BULLET BULL
Less weight, more power and active aerodynamics make the Lamborghini Huracan Performante a beast on a racetrack.
It’s not difficult to see why the Lamborghini Huracan is such a surefire crowd-pleaser. It has plenty of exterior drama in the form of its angular good looks, plus interior drama in the form of a cockpit inspired by fighter jets.
Given all that, it should stand to reason that the Huracan Performante – the ultimate Huracan, the most powerful, fastest and lightest one to leave its Sant’Agata, Bolognese factory – would be the most crowd-pleasing of them all.
As its name might suggest, the Huracan Performante is all about, well, performance. It has 30hp more than a standard Huracan and it weighs 40kg less. It doesn’t seem like a whole lot, and it’s very unlikely anyone will complain about a car having 610hp anyway, but the numbers on its spec sheet don’t tell the full story.
Its exterior is positively dripping in carbon fibre, with active aerodynamics to keep the car planted at speed. Then there’s its 5.2-litre V10 with a redesigned exhaust system that improves response and of course, also ups the aural drama.
And nowhere were the car’s merits more apparent than at Ultimate Drives 2018, where it bagged the drivers’ choice award by a good, wide margin. To call guests’ praise of the Huracan Performante “breathless” and “effusive” would be selling it somewhat short.
“A real raging bull,” commented Isaac See.
Wilson Wong loved the supercar’s handling and raw, race-bred experience, no doubt a product of the reduced sound insulation and screaming V10 engine right behind his head. Sylvester Pang singled out
the powerplant for praise, along with its “appealing design”.
Its dual-clutch gearbox, too, impressed guest drivers with its lightning-quick shifts and smoothness, with He Jian Peng and Michael Lee citing the transmission as their favourite aspect of the car.
Said Richard Koh: “The car has surpassed its predecessors on multiple levels – I didn’t expect to get such a thrill from driving it. The engine response is impeccable and it’s so comfortable to drive in Strada mode. The Huracan Performante didn’t just change my impression of the Lamborghini sports car, but of the brand and its technical finesse as well.”
Koh went on to say that the Huracan Performante surprised him, not so much from
its sense of speed, but from how it’s changed his opinion of Lamborghinis. “I’ve always been a Ferrari guy. I used to think Lamborghinis were coarse, but the Huracan Performante turned out to be a great everyday car.”
“What’s a Ferrari, again?” quipped Eugene Yang, himself the owner of a Ferrari, with another Ferrari owner, Gianluigi Rossetti, simply calling the Huracan Performante “perfection”. Pearl Soegianto was equally smitten by the Huracan Performante’s charms. “Does anybody want to gift me this car?” she asked in jest.
But for all the plaudits guest drivers heaped upon the Huracan Performante, its brash, hardcore nature didn’t sit well with some. Evrard Bordier liked its looks and engine note, but said it was “impossible to live with” as a daily driver. He and Terence Yong were of the opinion that the Huracan Performante had poor forward/rearward visibility. Henry Mok, Wong and Mark Tan also lamented the Huracan Performante’s lack of scissor doors, a key design feature of its bigger
brother, the Aventador.
Overall, however, while the Huracan Performante did have some niggling flaws, it also had nearuniversal appeal.
The last word in Lamborghini Huracans really did manage to have the last word after all.
Its dual-clutch gearbox, too, impressed guest drivers with its lightningquick shifts and smoothness.