A BOY’S DREAM
Smitten before a spin in the Huracan Spyder, shaken after
APPROACH. IT'S A WONDERFUL THING. You can look at the same apple or knife or car in many ways. For example, if you approach an apple as a tasty fruit, you are going to have a healthy snack. If you approach it from the 'apple fell from a tree, let's call it gravity' view, that's a more profound meaning to this apple. A knife can be approached to cut that apple, or to use it as a weapon to stab those 'noisy' supercar hating uncles. And you can approach a Huracan Spyder with the objective of reviewing it, or just drive it like you had visualised driving its predecessor, the Gallardo when you stared at it as a kid on your bedroom wall. Now which one would you prefer?
So back then, evo India was a figment of Sirish's imagination, and I was a regular subscriber to Autocar magazine. The only reason I had subscribed was the Porsche 911 scale model, and the free Gallardo poster (alright stop judging me!). Nothing sells a magazine better than lusty Lamborghinis (and Ferraris) and thankfully, evo does have a healthy dose of exotica. Almost two decades later, I am ogling at the successor to my childhood poster car, tasked with reviewing this beauty. Somebody slap me now!
After salivating a bit, I step in to the R8 V10 Plus. Wait, what? You need just half a second to forget this car is also an Audi. The R8 to the Huracan is what a 7 Series is to the Rolls Royce Ghost, what the daal chaawal is to biryani, or German beer to Italian sex on the beach. You get introduced to this high maintenance girlfriend of yours and you will find the quirks which I shall speak about later, but you will not care. Fire the Huracan up (by now I'm assuming it's a fast, flat and smooth
stretch of tarmac ahead of me), switch to Corsa mode, (Italian for, you f*#king idiot, I hope you know what you're doing) and command all 602 horses behind my ass to sing a Pavarotti aria in my ears. And they do. But the orchestra is on fast forward, with 8700rpm coming in a second and a half, the needle bounces off the redline and my neck lunges forward to headbutt that beautifully crafted Lamborghini steering wheel as it slams against the rev limiter. I am reminded to tug at the right paddle. Honest mistake by a man living the boy's dream. The Huracan feels faster than I imagined that Gallardo on my bedroom wall would be. Alright then, time to get serious, sharpen my reflexes, and well, smile.
The minute you tap the ANIMA switch on the Huracan into Corsa, the sensations are
heightened. It is as hard edged as you can make it. The optional dynamic steering reacts to your slightest inputs, the magnetorheological dampers this Huracan gets reacts to the moronic right foot stab the car just received and stiffens the dampers for a pacey ride ahead. You immediately notice the increased stiffness through the wafer thin Pirelli PZero fronts, and by the time I’ve bounced off the red line, cricked my neck, lost some pace and then shifted into second gear, the dampers have already adjusted for an easier ride. There is just so much happening all at once, the super quick glorious sounding naturally aspirated V10 is at full chat, the steering is lightning quick and the dampers are simply winning me over. You get into a supercar thinking it is going to be bloody quick. That’s a given. If you are in India, you are in the same thought and breath, thinking of every slight undulation, a nasty speed breaker a mile away and the route you’ll be driving on before you even get into the car. With the Huracan, you will think of the routes of course, but it isn’t the slightest bit difficult to drive. The ride is a revelation on tyres that are made for race tracks and the view out of the driver’s seat is excellent. I’ve driven the Huracan and Aventador on a race track and loved the baby Lambo to bits as it scared the pants off me. But you don’t really get to experience the depths of its sophistication on a flat and smooth track. Out here, on the road, the Spyder is acing it. When did a Lamborghini get so easy to drive? Gone are the days when you approached a Lamborghini with equal portions of fear and excitement. Volkswagen ownership (translated to – granny should be able to drive it too) has tamed the bull for sure, but if taming is making it act to your will, then isn’t that a good thing? It even has a front end lift kit so that the very expensive bumper doesn’t require a replacement after kissing a speed breaker. And Bangalore is the speedbreaker capital of the country, and by extension the world.