King of the Ring

On the stairway towards automotive perfection, the Lamborghini Huracán Performante is right there at the top

In the same way a race car driver strives for the perfect lap in every race, engineers at Automobili Lamborghini have applied the same steadfast pursuit of excellence to the development of its cars. The result of that endeavour presents itself in the form of the Lamborghini Huracán Performante, released earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show. The flagship of the V10 powered Huracán line-up, the Performante is the hardest, fastest and most performance-focused iteration of the model that has shown itself capable of smashing lap times on racetracks. A beneficiary of Lamborghini’s GT3 racing experience, the Huracán Performante is a machine that represents the pinnacle of performance. The car set a new lap record for a production car on the 20.6km Nurburgring Nordschleife in Germany in a remarkable 6min 52.01sec, a full five seconds faster than the second-placed hybrid-powered Porsche 918 Spyder. At the heart of this achievement is the Huracán Performante’s class-leading 5.2L naturally-aspirated V10 engine that has been reworked to shunt out 640bhp with 600Nm of torque for maximum thrust. Mated to an optimised sevenspeed dual-clutch gearbox, the Performante can rocket to 100km/h from a standstill before one can even count to three. But the real magic behind these abilities is how Lamborghini’s engineers have made use of science and technology to enable the car to literally stick to the tarmac while going even faster. Carbon-fibre composites and other weight-saving technologies have made the car 40kg lighter, while a reworked suspension has made the car racier with perfect balance round corners. With speed coming from grip, the Performante is also the first Lamborghini to benefit from Aerodynamica Lamborghini Attiva, the manufacturer’s performance blend that features an aggressive front splitter and massive rear wing dancing in tandem to channel air around the car to boost aerodynamics for more speed and grip. Befitting a car this exclusive, the Performante receives a whole new exhaust system that promises a more emotional soundtrack to complement the adrenaline rush that comes each time the accelerator is depressed. Moreover, Lamborghini has worked with Pirelli to develop special P Zero Corsa tyres to wear around its large 20-inch wheels. Indeed, a new benchmark has been set for supercar performance.