Aesthetics, sound, driving experience, engine, all-wheel drive
Not as quick as Ferrari and McLaren rivals
The Performante is the Huracán Lamborghini always wanted to build. Sharp, focused, extrovert and technically intriguing, it’s a welcome return to form for the former tractor makers. Here, at last, is a genuine rival to the Ferrari 488 GTB and the new McLaren 720S.
I've been invited to Transylvania to drive the Performante in tandem with the rest of the Huracán range – two-wheel drive, all-wheel drive, coupe and roadster - to traverse the Transfagarasan Highway, an extraordinary, 56-mile-long mountain pass commissioned by Romanian Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu back in the 1970s.
Posed on the mountain side, the Performante is a bold statement of capitalist excess. The wedge shape dates back to the Marcello Gandini-designed Countach of 1974, but the rear also hints at the iconic Miura of the 1960s. On the Performante, the wedge is adorned by a giant rear wing, aerodynamically balanced by a prominent chin spoiler (more of which later). At a time when most manufacturers – notably McLaren and Aston Martin – are going to great lengths to manage 200mph+ top speeds without the need for bolt-on bits, it could be described as anachronistic, but here it somehow suits the Lamborghini’s character.
The new bits are made using Lamborghini’s Forged Composite construction technique, which combines chopped carbon fibres in a resin. The company claims this permits the creation of complex geometrical shapes beyond the scope of traditional carbon fibre construction, without compromising the structural integrity. Forged Composite is also used for the engine cover and rear diffuser, contributing to a weight reduction of 40kg versus a standard Huracán.
It also has an unusual aesthetic, like an exotic form of chipboard, which in a sense, it is. This is particularly prevalent inside, where it’s used in its naked form to construct the centre console. The cabin looks like it was designed to make customers feel like they’re getting value for money. It’s a montage of geometrical shapes – even the air vents are hexagonal - and to start the car you have to lift a fighter-aircraft style catch before pressing a button. It’s not to all tastes, and it might not age well, but at least it’s different and helps reaffirm Lamborghini as the more extrovert supercar choice.
This reputation is also underlined by the engine. The 5.2-litre V10 can also be found in sister company Audi’s R8, as well as lesser Huracán’s, but it’s been comprehensively retuned for the Performante with the introduction of titanium valves and an extra 30PS. While both McLaren and Ferrari have already introduced turbocharging, Lamborghini (for now at least) is persisting with a high capacity V10. The peak power and torque outputs of 640PS and 600Nm respectively lag behind both the Ferrari (650/760) and the McLaren (720/770), but the figures belie the emotive experience.
While the standard Huracán sounds strangely muted, the Performante is given full voice through a new, lightweight exhaust system with reduced back pressure. More reminiscent of a race car, its howl as the 8,500RPM limiter approaches is beyond anything its rivals can muster.
Likewise, the instantaneous throttle response is a reminder that sophisticated engine mapping can only do so much to counter the physical realities of forced induction. On paper, the Performante lags behind its key rivals – 0-124mph takes 8.9sec versus 7.8sec for a 720S - but, subjectively at least, the symphonic Lamborghini feels at least as rapid.
In the real world, the Performante also benefits from all-wheel drive. No matter how good the specialist Pirelli P Zero Corsa’s are, it’s still easier to deploy 160PS per tyre than 360PS for the 720S. The Lamborghini powers out of hairpins on the Transfagarasan when the McLaren would be leaning on its electronics.
Lamborghini would also claim that this traction and stability demonstrates the benefits of its pioneering active aerodynamics - ‘Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva’ or ALA for short. Put simply, electrically operated flaps in the front spoiler work in conjunction with ducts in the engine cover to either channel air over the rear wing to generate downforce, or under the wing to minimise drag. In addition, they can also channel air under the car to further reduce drag.
As a result, Lamborghini claims the Performante produces 750 percent more peak downforce than the standard Huracán, although this may say more about the standard car than it does about its performance-orientated sibling.
The flaps can even open independently to achieve what Lamborghini calls aero vectoring – increasing the downforce and thus traction on the inner wheel to help the car corner. At high speed, on a race track, this technology no doubt makes a significant difference. Whether it has any benefit on the Transfagarasan, or any other public road, is highly debatable.
The Huracán has three driving modes – Strada, Sport and Corsa – controlled via a switch on the steering wheel. The former is tuned to optimise traction and stability and is focused on road driving. Sport allows some slip at the rear to mimic the feel of a traditional rear-wheel drive car, while Corsa is targeted at track use. In addition to optimising the throttle, the seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox, the stability control and the electromechanical steering, the Corsa mode also boasts its own instruments which, to my eyes at least, are reminiscent of an 1980s arcade game.
Driving the Performante back-to-back on the Transfagarasan with other members of the Huracán family is telling. This road, built using 6,000 tonnes of dynamite, officially claimed the lives of 40 Romanian service personnel, although the unofficial figure runs into the hundreds. It was built because Ceausescu wanted to be able to flee a Russian invasion across the Faragas mountains, but what remains today is driver’s nirvana.
On this magical stretch of tarmac, the standard Huracán feels strangely unengaging. Chief test driver Mario Fasanetto joined me on the trip and accepts the standard car was developed to be as easy to drive as possible in tune with their customers’ needs. The Performante, by contrast, is the car the engineering team wish they’d built all along – a semi-disguised race car that uses innovative technology to engage the senses; a car built for a road like the Transfagarasan. The noise, the drive, the aesthetics, all blend to a thrilling whole. This is a proper supercar.
It also represents, if not the end, then the beginning of the end for supercars like this. Even Lamborghini accepts that as a result of tightening emissions regulations, turbocharging and even hybrid technology will become inevitable within a decade. Ferrari and McLaren are already on that journey and Lamborghini must follow, so if your eco-sensibilities can stomach it, enjoy the old-guard purity of the Performante while you can.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
