound track of pure-electric hypercars. Huracán is everything Ferrucchio Lamborghini had ever hoped his cars would be more than a half-century ago. You can find YouTubers who have driven Huracáns every day, logging hundreds of thousands of miles through rain, sleet, and even snow.
“Come on, give me a fastie,” was the cry of my lovely little girl on the way to a Friday night supper at the golf club. Heavy foot applied for a brief moment in our two-minute drive, Huracán EVO jumped in first gear, bringing the most delightful yowls from both engine and child. Parked in a spot where stray balls rarely plonk parked cars, I gave the V10 a series of war whoops worthy of “Exotics on Cannery Row” during Monterey Car Week, which had the little person in smocked dress letting out one big guffaw after another. If an exotic car does not excite small children and teenagers, the designers and engineers have failed miserably. To a little girl with a precocious talent for watercolor, gouache and markers and a mind not yet polluted with corporate branding nonsense, a Huracán EVO in psychedelic Arancio Xanto is one of her wild paintings come to life. Her validation was emphatic: “Oh, daddy. It’s like riding a tiger.”
