First Drive: Lamborghini Huracán

The Lamborghini Huracan's simple but elegant shape masks a lightweight chassis: performance is jaw-dropping

THIS is the super-fast, ultra-exciting Gallardo’s even faster and more exciting replacement, so everything from the engine internals to the processes used to manufacture the wheels is different – and better.

At its heart is a more powerful V10 engine with 602bhp, and that’s rather a lot. Under the skin, a complex new hybrid carbon and aluminium chassis helps keep weight down as well as strength up. It’s a serious performance machine with all the muscle you’d ever want. Feed it spinach and you’d probably see its biceps inflate.

Normally a Lamborghini is just an exercise in appealing to grown men’s inner child, but this one has a structural elegance in the single-volume shape that belies its baffling performance, and the more you look at it the clearer you see the wow factor and the reserved balance.

As for the image, nothing but a Lamborghini fires jaws floorward in such spectacularly effective fashion. Imagine it scything through an expanse of grey motorway rep-mobiles and you get the picture.

There’s space for four adults to stretch out, and you get a really big boot, too. Actually, those were lies. You get just the two seats, albeit with a decent range of fore and aft adjustment, and then a diddy little storage bay under the bonnet. Think of it less as a boot, more like a pocket.

But to start with, relax, dial back the Anima (Italian for “soul”) driving-mode selector to the Strada (street) mode and it’s as civilised as a dinner with Belgians.

Click down to Sport and then Corsa, if you dare, and in two steps the full fury of the razor-sharp V10 thunders onto the asphalt like a Tasmanian devil with a grudge. Only Corsa mode allows you to hit the rev limiter, and it also allows a little more chassis movement – although the massive mechanical grip on offer means you’ve got to be bonkers to get to that stage.

Fortunately, with a small race track nearby, you can drive the Huracán right up to its limits and beyond, savouring an epic exhaust soundtrack that’s youthful, multi-layered and addictively sonorous.  Tunnels will become a road trip essential.

Worth noting is the new dual-clutch gearbox. If dual clutch sounds boring, try saying it in Italian: doppia frizione. Doppy-ah fritzi-oh-nay. Beautiful. Anyway, it’s a faster, smoother and more energising way to smash between the gears than any Lambo has ever known.

Sadly, this bundle of wonderment doesn’t come cheap. It’s a bargain next to Lamborghini’s own Aventador, but if your planned budget extends to posh Golfs you’d better forget about it. It offers a lot of raw excitement and adrenaline for your dosh, but you can also comfortably do the daily driving thing if you’re just awesome like that.

This will be right up the street of a well-off car nut who’s more interested in fun than stats, lap times or engineering. The Huracán delivers all these, but at its core it’s uncomplicated and needs no explaining, unlike some of its rivals. Someone notable once said that simplicity was beauty, and they would clearly have liked this car.

VITAL STATS

Car Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4

Price £180,720

Engine 5.2l V10 petrol, 602bhp and 412 lb ft

Performance Max speed over 202mph, 0-62mph in 3.2s

Economy 22.6mpg combined

CO2 emissions 290g/km