► Off-road spec Lambo driven
► Most extreme Huracan ever
► Georg is behind the wheel
In the darkest corner of the Emilia Romagna, out of sight of Wolfburg’s prying eyes, Lamborghini chief designer Mitja Borkert and senior engineer Rouven Mohr created a secret project that became the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato.
Based on the Huracan coupe, the most extreme concept prepared in the Sant’Agata skunkworks since the single-seater Egoista taps the bloodline of the VW Group’s great off-road supercars – the Dakar rally-winning Porsche 959 and Group B conquering Audi Quattro.
CAR magazine first encountered the Sterrato in 2019 when Georg Kacher drove the concept off-road and on circuit. No doubt encouraged by the success of the Porsche 911 Dakar, Lamborghini greenlit a production version, of which 1,499 were built between 2023 and 2024. We met it again in 2025 when Graham King had the opportunity to drive the production version on road, courtesy of supercar club Auto Vivendi.
At a glance
Pros: Looks amazing; raised suspension improves comfort without ruining handling; that engine
Cons: Costs much more than regular Huracan; luggage goes on the roof; it’s car spotter bait
What’s new?
Hot Wheels meets Tonka Toys meets Transfomers is what comes to mind when you first see this caricature of the Huracan. The Sterrato looks and feels like a Huracan that has been gene-manipulated in the base camp of the rallycross federation.
Tough black extensions with obligatory exposed bolt heads clad the wheelarches, spotlights are integrated into the front facia, and there’s extra underbody protection. The suspension is raised 43mm all round, and the track widened 25mm. That appreciably increases wheel travel and improves the approach and departure angles for off-road use.
The tread on the bespoke, softer sidewall Bridgestone tyres looks like it’s tuned two-thirds for the race track and one third for the Mount Everest car park. Inside, the hip multi-material bucket seats look as if they were made in an Addidas factory. And there’s a Rally mode for off-road antics.
What are the specs?
To compensate for its weight, drag and suspension set-up handicaps, the Sterrato is fitted with the 640bhp V10 no-holds-barred Huracan Performante powertrain. The normally-aspirated 5.2-litre engine works all four wheels through a quick-shifting seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.
The mighty direct-injection motor needs 6500rpm to tick off 600Nm of maximum torque. The peak performance of 640bhp equals 8000rpm, the rev limiter is set at 8500rpm. 0-62mph is dashed off in 3.4 seconds, while top speed is limited by the tyres to 162mph.
We do two laps in Corsa, then ESP comes off by order of the lead car, and sure enough from one instant to the next we’re catching insects with the Sterrato’s side windows as the driver’s heartbeat quickens and the intercom squawks avanti!, forza!, bravissimo!
This is hard work. Over the brows, the special BBS alloys shod with hand-baked 225/45ZR20 front and 30/45ZR20 rear tyres stretch the springs until the aluminium monocoque hurts. Through the dips, the softer dampers and cushier tyres extend the compression effect all the way to the pit of your stomach. When the radius tightens, blossoming lift-off oversteer can be coaxed into creamy slides.
Drifting this wild thing in fourth gear at 75mph certainly fixed another medal to the brimming clipboard inside my head. The adrenaline floodgates would open regularly on the approach to a roller-coaster off-camber uphill corner and towards the end of the fastest right-hander where it’s all too easy to run out of road, ability or courage.
On the circuit, the most radical Lamborghini since the 2013 Veneo does not handle and perform on quite the same level as its positively ground-hugging stablemates. Although the transmission wastes no time in selecting ratios in Corsa mode, manually overriding the black box is even more rewarding since it keeps up the flow by avoiding redundant downshifts. Third is a great all-purpose weapon, fourth is the gear of choice for the two double-apex corners and fifth is a test for high-speed cornering grip.
The fifth-generation Haldex four-wheel drive system has been carefully recalibrated for the Sterrato. On solid ground, it channels only slightly more torque to the rear wheels, but when it comes to pulling the car presto out of a second-gear kink, the front wheels are for three or four car lengths assigned a larger chunk of the traction work.
This explains why the fun-friendly Sterrato is tail-happier on track than the Performante yet every bit as competent as the Urus on sand and gravel. Having said that, the different tyre compound and more compliant suspension set-up add a yard or two to the stopping distance. As a compensating measure which also helped to keep understeer at bay, the mechanics reduced tyre pressures by 0.2bar during the first three pit stops.
On the loose stuff, power-on equals snap-oversteer, one quick zig-zag pendulum manoeuvre sets the car up before it enters the bend. Storming out of one radius and roaring towards the next shifts the momentum briefly but reliably to the front wheels – fantastic! Except that it takes a lot of confidence (or the encouragement of a seasoned co-driver) to keep the foot planted for that vital rear-to-front torque transfer which makes all the difference.
It’s goose pimple stuff on lap two, makes you feel like a hero on lap three, chips a morsel off the left rear wheel spat on lap four, becomes totally addictive from lap five onwards.
On the road, that intensity translates to… a surprisingly high level of comfort. That raised, softer suspension and increased wheel travel smooth out urban speed bumps and country potholes to an extent no other supercar can. Add in an equally surprisingly high level of refinement and there should be no qualms about going the extremely long way round in the Sterrato.
The extra squidge does mean the Sterrato’s responses aren’t quite as alert as other Huracans’, but you have to be going inadvisably fast to notice on the public road. Regardless, this a stellar point-to-pointer, propelled one of the truly great – perhaps the last truly great – nat-asp engines. Aside from outright power there’s huge flexibility, little more than a tickle of the throttle getting it surging forward.
What’s the interior like?
Much like it is in any other latter-day Huracan. The smartphone alike touchscreen infotainment system looks good but isn’t the easiest to use, the toggle switches and red flap concealing the start button give fighter yet vibes. The seats are brilliantly comfortable, the fabric door pulls are cliché, but dammit they’re still cool.
And it’s surprisingly spacious – at least if you’re not especially tall. Everything’s close but it’s not cramped, the cab-forward layout creates good visibility. Only downside is there’s nowhere to put anything. A couple of carry-on bags fit under the bonnet, anything else will have to go in a roof box. Which fits nicely with the Sterrato’s ethos.
Before you buy
Of course, the Sterrato is no longer available to buy new – all 1499 examples were snapped up instantly, anyway. Just 99 came to the UK so it’s a rare car here, but around 10% of them are currently on the market. Some are up for overs, some not – prices seem to largely depend on just how nuts the original owner went speccing options.
Notably, the Porsche 911 Dakar is priced at about the same level. Though Dakar and Sterrato are very similar in ethos, they’re entirely different in execution. Is anyone going to be cross shopping them?
Verdict: Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato
After driving it, they had to remove me from the hot seat with a blowtorch. The Sterrato is an intoxicatingly hilarious animal. It shaves third-gear brows like a buzzard on the final approach to its prey, it dives into dips like an angry rhino chasing the most hated gamekeeper, it corners with the frolic empathy of an antelope in the wake of early morning intercourse.
It is even more playful than its brethren, yet its greater compliance makes it more usable every day. Am I getting carried away by the child inside? Perhaps so. But the Sterrato hits the bullseye in more ways than one.
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