I would roughly compare it to flying in your dreams. Not in the deeper sense of running away from your problems, or whatever high-brow psychologists make of it. I’m talking about the feeling when your toes leave the ground and you take to the air. Personally, I tend to take a swimstroke-like approach to gain height – front crawl for speed, breaststroke for control – before slipping into weightless euphoria. No resistance, total freedom, no danger, no thinking, no doing.
I admit: driving the new Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato on unpaved roads is a fair bit noisier and more violent than floating in the clouds while sucking my thumb, but it’s certainly comparable in terms of the absence of stress. Normally, on a track or more normal asphalt, I am constantly judging myself. Did I drive the right line? Did I brake at exactly the right point, and hard or just subtle enough? Did I press the accelerator gradually enough?
Do what you want in the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato
Here that disappears, which always opens up endless amounts of new possibilities. Turn where you want, fiddle with the throttle, enjoy some irrational side turns and then roar out again, with four wheels all looking for grip, the body perfectly under control, an empty mind and no stopwatch to be seen . It’s effortless, flattering, and like those sporadic Dream Airways flights, I wish it never ended.
I realize this sounds ridiculous, but it is. It’s aggressive driving without the studded tires and there’s a certain purity to the experience, because the goal isn’t precision, or measurable performance, but fun. And that, in a nutshell, is why the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato and its German counterpart, the Porsche 911 Dakar, exist.
Coincidence does not exist
Is it any surprise that the two off-road supercars appeared at roughly the same time? Not really. Manufacturers know they can’t keep fueling the excitement by constantly adding power and speed, both of which have already broken through all the boundaries of what can be considered ‘normal’. And so new avenues of entertainment must be found.
A car that offers the excitement of a traditional supercar, but there MadMaxstyling and access to heroic oversteer at lower speeds is one possible answer. Plus, if you’ve ever driven a supercar on a surface that wasn’t quite perfect, you know they can be quite a handful. A side effect of more suspension travel and ride height should mean more compliance and comfort on poor road surfaces. Win win.
When we bring up the 911 Dakar, Lamborghini assures us that no one has copied anyone else’s homework. Where Porsche introduced the Dakar to nasty Moroccan sand dunes just to show how much abuse it can take (spoiler: a lot), Lambo says the Sterrato is more geared towards faster, rally stage-style loose surfaces, while also being on a circuit baking should be able to enjoy.
We drive the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato in the US
The events team may have taken this a little too literally: We’re sitting on a scorching hot Chuckwalla Valley Raceway in California, a slab of asphalt plumbed in the middle of the desert, taking in the plotted course. Half asphalt, half dust and sand. A rallycross package designed to show off the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato’s capabilities on both surfaces. Two birds, one blow.
Before we get to that, we should tell you exactly what the 1,499 customers who managed to put down a huge hit of money before the whole stuff was already sold out. They have to do without the more powerful engine found in the Huracán STO and Tecnica, meaning it draws 610bhp from the still-glorious 5.2-litre V10 via a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission.
After a thump on the right pedal, you are at 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds and you reach the speed limiter at 260 km/h – still 20 km/h later than in the Dakar. We have not been able to find a Dutch or Belgian price anywhere (and well, it is already sold out anyway), but in England it seems to have cost about £ 29,000 more than a Huracán Tecnica, which would amount to a price of about 353,000 euros. The Sterrato also weighs about 90 kilos extra, with 1,470 kilos.
What’s different about the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato?
This metamorphosis to a mid-engined rally car is further facilitated by new front and rear bumpers and side skirts, all reinforced and redesigned for improved approach and departure angles. A protective plate has been mounted at the front and there is also a whole armor under the car that will undoubtedly limit damage from stone chips. There are small spotlights on the nose that match the wheel arches with their tough exposed bolts.
The track width has been increased by 30 millimeters at the front and 34 millimeters at the rear, the ground clearance has grown by 44 millimeters and there is 25 percent more suspension travel at the front, compared to even 35 percent more at the rear. The adaptive dampers are essentially the same as those of the other Huracáns. Custom-made Bridgestone Dueler tires with a firm profile wrap around 19-inch wheels at the front and rear and fill the wheel arches nicely. And they’re run-flat tires – puncture them and you’ll be able to go another 40 kilometers to find help. In other words, you still have a chance if you in the middle of nowhere encountered something really sharp.
No special accessories for the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato
With all that sand and the mess thrown up by the tires, a new scoop on the roof ensures that clean air is sucked into the engine, but of course you still don’t see a ball to the rear. The rails on the roof mean that Insta influencers can aim for all kinds of outdoor life stuff on their Steratos, although unlike the 911 Dakar, no special roof tents or other ferocious items are offered on the option list. Inside is everything we know from a Huracán, except for some Sterrato badges, a new meter that shows how the body is positioned in relation to the ground and a digital compass on the central screen (in case you really get lost) after.
We start with half a lap on the normal tarmac Chuckwalla circuit, with the car in Sport mode and traction control half way through, and it all feels pleasantly different right away. Remember the Ariel Nomad? How hilarious that was on a track, precisely because it wasn’t meant for it at all?
It’s the same here – there’s still plenty of acceleration, that razor-sharp throttle response and all those screaming V10 characteristics with their crackle and pop that we all love, but the bank and dive are all turned on rather strongly and we have less grip on those all-terrain tires, so the Sterrato only seems to enjoy leaning into a corner and putting down a big, friendly drift.
On the asphalt, the Lamborgini Huracán Sterrato is slower
It obviously takes longer to complete a lap than a Huracán STO or Tecnica, but I can assure you you won’t care as you can throw it around without losing the sympathy of all the mechanics.
And then the more unusual part: a chicane to cut the speed a bit, and then a pylon-shaped corridor that sends us straight from the track into the desert. It feels a bit like a premeditated accident that will undoubtedly have a follow-up in the form of a costly bill for all repairs. But it’s exactly where the magic begins. Driving a fast car around a track is fun, but this is a whole new level.
I select Rally mode with the steering wheel-mounted button, which tells the permanent four-wheel drive to use the rear axle mostly and loosen up the traction control a bit (you can also switch it off) and you go all over the place, holding drifts for days and connects turns like Colin McRae in the extreme ‘look at me’ mode.
Smart systems help you
If you turn the steering wheel past a certain point on a tight turn, the car automatically brakes the inside rear wheel, angles you towards the apex and then leaves you alone to be able to drag it out the other side. On our fifth or sixth lap, furrows begin to appear in the course, thick strips of dirt that the Sterrato plunges into, jumps over and carries on as if nothing really happened.
Why is this so compelling? Because it’s sort of controlled vandalism… I get all the real Lambo quirks – the sound, the gearbox clunk, the lightning-quick steering, the low seating position – but I get so much more involved, so much busier behind the wheel . The margins are wider, the limits lower, and so are the speeds compared to one hot lap in an STO; but the sense of accomplishment once you find your rhythm is, for me at least, even greater. If the STO’s mission is to maximize speed and drama, then the Sterrato is here purely for fun.
It is, however, more comfortable
On the regular road, something has to go very wrong for it not to be more fun than the regular Huracán, and that extra ride height and suspension travel do indeed make this Sterrato a more comfortable, usable type to be in. Put it in Strada mode, which cuts out the engine rumble, and if you don’t pack too much, you can take it anywhere.
The tires are perhaps a little noisier, but like the 911 Dakar (which wears bespoke Pirelli Scorpions) not much more than a regular Huracán on winter tyres. Witchcraft. When you put it in its Sport mode, it feels and sounds as ballistic in places as any other Huracán. In fact, I bet this is the fastest of the bunch when the road surface is sub-optimal. With which you immediately have large parts of Europe in your pocket.
As you’ve probably gathered by now, the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato is nothing short of a roaring, galloping triumph. A dream on wheels. Because let’s face it: you probably live closer to – or have easier access to – some dust, mud, sand or other unpaved terrain than you do at a track, and because those surfaces make it easier to use the Sterrato’s talents. discovering and exploiting, it provides more fun over longer periods of time.
The best supercar in the world?
It’s less tiring on the road, hilarious on a track and downright mind-blowing when there’s no tarmac in sight. If a supercar’s job is not to take itself too seriously and make its driver and the world around it laugh, then the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato has every reason to call itself the best supercar in the world.
#Lamborghini #Huracán #Sterrato #offroad #version #supercar #world