COCKPIT COMFORT
It takes a not insignificant amount of selfconfidence to choose a Lamborghini for your garage. The marque’s designs are far from subtle, and driving them requires a certain persistence bordering on stubbornness, for the cars seem to strain at the leash, never quite happy and comfortable in city traffic, always wanting to head for the open road. But a subtle shift has taken place with the release of Lamborghini’s latest fire-breather, the Huracán, which like its predecessors is named after a Spanish fighting bull. And it has big shoes to fill, as it succeeds the very successful Gallardo, of which more than 14,000 were produced over 10 years.
I was handed the keys to a Huracán a few weeks ago and was curious to test Lamborghini’s claim that for the first time it has tamed the bull—that the Huracán has a civility foreign to its predecessors, and that while it is comfortably drivable in urban traffic conditions, the car’s performance on the track has not been compromised.
I was pleasantly surprised as I familiarised myself with the Huracán during an unusually heavy bit of mid-morning Hong Kong traffic. The car was very well behaved throughout my time at the wheel, never chomping at the bit, and drove smoothly in all traffic conditions. The dual-clutch gearbox is a first for Lamborghini, and the gear selection can easily be left entirely to the car. It tends to behave like an automatic gearbox, though, as it never fully disengages even when stopped; the car will start moving forward if you take your foot off the brake pedal.
In less congested conditions, the Huracán comes into its own dynamically, with superb roadholding and, thankfully, a very pleasing exhaust note that makes me lament the turbocharging trend that has greatly affected the mechanical orchestra. The “Anima”