| Autocar

Posted: 30 May 2014 04:40 AM PDT

It would be easy to feel a tinge of sympathy for dear old Lamborghini and its all-new Huracán, what with the knee-tremblingly good LaFerrari taking centre stage and the McLaren P1 rewriting just about every rule of road testing.

But once the hypercar hyperbole has died down the Huracán will, in fact, be the most important car Lamborghini will produce for at least the next three years and, as such, will sell in vastly higher numbers than both the uber-machines from Ferrari and McLaren combined.

Editor-at-large

The styling of the Lamborghini Huracán has been described as subdued by some, but in the metal it has a simple kind of elegance to it that is both refreshing and appropriately intimidating.

It looks quite small on the road, too, even though it isn't, and as a replacement for the 11-year-old Lamborghini Gallardo – of which some 14,000 were made between 2003-2013 – it borrows more than one or two ideas from both the existing Audi R8 and its forthcoming successor, which will appear next year.

The Huracán's chassis, for example, will be shared with the next Audi R8 and uses a hybrid combination of RTN carbonfibre and aluminium which, claims Lamborghini, provides almost as much strength and stiffness as a full carbonfibre tub, but with nowhere near the same expense. It's also far easier and cheaper to repair in the event of an accident.

The engine is a development of the familiar 5.2-litre V10 that we've come to know and love in both the R8 and Gallardo, albeit with a raft of modifications to its top end and exhaust system.

This time round it produces a thunderous 602bhp (or 610ps, hence the LP 610-4 moniker) and 413lb ft of torque, which is sufficient to fire the Huracán to 62mph in a mere 3.2sec and to a claimed top speed of 202mph. Stop start also becomes a standard fitment to help reduce emissions and improve economy by over 10 per cent.

The dual clutch seven-speed auto gearbox is also lifted straight from the R8 and replaces, at last, the clumsy e-gear six speeder from before. Which means that a traditional manual gearbox isn't even available as an option in Lamborghini's most popular car.

As on the Gallardo, there are double wishbones at each corner with electronic dampers and anti-roll bars at either end. But this time these are joined by standard-issue carbon-ceramic brake discs and a new ANIMA button (which means soul in Italian), similar to Ferrari's manettino dial. This sits on the steering wheel and alters the responses of the dampers, engine mapping, steering, gearbox, four-wheel drive and traction control.

The cabin is deeply Lamborghini in both look and feel, featuring a pair of ultra supportive bucket seats and a new 12.3-inch digital TFT screen that can be tailored to whatever kind of mood you might be in. The gearbox paddles are larger than before, the visibility out better in all directions, and there's a sophistication inside the car that the Gallardo never quite nailed.

It's a great car, albeit in a new wave, old school kind of way. When you thumb the starter button and the V10 engine catches, for example, there is still the same sense of theatre in evidence as there was with the Gallardo.

Like it or not, there's an almighty burst of revs at start-up, and even once the V10 settles to its idle speed of just under 1000rpm there's still an old fashioned supercar kind of racket to be heard from behind your head. And the Huracán wouldn't be a Lamborghini were this not so.

On the move the car instantly feels more refined but also more comfortable than the Gallardo. There's a sense of maturity to the ride, steering response (no kickback whatsoever detectable), throttle weighting and even the exhaust note that elevates it well beyond its predecessor. But beneath the sheen of extra smoothness and civility there is still the raging heart of a conventional V10 supercar, thumping away, itching to let loose.

This time, though, you get the distinct impression that the car's numerous electronic systems are very much there to help out, if and when things go wrong. The car feels so much less edgy and rounded in its resolve, you probably don't need the digital safety net to be anywhere near as great ironically.

But that's the way Lamborghini knows it needs to play things in 2014. Nowadays, the vast majority customers aren't in the slightest bit interested in scaring themselves every now and again.

Instead they want a car that looks beautiful (tick), sounds amazing (tick), that is easy enough to drive and that they could use it everyday if necessary (tick) and which won't bite their arms off if they make a mistake in it (tick).

The compromise is that the Huracán probably understeers a touch more than a die-hard purist would want it to, and the engine note does sound more Ingolstadt than Sant Agata on occasions; particularly on overrun in Corsa mode when you get a digitally perfected crackle that sounds neither natural nor spine-tingling.

But in just about all other respects, the Huracán represents a huge leap forwards for Lamborghini. And I personally happen to think it looks close to drop-dead gorgeous, too.

Should you buy one? Well, Lamborghini would like it if you did – although the competition at this level, at this particular moment in time, is so fierce that you do wonder how many Huracáns will be shifted in the longer term, certainly in its more traditional markets of the USA and Europe, both of which are continuing to shrink, albeit glacially.

In China, however, the Huracán no doubt will fly like the wind it is loosely named after, and that alone will keep the Raging Bull's accountants happy for the time being.

Crucially, the Huracán is also very competitively priced beside its key rivals from McLaren and Ferrari at £188k, even if the new Audi R8 and current Porsche 911 Turbo will and already do make it seem fairly expensive.

What matters most, though, is the way it drives, which in the most part means: beautifully.

It's a more modern and capable car than the one it replaces but it's also a proper, hairy-chested Lambo at heart. And in this day and age that's really rather refreshing.

Lamborghini Huracán

Price £180,720; 0-62mph sub 3.2sec (claimed); Top speed 202mph; Economy 22.6mpg; CO2 290g/km; Kerb weight 1532kg; Engine V10, 5204cc, direct injection, petrol; Installation mid, longitudinal, four-wheel drive; Power 602bhp at 8250rpm; Torque 413 ft at 6500rpm; Power-to-weight 393bhp/tonne; Specific output 116bhp/litre; Compression ratio 12.7:1; Gearbox 7-speed dual-clutch automatic

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