How to live life in the blisteringly fast lane
EDWARD STEPHENS LIMBOS INTO A 200MPH LAMBORGHINI FOR A THRILLING RIDE
IF you are considering buying a Lamborghini to speed up your lifestyle you might want to think again.
For even though the new Lamborghini Huracan Evo is without doubt one of the fastest cars on the road it’s almost impossible to park it anywhere without someone coming up to admire it and engage you in conversation.
In fact in well over two decades of writing about cars never have I driven one that has led me to make so many new “friends”.
Hardly surprising, however, when you look at the stunning lines and sleek beauty of this 200-miles-perhour supercar.
And the huge cannon-like exhausts and iconic name of Lamborghini on the back – just below the glass panel through which you can see the rear-mounted, naturally aspirated V10 engine – is enough to make any speed merchant salivate.
With a price tag of more than £200,000 for the model I borrowed it’s not a car you come across every day.
The new Huracan Evo, with its blistering 0-62 miles per hour acceleration time of just 2.9 seconds, is certainly one of the quickest cars I have come across. Fortunately after reaching that speed, the carbon ceramic brakes will bring it to a standstill in just 31 metres.
The performance from the 5.2litre, 640 bhp engine is breathtaking. But that’s only half the story.
For the luxury Italian car maker also promotes the new Huracan Evo as the most user-friendly Lamborghini ever, and it’s that dual role which makes it such a great car.
Thrill-a-minute, seat-ofthe-pants supercars are great fun but they can be hard work and not easy to relax with in towns and cities. Judging by the characteristics of the Huracan Evo that’s not a premise lost on the top brass of Lamborghini.
So the car comes with three driving modes, activated by a button on the racing-style steering wheel and the recommendation to use the default setting of Strada – or street in English – for traffic-congested daily driving.
Use it and, apart from the ear-splitting roar on start up, you could almost be driving an executive family saloon.
Unbelievably in this mode the Huracan hits top gear in the sevenspeed auto box at less than 30 miles per hour and is quite happy to potter along at that, picking up speed immediately when needed without even having to change down thanks to an engine which boasts 600 Nm of torque.
But you don’t pay a six-figure sum to only potter so, not surprisingly, this car comes with a sting in its tail.
Change the mode to Sport and drive it manually with the gearchange paddles behind the steering wheel and the Huracan Evo grows horns. No more Mr Nice Guy.
The noise from the V10 and the blistering acceleration make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end and the horizon hurtles towards you at an unbelievable pace.
Having experienced that I cautiously took the Huracan one stage further and slipped it into “Corsa mode” – a misnomer if ever there was one if you think about the generally mild-mannered Vauxhall Corsa.
At that point the virtual dials changed shape to something more akin to a track car and the insanely fast acceleration pinned me into the back of the leather and Alcantara racing seat and would have put me into the back seat if the car had one.
The performance is electrifying, and the handling – from a car which rides just a whisker above the road surface – is phenomenal.
Four-wheel-drive and fourwheel-steer means tenacious grip and brilliant manoeuvrability.
The especially low ride height – which you can higher for speed bumps – means you almost have to limbo into the Lambo so it’s not a car that would suit everyone.
Flush door handles spring open as you unlock it and you slip into a cockpit which seems to wraps itself around you.
Surprisingly the seats are manually rather that electronically adjustable but plenty of flexibility means it’s easy to get comfortable.
The starter button is – very appropriately in this case – a little like the rocket launch button at Cape Canaveral as you have to lift up a hinged metal cover before you can push it. And the results are somewhat similar.
There are a few little things you have to get used to compared to your average car. There’s no indicator stalk, for example. The indicators are operated by a slide switch on the steering wheel.
And to engage first gear you give a tug on the right hand paddle shift behind the steering wheel – and then the auto box kicks in – while reverse is engaged by pulling a chrome lever on the transmission tunnel.
And while all these features take a little getting used to it all adds to the mystique of driving one of the world’s most iconic and most enjoyable supercars.
If you want to be picky you could argue that there’s only enough luggage space – under the bonnet – for a couple of soft bags and you don’t even get cup holders.
But when you drive any car with Lamborghini’s iconic and aweinspiring fighting bull symbol on its bonnet do you really care?