Verdict

The Sterrato shouldn’t actually make sense. But in some ways that is the decide of the Huracán bunch: implausible on-road trip high quality and rugged off-road functionality make it riotous enjoyable on a tarmac observe, and much more so off it on the dust. It’s additionally able to taking better punishment off-road than its look suggests, and retains all of the visible drama of a conventional supercar, together with that spellbinding V10 engine.

The Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato (that means ‘dust street’ in Italian) is proscribed to 1,499 vehicles globally, and marks the ultimate evolution of the Huracán, the marque’s most profitable supercar by way of gross sales.

Though a closing sixtieth anniversary automotive will comply with, primarily based on the common, road-focused Huracán sequence, this gravel-ready particular is likely one of the final derivatives on the automotive’s decade-old platform. It’s additionally the swansong for the Huracán’s fabulous V10 engine.

The Sterrato was born from off-road testing whereas creating the Urus SUV in 2017. The engineering and design group was impressed to create a prototype off-road model of the Huracán, partly for R&D and partly for enjoyable. They’d a lot enjoyable with it that hopes for a manufacturing model rapidly gathered momentum. When CEO Stephan Winkelmann returned to the agency in 2020, he gave the inexperienced mild to a restricted run of buyer vehicles.

Head of design Mitja Borkert and his group created the plastic cladding across the sills and wheelarches (masking wheels pushed out wider on each axles, and shod in particular all-terrain tyres developed by Bridgestone).

There’s extra suspension journey and the set-up is softer than the usual Huracán’s. It nonetheless has adaptive dampers with a Touring mode, and a firmer setting that sharpens the dealing with on a winding street or tarmac observe. The rally-style spotlights on the nostril are elective, as are the roof crossbars (that are value speccing, provided that the Sterrato has the identical tiny boot and lack of inside storage as an everyday Huracán). The snorkel air consumption is customary, as a result of testing revealed that the engine wanted extra airflow whereas sliding sideways on gravel.

The Sterrato is priced at £232,820 within the UK, a soar of roughly £30,000 over a Huracán Tecnica. All Sterratos are actually offered.

We’re testing the Sterrato on street and observe in California. The USA is predicted to take as a lot as 50 per cent of the Sterrato’s manufacturing run, with the UK, Germany and the Center East additionally key markets.

Little separates the Sterrato inside from an everyday Huracán aside from elective heavy-duty floormats, and the truth that you possibly can’t actually see something by means of the rear-view mirror, due to the snorkel air consumption.

The trip high quality on tender suspension and tall rubber is comfy, and the chunky tyres make little noise on the transfer, so the Sterrato is kind of a civilised automotive to journey in.

It’s additionally much less irritating round city, with the power to drive up ramps and pace bumps while not having to crawl as you’d within the common, low-slung automotive.

On a twisty street, it’s not as sharp and responsive in corners as a standard Huracán, as you’d anticipate, nevertheless it feels removed from clumsy.

The V10, attributable to be retired when Huracán manufacturing ends in 2024, provides mighty acceleration and the noise is unbelievable; there’s nothing else, in need of the engine-sharing Audi R8, that feels like this.

It’s additionally mighty in some off-road conditions. Our half-tarmac, half-loose take a look at observe was punishing, with deep ruts and harsh bumps, and a mixture of tight, tough hairpins and quick curves.

The Sterrato felt proper at house. On the tarmac sections it squats and rolls slightly bit extra on its longer, softer suspension in contrast with a standard Huracán, nevertheless it’s nonetheless very controllable. Leaping onto the dust, it feels very pure to regulate the automotive and even slide it round intentionally.  

A Rally mode has been programmed for the Sterrato alongside the common Strada  and Sport settings. Rally is sort of as rear-biased as Sport, encouraging tail-out antics however nonetheless prioritising traction, and it’s exceptional how briskly the Sterrato can speed up, even on free surfaces.

Porsche’s 911 Dakar, coincidentally launched inside a number of months, is the closest automotive in ethos to the Sterrato, however the 911 is rather less dramatic and slightly extra targeted on hardier off-road use. The Sterrato isn’t any Land Rover, nevertheless it’s fabulous enjoyable each on and off the tarmac, and stretches the Huracán additional than we may have imagined it being stretched when the automotive was launched a decade in the past. It’s a implausible send-off.