The Huracán LP610-4 comes with a host
of new tech and the promise of being easier to drive than its predecessor, the
Gallardo. But does that mean some of the old, wild Lamborghini magic has been
lost?
At no point in the next few minutes will
you feel sorry for me. Even so, I’d like to give you an insight into the
Lamborghini Huracán launch. It starts at 7.45am with a coach trip from Marbella
up to the Ascari Race Resort, followed by a press conference and a series of
four-lap track sessions in four car groups behind an Aventador until 1pm.The
cars used on track will then be prepped for the road drive (new tyres, fuel, a
spit-and-polish), which is scheduled to begin at 2pm and finish around 4pm back
at the hotel in Marbella.
The
Huracán is the successor to the Lamborghini Gallardo
Lamborghini has laid on several
photographers and there is already a big archive of images to choose from.
However, this is a Very Important Car, so we want our own photographs and our
own video. Photographer Dean Smith and film-maker Sam Riley have therefore
flown out separately, and after blowing up one hire car will wait impatiently
in the slowest Opel Zafira in the western world for 2pm to roll around. Our
mission? Three options for the cover, eight pages in the magazine and a video.
In two hours. To say it will be an intense afternoon is something of an
understatement, and although we will get back to Marbella heroically late (just
before 10pm, since you ask), the point is that coming to a meaningful
conclusion about any car when you’re in a constant state of panic and frenzied
activity is very tricky indeed. Especially when it is a car as complex as the
Huracán.
The
interior designers have created a luxurious, spacious cabin that dresses
advanced acoustic and electronic technologies
It’s worth reiterating just how important
the Huracán is to Lamborghini, too. Not just important, vital. It replaces the
Gallardo, which was launched in 2003 and found 14,022 buyers. Consider that
only around 30,000 Lamborghinis have ever been produced and you start to
understand just what the Huracán represents. To heap yet more pressure on the
new car, the model it replaces is still a mighty machine. At the other end of
the Gallardo scale, my last and lasting memory of the old stager is of a basic
LP550-2 with a manual gearbox. It was simply breathtaking. Big boots and all
that.
Shielded
switchgear adds to the sense of occasion
Emerging from the coach, blinking into the
sunshine to find a V-formation of bright white Huracáns is a pretty good way to
start the day. However, it’s hard not to think that maybe the designers have
capitulated in the face of the enormous task they were handed. The Huracán is a
fine-looking car, certainly, but it’s not a revolution and neither is it
possessed of the same fierce brutality that seemed to sweat from every blunt
line of the Gallardo. In the press conference the message is one of useability
and accessibility, of a car that is easy to drive and flatters the
inexperienced… Say what? I’m not suggesting that a Lamborghini should be an
evil-handling monster, but it needs edge and attitude. I hope it’s under there
somewhere.
