2021 Lamborghini Huracan

THE GARAGE

The Huracán STO Is Pure Lamborghini

by Andrew Maness

This story originally appeared in Vol.4 “Autumn/Holiday”

It wasn’t until I was getting myself situated in the 2021 Huracán STO that I realized how many modern Lamborghinis I’ve had the good fortune to get seat time in. I’ve driven every variant of Huracán, a few Aventadors, and the Urus as well. I’ve had brief experiences in two Gallardos, a manual LP 550-2, and an autotragic LP 560-4. If anyone reading this would like to help fill in my gaps in knowledge (i.e., seat time in a Diablo, Murciélago, Reventón, Sesto Elemento, Countach, or Miura), I’m easy to reach and happy to meet on your turf. Hell, it probably couldn’t hurt to drive a Jarama, Urraco, and a Jalpa too. Lamborghini collectors, where you at? Shopping a big sale on white pre-distressed denim and Louis Vuitton belts? OK, I’ll wait.

Jokes aside, the Lamborghini crowd is an interesting lot. From those who don’t seem to know that their Huracán is equipped with more than one gear to those who compete in the Super Trofeo series, Lamborghini’s customer base is much more diverse than one might think. Beyond the highly visible and vapid valet-stand contingent, there are Lamborghini enthusiasts who fervently follow both the GT3 and Super Trofeo series throughout the racing season. While the formidable Huracán GT3 EVO dukes it out (with great success) against stiff competition from McLaren, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Aston Martin, Bentley, and Ferrari, the Huracán Super Trofeo EVO2, brand new for the 2022 season, will face only itself in the global racing series that’s been running since 2009 and has featured a world final since 2013 in which drivers from Europe, North America, and Asia come together to chase an international championship title. If that sounds like a great deal of fun to you, then you’ll need a racing license and around $338,636 (before taxes, etc.) for a Super Trofeo EVO2 to get started. Factor in another $50,000 for entry into the six-round season, and the cost of a pit crew, repairs, and logistics, and you’re looking at half a million bucks pretty easily. All of a sudden, $333,633 for the 100% street-legal and serviceable-at-a-dealership Huracán STO seems relatively reasonable, doesn’t it?

It’s wild how good the STO is on the street. Most of Lamborghini’s high-performance models beat you up and leave you needing an appointment with a chiropractor. This is shockingly not the case with the STO. Lamborghini cracked the code with this suspension setup; amazingly, their fiercest iteration of the Huracán is also the most forgiving in the canyons. But unless you live among the twisties, there’s going to be some normal driving involved before any spirited runs, so how does the street-legal race car do in traffic? Apart from having no direct rear visibility, it’s just like any other Huracán. I simply left it in the default STO mode and went about the mundane business of navigating traffic in LA: roll the windows down, find some good music, and cruise. The hardest part of driving the Huracán STO on normal roads is resisting the urge to click down into Trofeo mode and let ’er rip. The whole experience was a bit of a head scratcher, because Lamborghini explicitly stated that this is the first street car they’ve developed where track ability took precedence over road driving. Not sure what it says about me that it’s also the first Huracán I’ve driven that I’d want to live with. The original didn’t separate itself enough from the Audi R8 V10+ to get under my skin in a meaningful way, the EVO lost the plot by trying to be too high tech for its own good, and the EVO RWD just felt downright sketchy when pushed. The Performante was my favorite, even with its very, very firm ride and steering more sensitive than a Gen Z college student, but the STO has bumped the Performante off the pedestal I’d had it on. How? The proven formula of less weight and more grip, of course.

The Huracán STO weighs 2,952 pounds dry, just 153 pounds more than the forthcoming Super Trofeo EVO2 race car. Impressive, considering all the shit required to make a car street legal, not to mention the radio and HVAC system that any driver will want during the less-exciting times behind the wheel. Overall mass was reduced by opting for a windshield that’s 20% thinner, using carbon-fiber panels for more than 75% of the body, and going to forged magnesium wheels instead of forged aluminum. With lightness added, Lamborghini turned its attention to reducing drag and cranking up the amount of downforce. Pulling from what the Squadra Corse crew has learned in racing both the Huracán Super Trofeo EVO and Huracán EVO GT3, the designers went to a single-piece front end — or “cofango,” as they call it. The front bonnet, fenders, and bumper are all one easily raised and lowered piece of carbon fiber. Air is guided through ducting and louvers on the fenders up front and a NACA intake and cooling scoops at the rear. The three-way adjustable single-slotted rear wing and integrated “shark fin” work in tandem to complete the package by improving rear-end grip and yaw stability — especially effective during cornering. All told, the Huracán STO can claim the highest downforce levels in its class, a 53% increase over that of the Huracán Performante and a 37% improvement on overall airflow efficiency. Add in a widened wheel track, specialized roll bars, firmer suspension bushings, and an electromagnetically controlled damper system that’s optimized for stiffness, and you’ve got a seriously dialed-in car.

How is it that this taut track-ready machine felt just fine, even on some of the most busted-up canyon roads SoCal has to offer? MagneRide 2.0 remains unchanged, and surely the specialized roll bars and firmer bushings couldn’t make such a dramatically noticeable difference in the damping quality. Or could they? I honestly do not know. It makes perfect sense that the STO feels dramatically more compliant and easy to connect with than its predecessors, considering the confidence that comes with all that grip. But confidence in the car complying with your every wish can’t be responsible for the smoothing out of the harshness that was so pronounced in the Performante and the sketchy nature of the EVO and EVO RWD. Can it? There’s still not a great deal of feel coming through the steering wheel (one of my main complaints about the Huracán over the years), but feedback has been noticeably improved by way of a more direct, fixed ratio. That’s a confidence booster for sure. What about the brakes? Brakes! Yes, the F1-derived Brembo CCM-R brakes, that must be it. With four times the thermal conductivity of normal carbon ceramic brakes, not to mention dedicated front-brake cooling ducts, the CCM-R setup used here is much more durable and therefore more reliable. I wasn’t left wanting for any more stopping power throughout my time flogging the STO, and considering the variety of roads I took it on and my appetite for rapid acceleration, that’s saying something. The pedal remained firm and easy to moderate the whole time, rewarding me the harder I worked the 390 mm front and 360 mm rear discs. I can’t think of another car I’ve enjoyed slowing down so much, largely because I found it to be so damn predictable.

Still, making the Huracán STO get up and go is the most entertaining part of the experience. It’s somewhat surprising, considering how long in the tooth the mid-mounted 5.2L naturally aspirated V10 is. It’s an engine that I’ve come to know and love over the years, and it remains relatively unchanged; power is up to 640 horses, and torque is a respectable, but not headline-worthy, 417 pound-feet. It lags behind a number of its competitors, like the McLaren 765LT and AMG GT Black Series, in the raw-power department; however, as is often the case, the numbers hardly tell the whole story. Peak torque comes on at 6,500 rpm, and for another 2,000 rpm you’re treated to the raucous exhaust note at its absolute best. Craving that extra shove into the seat as the engine reached an angry crescendo, I found myself chasing the 8,500 rpm redline again and again, to the point where I felt a bit like one of Pavlov’s dogs. Only certain two-wheeled products from Lamborghini’s relatives up in Bologna have engaged me in the same sort of violent ballet. It’s not a car to be taken lightly, though anyone could easily hop in and tool about in either STO or Pioggia (wet) mode without great risk to themselves or others, thanks to all the safety systems and one of the best dual-clutch gearboxes on the market seamlessly handling gear changes. It’s in Trofeo mode where things get spicy, and that’s where I kept it after the first 15 minutes in the canyons in STO mode. The street-legal race car derived from actual race cars is happiest when being pushed hard. I know, shocking.

Frankly, I’m surprised I developed such a deep connection with the Huracán STO as quickly as I did, and on public roads, no less. At this point in my career I’ve driven a lot of batshit-crazy cars on the same roads, and in recent years I’ve found myself less and less interested in chasing their limits. Call it self-preservation or call it maturity (it’s probably a bit of both), but I’m just not as excited to hit the canyons in the latest high-powered hardware as I once was. Hell, I was more excited about going on a road trip in the new S-Class than I initially was to drive the Huracán STO. Fortunately, I took the keys and didn’t look back, because the STO awakened my inner child, the one who played with his diecasts by flashlight after bedtime. It’s a car that makes its capabilities abundantly clear and simply asks, “Whatcha got?” What you get out of the STO is what you put in, and while you can have a good time at pretty much any level, you’ll have a phenomenal time if you get out of your comfort zone. Don’t worry, it’s highly unlikely you’ll find the limit of the STO, and you sure as shit won’t surpass it. Just keep in mind that you’ll run out of talent before it does. Best plan a track day, my friends.