There’s a hurricane a-comin’. Only this one is blowing all the way from Italy and packing over 600 horsepower. It’s Lamborghini’s brand new
Huracán LP 610-4 supercar.
This is the hugely-anticipated successor to the Gallardo, Lamborghini’s most successful model ever. How anticipated? Since its unveiling at this month’s Geneva auto show, a reported 1,000-plus orders have been placed.
No wonder, the thing is gorgeous. While its styling is definitely an evolution of the Gallardo’s hip-high, door-wedge design, some of the detailing is just breathtaking. The body sculpting, especially around the rear fenders for example, is enough to cause grown men to weep.
The car is based on a heavily-revised version of the Gallardo’s all-wheel drive platform. Where it breaks new ground is in the way it incorporates both carbon fiber and aluminum in its construction. Word is that the platform will be shared with Audi’s next-generation R8 supercar.
Talking of all-wheel drive, this new Huracán features a new electronically-controlled set-up that’s able to direct all 100 per cent of the muscle to the rear wheels. Normally, the torque is split 70 per cent rear, 30 per cent front. But when conditions allow – like when you’ve just signed up for a drift class – it can morph into a true rear-driver.
Providing the power is a modified version of the Gallardo’s 5.2-liter V-10. It cranks out a mighty 601 horsepower at a screaming 8,750 rpm, which is enough to rocket the car from zero to 60mph in around three seconds and on to a top speed of more than 200mph.
And to haul it to a stop, the Huracán features brakes from hell, with huge carbon ceramic rotors – 15 inchers up front, 14s at the rear – clamped by six-piston calipers. Lamborghini engineers talk of 62 mph-to-zero braking in just over 100 feet.
Alas, what you won’t find in this new Lamborghini is a manual transmission. There’s not one even on the options list. Instead there’s a new seven-speed dual-clutch automatic that delivers light-switch-fast shifts. Why no stick? Seems Gallardo owners stopped asking for one.
Right now, the plan is for the first cars to be delivered here in the States around June-time with prices starting at $270,000. That’s a whopping $62,000 more than the outgoing Gallardo.
As for that Huracán name, while it does translate to ‘Hurricane’ in Spanish, it’s also the name of a famous Spanish bull from 1879. So think of the Huracán as yet another raging bull from Lamborghini.
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