What’s it like to drive Lamborghini’s US$320,000 Huracan Performante supercar?
The high-performance, racing-track-oriented car can reach 202mph and is for wealthy enthusiasts who want to test their driving skills – and stun neighbours
A funny thing has been going on with Lamborghini.
When I was growing up, the legendary Italian supercars were considered wilder and crazier, cruder and more tasteless than Ferraris.
If you liked Lamborghinis, you kind of knew what you wanted to be when you grew up, and it wasn’t necessarily civilised.
However, since the late 1990s, the marque has been owned by the VW Group and allied with Audi.
This structure has tempered some of the old Lambo stuff, beneficially making the brand more dignified, easy to live with and more technologically up to date.
The Performante looks like a racing car ... it’s for those well-heeled enthusiasts who want to test their driving skills and also mess around – and stun the neighbours
All that sounds great, but what about, you know, the Lambo-ness?
Well, we’ve seen the benefits played out in the Huracan line-up.
Lamborghini sells three cars: the Huracan sports supercar, the Aventador super-hypercar, and the new Urus SUV.
The Huracan is meant to provide a little something for everybody who wants to get into the brand.
Hence an all-wheel-drive version that can be mistaken for an Audi, a rear-wheel-drive version that cannot (which remind Lamborghini lovers of the cars of the 1970s and 1980s), a drop-top Spyder for open-air motoring – and now a racing-track-oriented car, the Performante.