► Our Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica review
► Is this the best Huracan yet built?
► Mark Walton reckons it’s peak V10
To be honest, I’ve never been much of a Lamborghini man – which is weird. I had a Countach poster on my bedroom wall as a kid and as a road tester I’ve enjoyed some stellar drives in Murcielagos, Huracans and Aventadors. But I’ve never actually wanted to own one. It’s pure fantasy anyway – I could barely afford a bull-branded umbrella – but in my head I’ve never seen myself as a Lambo owner. Maybe they’re a bit too bling; maybe (in the past, at least) a bit crude.
But everything’s changed now: this Lamborghini I really want. I want to own a Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica, I want to look at it every morning, I want to drive it every day and I want the engine noise as my mobile ringtone. And this isn’t down to the excitement of some sparkly next-generation launch – this is a late-cycle derivative of a model that’s been around for almost a decade.
Launched in 2014, the Huracan got its Evo facelift in 2019 and only has a couple of years of production left before retirement. But the new Tecnica is simply the finest Huracan yet, combining the best of the rear-drive Evo with the race-inspired Huracan STO to slot into the middle of the range. Redesigned and re-engineered, the result is absolute magic.
What’s new on the 2022 Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica?
Visually, the Huracan has aged incredibly well: it’s still muscular and poised, the intersection between the roofline and the glasshouse full of energy and tension. On this strong foundation Mitja Borkert and his design team have updated it brilliantly. The nose now features the Y-shaped detail first seen on the 2017 Terzo Millennio concept car, and redesigned air intakes that improve front brake cooling. The rear has a new vertical window, a new bumper and diffuser, and hexagonal exhaust pipes.
Much more subtle are the details, like a new black area around the base of the windscreen, giving the Tecnica a more nose-down concept-car look; and the design team also took some volume out of the rear haunches. Sitting on new 20-inch diamond-cut wheels, it looks sensational and would be an outrageous head-turner if it was launched new today.
And the redesign isn’t just about styling: as a half-way house to the STO, the Tecnica also has lightweight parts, in the form of carbon bonnet and engine cover, and a new rear wing that helps increase rear downforce by 35 per cent over the Evo RWD. Drag is also reduced by 20 per cent.
Under that carbon engine cover is the heart of the car, the same 5.2-litre V10 you’ll find in the STO, putting out 631bhp and driving the rear wheels through a seven- speed paddleshift. Lamborghini claims a top speed of 201mph and a 0-62mph time of 3.2 seconds, a tiny sliver quicker than the standard Evo RWD; but raw figures aren’t the point here, it’s the way the car feels.
Interior: where the action happens
Climb inside and you’ll find a slightly revised interior including optional STO-style carbon door panels and improved tech, with Alexa and What3Words mapping now built in. Lamborghini is also keen to stress how connected the car is, the app now offering telemetry and video via an onboard camera and a digital diary of destinations and track times.
But frankly you won’t care about any of that: you’ll just notice the hip-hugging sports seats, the shapely steering wheel jutting out at you, and a cabin that feels extremely raked back and racy. There’s no doubting you’re in a Gandini-inspired Italian wedge.
On the steering wheel there’s a red button offering three driving modes: Strada, Sport and Corsa. Setting off in Strada the Tecnica is reassuringly docile and smooth. It’s surprisingly quiet and the auto gearshifts are seamless. The ride is firm but not crashy and through the first couple of roundabouts the Evo-derived four-wheel steering and the quick electro-mechanical steering rack make the car feel alert and intuitively easy to place on the road.
Then we turn off the motorway and into the hills above Valencia, switch to Sport mode and holy cow, the car comes alive.
Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica review: what’s it like to drive on the limit?
The noise – oh my God the noise. I’m sure this latest iteration of the Audi-Lamborghini V10 is very high-tech and very clever, but it feels wonderfully characterful and old-school, a hammering, howling, naturally aspirated force of nature.
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Driving with the ’box in manual mode and keeping the revs above 4500rpm on the tight and twisty mountain road, the throttle response is instant, releasing a savage, gargling baritone of engine noise into the cabin. It’s a 1970s supercar sound with a hint of 1950s Le Mans car, fast-forwarded with a dash of unstoppable runaway freight train.
If this sounds scary, it’s really not. Under the surface there’s a ton of software working hard: the chassis is being controlled by the Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata (LDVI) system, there’s torque vectoring and a Tecnica-specific Performance Traction Control System (P-TCS). But it doesn’t feel synthetic, like you’re in some PlayStation game; instead, the interventions are subtle and the physical controls – the pedals, the steering – all feel beautifully measured and linear, and the car’s movements are predictable and natural.
Verdict
It’s a car you can drive really, really hard and fast. With traction control off, as you approach the limit of grip when accelerating hard out of corners, the Tecnica is happy to blur the edges for you, softening the transition from grip to slide. It does what the best Ferraris do: it takes a spiky-looking projectile with over 600bhp and offers it to you in a friendly, approachable way. The car says, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t bite.’ And you say, ‘Yes please, I’ll take it all.’
And I did, driving it like a nutter for almost three hours through the Spanish hills, and for that whole time I focused completely on the tactile steering feedback, the dependable front-end bite, the gutsy, confidence-inspiring brakes and, of course, that thundering horsepower avalanche of a V10.
The time flew, and I returned the car in a bit of daze, grinning from ear to ear and slightly deaf; and wishing – oh wishing! – I had £212,000 so I could buy one for myself. Now I’ve driven the Tecnica, a poster on the wall just isn’t going to cut it any more.
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