The successor to Lamborghini's Gallardo is a more grown-up supercar, and that suits us down to the ground It would be easy to feel a tinge of sympathy for dear old Lamborghini and its all-new Huracán, what with the knee-tremblingly good LaFerrari taking centre stage this week and the McLaren P1 rewriting just about every rule of road testing next week, more about which, er, next week.But once the hypercar hyperbole has died down the Huracán will, in fact, be the most important car Lamborghini will produce for at least the next three years and, as such, will sell in vastly higher numbers than both the uber-machines from Ferrari and McLaren combined.The styling of the Huracán has been described as subdued by some, but in the metal it has a simple kind of elegance to it that is both refreshing and appropriately intimidating. It looks quite small on the road, too, even though it isn’t, and as a replacement for the 11-year-old Gallardo – of which some 14,000 were made between 2003-2013 – it borrows more than one or two ideas from both the existing Audi R8 and its forthcoming successor, which will appear next year.The Huracán’s chassis, for example, will be shared with the next Audi R8 and uses a hybrid combination of RTN carbonfibre and aluminium which, claims Lamborghini, provides almost as much strength and stiffness as a full carbonfibre tub, but with nowhere near the same expense. It’s also far easier and cheaper to repair in the event of an accident.The engine is a development of the familiar 5.2-litre V10 that we’ve come to know and love in both the R8 and Gallardo, albeit with a raft of modifications to its top end and exhaust system. This time round it produces a thunderous 602bhp (or 610ps, hence the LP 610-4 moniker) and 413lb ft of torque, which is sufficient to fire the Huracán to 62mph in a mere 3.2sec and to a claimed top speed of 202mph. Stop start also becomes a standard fitment to help reduce emissions and improve economy by over 10 per cent.The dual clutch seven-speed auto gearbox is also lifted straight from the R8 and replaces, at last, the clumsy e-gear six speeder from before. Which means that a traditional manual gearbox isn’t even available as an option in Lamborghini’s most popular car.As on the Gallardo, there are double wishbones at each corner with electronic dampers and anti-roll bars at either end. But this time these are joined by standard-issue carbon-ceramic brake discs and a new ANIMA button (which means soul in Italian), similar to Ferrari’s manettino dial. This sits on the steering wheel and alters the responses of the dampers, engine mapping, steering, gearbox, four-wheel drive and traction control.The cabin is deeply Lamborghini in both look and feel, featuring a pair of ultra supportive bucket seats and a new 12.3-inch digital TFT screen that can be tailored to whatever kind of mood you might be in. The gearbox paddles are larger than before, the visibility out better in all directions, and there's a sophistication inside the car that the Gallardo never quite nailed.
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