Late last year we brought you the Spy shots of the Huracan Superleggera and it turns out we were wrong. Lamborghini have not sent the Huracan down the same road as the Gallardo and instead called its track focused Huracan the Performante. We say that like the original Huracan was built to go down the shops but the new Peformante did just break the World Record at the Nurburgring so you get our point. Revealed today at the Geneva Motor Show this is the Lamborghini Huracan Performante.
We predicted when we brought you the spy shots in October that the Geneva Motor Show was Lamborghini’s likely target and they didn’t disappoint. What we didn’t predict was the hard driving we showed you in October was actually Lamborghini going for a lap record. A 6.52 Second Nurburgring Lap record in fact. Displacing the mighty Porsche 918 Spyder by more than 5 seconds. Quite frankly we did not think it possible.
Sure the Performante has all the hallmarks of a blisteringly quick car – 5.2 Litre V10 with 631HP, pushing occupants past the 200MPH mark at 202+MPH and Aero from Becker Carbon who supply F1 all make for good reading however the Huracan has always looked like it needed a session in the Gym. Whilst its no G Wagon the center of gravity always seemed too high for a car capable of top times. It hardly sits squat like a Radical. Still looks can be deceiving and the stop clock does not lie – The Performante has a party trick..
Its Nurburgring success is being pointed firmly at Aero. Just like F1 the power of air and how you utilise it to stick a car to the ground makes all the difference. Lamborghini are calling it ALA – ‘Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva’ – roughly translated it means – ‘Drive upside down in a tunnel we dare you’. Without boring you to much with Yaw and G force what the system does is channel air through complex carbon airboxes throughout the car dependent on whether the car is braking, turning or accelerating. The system is clever enough to distribute the air to where the system detects its needed. Say opening the air boxes to create flow to the rear wing through hard cornering or close them to to keep the air over the front during heavy braking. Active Aero is nothing new in 2017 however perhaps the technology behind it has been nailed by Lamborghini. You can’t disagree that they are doing something right.
Bringing it back to relative basics you also can’t disagree that its a great looking car. As we said earlier the Huracan always did look like it needed a diet. Lamborghini have given it one with a 40KG weight drop over the standard Huracan to 1,382KG. The exposed gloss Carbon on the exterior and the Tricolore on the door add touches that get it close to its GT3 race car brother.
Stephano Domenicali, former head of the Ferrari F1 team and now CEO at Lamborghini said this..
“This new car represents the powerhouse of Lamborghini DNA and innovation. It illustrates the pinnacle of Lamborghini V10 production car performance to date, on both track and road, and is perfectly exemplified by its name: Lamborghini Huracan Performante”
It is all very positive, so just how much does it cost for a car able to displace the awesome million dollar Porsche 918? Well its cheap, relatively speaking, just £173,000 / $210,000 before taxes. 10k more than the Hurcan Spyder but 800k less than the now ‘slow’ Porsche 918 Spyder. A bargain then? again, you can’t disagree on that point either.