Lamborghini whips up the ultimate Huracán.
Racing, it seems, has gotten deeply into Lamborghini’s blood. It wasn’t always there. Indeed, the founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, was content to let Ferrari contest the world’s great races while he focused on building fast, luxurious GTs for the road. But power and speed have a way of appealing to drivers who also enjoy racing, whether as a participant or spectator.
Image Source: Lamborghini Huracán Performantee (Automobili Lamborghini)
And so today we have the Lamborghini Super Trofeo and the GT Customer Racing programs, the former a single-model series and the latter on the wider GT stage with other top marques. In both cases, the racecar is based on the Huracán. The only thing missing was a road car to link to the racing. Lamborghini just filled that niche with the new Huracán Performante.
Image Source: Lamborghini Huracán Performantee (Automobili Lamborghini)
Nürburgring Record Breaker
You can take any Lamborghini Huracán to the track and have a blast. But with the Huracán Performante, you can have one that’s already set the Nürburgring track record for a production car at 6:52:01. That means it took down the previous record holder, the Porsche 918 Spyder by about five seconds. The gauntlet has been thrown down, and now the $274,390 price tag for the Huracán Performante looks even more enticing.
Formula for Speed
To build the Huracán Performante, Lamborghini essentially followed a similar formula as Ferrari and Porsche apply when turning a road model into a near-race car: subtract weight, add power, tweak the chassis and apply track-tuned aerodynamics.
Image Source: Lamborghini Huracán Performantee (Automobili Lamborghini)
The all-wheel drive Huracán Performante is built around an aluminum-and-carbon-fiber spaceframe chassis. The body panels are made from aluminum and Forged Composite, the trademarked for Lamborghini’s own carbon-fiber technology. The end result, according to Lamborghini, is a car that weighs a mere 3,047 pounds. That is on par with a Porsche Cayman and quite remarkable considering the Lambo carries the weight of all-wheel drive. Weight distribution is 43:57.
Image Source: Lamborghini Huracán Performantee (Automobili Lamborghini)
What Makes It Go
Lamborghini tweaked the intake and exhaust systems of the naturally aspirated 5.2-liter V-10 to release another 29 ponies, giving the Huracán Performante 631 horsepower (at 8,000 rpm). Torque is now 443 lb-ft versus 413 for the standard model. Tweaks to the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission handle the added torque.
Lamborghini says the Performante will blast from zero to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds. (But consider that Car & Driver has already coaxed a standard Huracán to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds.) Top track speed should exceed 202 mph, sounding vicious all the way.
Lamborghini Huracán Performante: Track-Ready
Lamborghini stiffened the Huracán Performante’s suspension by 10 percent, but a more drastic chassis makeover was not necessary. The electronically controlled four-wheel drive works with a limited-slip rear differential to make sure the torque goes where it needs to. The three selectable chassis modes — Strada, Sport, and Corsa – carry over from the standard AWD model. Use Corsa, of course, for track driving. “Sport” is more of a “drift” mode.
Image Source: Lamborghini Huracán Performantee (Automobili Lamborghini)
The Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires are unique versions for this model, installed on 20-inch forged aluminum wheels. If your priority is track driving, opt for the available center-lock wheels with Pirelli Trofeo R tires. Carbon-ceramic brakes are standard, though Adaptive magnetorheological shocks and variable-ratio steering are also optional.
Image Source: Lamborghini Huracán Performantee (Automobili Lamborghini)
Wind Cheater
The aero parts you see on the Lamborghini Huracán Performante are not there for show. Various electrically controlled flaps and splitters, all parts of the Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva (ALA) system, manipulate the airflow to increase downforce by as much as a claimed 750 percent over the standard model. That big rear wing uses “aero vectoring,” increasing the downforce on the inside rear wheel through corners.
A special display in the instrument panel shows the ALA in action. The cabin is covered in Lamborghini’s Forged Composite and Alcantara, and the seats use carbon fiber shells for low eight. This is, after all, not a lusso model.
Written by Jim Koscs, Audamotive Communications
For Premier Financial Services