The dust settles
The Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato goes where no low slung raging bull has gone before
IREALLY DIDN’T THINK THEY WOULD do it. I mean, Lamborghini did show us the Sterrato concept back in 2019 but then how many supercar concepts have come and gone, without seeing the light of day? I thought it would be another one of those. Forgotten in the annals of unrealised concepts. Relegated to Google image searches of some 12-year-old enthusiast searching ‘rally Lamborghini’ a decade from now. Something we’d look back on when Porsche brought out its off-road 911 and said, “Hey, wouldn’t it have been cool if Lambo had put that Sterrato thing into production?” Well, news flash. They did. Days after the 911 Dakar was unveiled, Lamborghini announced that they were joining this new spangled all-terrain supercar club with the Huracán Sterrato. It’s a car that means proper business, with proper off-road ability. Or in the case of India, simply the ability to drive around without needing to wince at every unsighted pothole. There are serious changes to the chassis, tyres, engine, electronics to make this bona fide supercar platform into a dirt-track slayer.
Most obvious is the jacked up ride height ― a whole 44mm higher than the Huracán Evo on which it is based, taking clearance to a cool 177mm. The Skoda Slavia has 179mm, for context. The whole suspension has been revamped to deal with the unique challenges that this car would face. Yes, it has longer travel, with the front going up by 25 per cent while the rear goes up 35 per cent. The track widths have increased (+30mm front, 34mm rear) and so has the wheelbase (9mm).
The underbody has been given suitable reinforcement with an aluminium skid plate, and with a sturdier lip, diffuser and side skirts. There’s additional cladding over the wheel arches that cover up that extra track width on both axles. There’s a roof-mounted scoop that
feeds straight to the air intake so the car is always breathing clean air. It also runs 19-inch wheels, with all-terrain Bridgestone Dueller tyres that promise to deliver Lamborghinilevels of on-tarmac performance, while delivering traction on loose surfaces.
As for the engine, it carries over the V10 from the Huracán Evo ― that spectacular, nape-tingling 5.2-litre V10 in all its naturally aspirated glory mated to an AWD system. No RWD antics here. In terms of power, it makes 602bhp and 560Nm, a shade lower than the current spec of this engine in the Evo. Not that this makes it a slouch ― 0-100kmph comes up in a rapid 3.4 seconds. That said, top speed is just 260kmph and this is likely due to the tyres being W-rated (that have a top speed capability of 270kmph). The electronics have also received their fair share of updates with the Strada and Sport mode being updated to suit the use-cases of this car and the Corsa mode making way for Rally mode ― a dedicated mode that harnesses all of the capabilities of the car, right from the engine and chassis to the electronic aids with one single goal: fun off-road.
Incidentally, the Sterrato is the lastever pure ICE car that will be launched by Lamborghini. Come next year, we’re going to have to brace ourselves for some form of electrification. The Sterrato is limited to 1,499 cars globally making it fairly exclusive, but unlike the 911 Dakar, we will see them on our roads very soon. Sharad Agarwal, head of Lamborghini India, refuses to put down an exact number but he has made it clear that they will be bringing it into the country “in good numbers”. Double digits, possibly. Priced at `4.61 crore, it is far from the most expensive Huracán on sale right now but he expects owners to go wild personalising it. And with cars such as these, the sky is the limit. ⌧