► Last goodbye to V10 supercar
► Still sensational all these years later
► Huracan’s V8 replacement due soon
‘Mate, why are you taking photos of your own car?’ someone yells at me at the petrol station from their clapped-out van as I get a quick iPhone snap of the Huracan at Shell.
‘Oh it’s not mine’ is my polite response, but really I want to shout ‘Because it’s a bright purple Lamborghini, how can you not?’ The Huracan might be the ‘baby’ Lamborghini supercar but with the attention this example attracts, you’d think it was its flagship hypercar.
You see kids turning around in the back seats of cars to have a look, get thumbs up from lorry drivers and people stop to let you overtake just so they can have a better glimpse, or more likely hear the V10 bellow at full volume.
This attention is unsurprisingly helped by this Huracan being painted in the same iconic ‘Viola’ colour as the 1993 Diablo SE30 that marked Lamborghini’s 30th birthday – synonymous with Jamiroquai’s ‘Cosmic Girl’ music video. There’s a matching pink/purple interior on this car, too. It’s everything that this Sant’Agata is known for: flamboyance, excess and sheer noise.
The Huracan was originally conceived as a slightly softer-edged, more refined Lamborghini – at least compared to what came before it – but as each year went on, the extravagance built.
Revealed in December 2013 as the Gallardo replacement in coupe form, a Spyder convertible followed in 2015, along with rear-wheel-drive versions. Things started to get Lambo Silly again with the 2017 Performante which was all a bit Mansory with its carbon fibre. It went up a notch again with the 2020 Huracan STO, essentially a road-legal Super Trofeo race car. The crowning glory was the 2022 Sterrato – a rally-spec supercar fit for off-roading.
But probably ‘peak’ Huracan is this Huracan Evo Spyder. Introduced in 2019 at the last ‘proper’ Geneva Motor Show, the Evo was the first real facelift. It took the uprated V10 engine from the Performante and got a new Titanium exhaust system, rear-wheel steering and usual nip-and-tuck updates.
This particular Huracan is one of the very last to be produced and had only arrived from Sant’Agata a day earlier when I collected it with just 30 miles on the clock. My job, if you can call it that? Run it in ahead of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.
But this isn’t about merely clocking up a few miles to do Lamborghini a favour, but rather a final celebration of the Huracan’s 5.2-litre V10 naturally-aspirated engine. There’s no way of escaping that this is the star of the show and the last of a dying breed.
Along with the Audi R8 it loosely shares its engine with, the Huracan bows out imminently to make way for its hybrid V8 replacement, rumoured to be called the Temerario, set to be revealed at August’s glamorous Pebble Beach Concours.
If you’re buying a V10, a convertible seems the best option to let you fully hear its scream at full chat. I’d place it very high up my list of best-sounding cars ever. It’s surprisingly quiet until you hit 4,500rpm when the titanium valves in the exhaust open up and goes from manageable to unruly, like a toddler that’s got their hands on a full-fat can of coke.
It’s addictive, you drive around antisocially in as low a gear as possible just to hear it scream and go in search of any tunnel or tree-lined road to amplify the noise. But it’s not just the noise but the performance – in a word, savage. The Evo’s 631bhp and 442lb ft of torque are the joint most of any Huracan – 0-62mph is dispatched in just 3.1 seconds (two-tenths of a second down on the coupe) and the top speed just breaks clear of the 200mph barrier.
Acceleration feels quicker still than those figures would suggest, likely amplified by the audible soundtrack. How it passes modern noise regulations I do not know – or want to know, just that it does.
But 400 miles in 24 hours in the Huracan is a reminder this supercar is far from a one-trick pony, but a perfectly usable everyday steed. As if we didn’t know this already, CAR’s group digital editorial director Tim Pollard lived with one for four months.
That all-wheel steering means the Huracan is no harder to manoeuvre than a run-of-the-mill hatchback (or should we say crossover now?), visibility isn’t terrible and the ride isn’t bad at all. It’s a far cry from the barge-like feel of Aventadors and Murcielagos of yesteryear.
Switch the driving modes by a button at the bottom of the steering wheel – Strada, Sport and Corsa. The middle is my favourite – it dials back the traction so you can feel the rear moving but it’s always controlled, with the Huracan’s excellent all-wheel-drive giving you the confidence to keep safely pushing to the limits.
Special shoutout to the wonderful seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, or the brilliantly Italian Lamborghini Doppia Frizione (LDF) as its maker prefers it to be known. I can’t remember the last time I drove a car which shifted gears as quick, and the huge, excessive aluminium paddles are an absolute joy to fiddle with.
Downsides of the Huracan Spyder? There are a few. The seating position won’t go anywhere as low or far back as I would prefer, giving you the feeling you’re sitting in the car rather than being a part of it. It won’t suit taller drivers at all and is a curse of Lamborghini having to fit an electric-folding roof somewhere.
The touchscreen is also poor by modern standards and practically invisible with the glare of the sun when the roof is down. Navigating menus is more of a lucky dip, and despite it purportedly having CarPlay, for love or money it wouldn’t connect. But none of this matters when that V10 roars into life. It’s amazing what having a good engine can get away with…
The stratospheric popularity of the Urus SUV almost belittles the success of the Huracan for Lamborghini, but no supercar has ever sold so well. More than 26,000 have been produced in its 10-year production run, doubling that of the Gallardo, which lasted for a similar amount of time.
Replacing the V10 will always be a challenge, but though down on two cylinders, Lamborghini has already confirmed that the Huracan’s replacement will have a high-revving V8 with a redline peaking at 10,000rpm. If that delivers, and as long as there’s still lots of noise, theatre and wild styling, there’s plenty to look forward to from Lamborghini’s ‘baby’ supercar. All eyes on Pebble Beach.