Anyway, everything looks different, the
gearbox feels different and the ride is instantly and tangibly more supple.
However, there’s some Gallardo DNA fighting to get out. The driving position
feels familiar behind that huge rake of windscreen, the optional carbon fibre
sports seats feel too big and a bit uncomfortable (Lambo just cannot get seats
right) and the noise is hard and ugly and beautiful. The Huracán hits hard too,
leaping forward with a lightweight’s agility and the suffocating squeeze of a
heavyweight. That V10 is some engine, same as it ever was… only more so. The
doubts and the niggles begin to evaporate.
Power
for the Huracán comes from a 5.2-litre V10 engine
Turn One is a downhill left, the apex
falling away dramatically and the sense of familiarity going with it. It’s the
Dynamic Steering, a variable-ratio system that uses a motor attached to the
steering column to alter the steering ratio by almost 100 per cent, from 9:1 to
17:1, depending on speed, steering angle, wheel speed and a host of other
factors measured by the LPI system. It can even deliver ‘counter steering
impulses’ at the limit. The idea is for a super-direct rack at low speeds and a
much more deliberate rate at high speeds for stability. The reality is that the
steering feels hyper-jumpy for that first downhill left and then changes at
every corner for the entire lap. To be fair, Lamborghini has done a very good
job tuning Dynamic Steering and it’s way less offensive than the same system in
fast Audis, but it’s unnecessary and puts a layer between you and the surface.
Just say no.
Aircraft-inspired
switchgear still looks great inside
The first laps aren’t exactly banzai but
they are revealing. The good stuff is very good: the creamy savagery of the
engine, the sweet precision of the gearbox and the fact that Lamborghini has
finally nailed ceramic brake feel and response. There are some pretty big
caveats, though. Grip is strong but it’s the front that lets go first and the
understeer is quite determined. Under braking the Huracán feels fairly heavy
and the rear jinks around like an R8’s.With the ANIMA in Sport the car should
be at its most entertaining as it sends less torque to the front wheels than in
the lap time-optimised Corsa mode, but the gearbox will snap in an upshift
rather than run into the limiter, which erodes your control and confidence when
the rear does start to move around.
The
Huracan’s rear end is plenty dramatic thanks to ginormous exhaust tips
Things improve with familiarity and when
the Aventador upfront gets a move on. Suddenly the understeer doesn’t seem
overwhelming, the car adjusting its balance accurately if you snap the throttle
shut on corner entry, the rear edging wide on corner exit when all 602bhp is
ripping into the track…The Huracán starts to give me some options. The last
session is a proper heart-thumper, the car floating through the corners, the
four-wheel-drive system obviously shuffling the torque around and settling the
car into neutral four-wheel drifts. It feels terrific and I suspect on the
optional P Zero Corsa tyres it would up its game still further. I could stay
here all day, but the road is calling.
There’s a lovely stretch of tarmac near
Ascari that zigs and zags through trees and rock faces, edged by little pools
of dusty rock fall, sometimes heaving and then falling rapidly downhill, framed
by bright silver Armco. It’s a little too narrow to be a true supercar road,
but it’s a real challenge and the only other cars we see on it today are an
orange Huracán and a wrung-out hire car rattling with camera gear, just like
Sam and Dean’s deathly Zafira. Perfect.
