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2018 Lamborghini Huracan Performante Spyder First Drive Review | Cheating the wind

NAPA, Calif. — A long, fast, right-hand sweeper appears a few hundred feet ahead, but I don't tap the brakes. Instead I decide to trust the aerodynamics. And when the Lamborghini Huracan Performante Spyder slices through corner after corner with zero drama, the smile that naturally occurs when driving something so potent gets incrementally more maniacal. From behind the wheel, the driver can't see what's happening with the front splitter and rear wing. All the action takes place underneath the wedge-shaped bodywork. Electric actuators open and close air pathways that either push the Performante Spyder into the ground for the best possible cornering performance, or cancel out that drag-inducing downforce so that the car can accelerate as quickly as possible and hit a higher maximum speed. I have good reason to put faith in Aerodinamica Lamborghini Attiva, which I'll henceforth and mercifully shorten to its initials ALA — a system we've already experienced on our first and second drives of the Performante Coupe. I'd been given the full rundown on the bits and pieces of forged composite that make it all work, the most impressive of which allow aero vectoring from the wing to apply downforce only to the rear tire that needs it most. But it wasn't until I was behind the wheel on a particularly twisty ribbon of asphalt outside of Napa, California, that I was able to put ALA to the test. I progressively took corners faster, building up speed and pushing myself harder into the grippy bolsters of the Alcantara seat. The Performante Spyder stayed as flat as the plains of Kansas, and never gave one hint of breaking traction from the front or the rear. Straight-line acceleration is just as impressive. Yes, at 3.1 seconds, the Spyder is .2 seconds slower to 62 miles per hour than the Performante Coupe. Unless you're racing for pink slips, that's imperceptible and meaningless in the real world. Keep the throttle pinned and you'll hit a top speed of 202 mph, which matches that of the Coupe. What those numbers don't tell you, though, is how it actually feels to lunge forward with all-wheel-drive traction from a dead stop and sense no slowdown in the rate of acceleration until you're too scared to keep your foot planted any longer. I suggest keeping your head pressed firmly against its rest before trying for yourself. The naturally aspirated V10 engine sitting directly behind the passenger compartment spins out 640 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of torque.

Lamborghini unleashes the refreshed Huracan Evo with Performante V10

After a series of teaser shots, Lamborghini has let the midcycle refresh of its Huracan out of the pen, with a new predictive-logic vehicle dynamics control system to go along with its more aerodynamic redesign. New photos show the sports car in full, with a new front bumper featuring a front splitter and integrated wing, with larger air intakes. Lamborghini's hexagon design references are evident in the windows, 20-inch wheels and the new side air intakes. We also get a full look at the redesigned rear, with the twin exhaust tips up high flanking the license plate and an integrated, slotted spoiler. Lamborghini says aerodynamic improvements, which also include the underbody, improve the Evo's downforce and aerodynamic efficiency more than five times over the Huracan's first generation. It's powered by the Performante 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10 that's been uprated to 640 horsepower and what the brand says is "an emotional and powerful sound" with titanium intake valves and a refined, lightweight exhaust system. It produces 442 pound-feet of torque at 6,500 rpm, does 0-62 mph in just 2.9 seconds (two tenths of a second faster than before), and has a top speed of more than 202 mph. New on the all-wheel-drive Huracan Evo is rear-wheel steering and a torque vectoring system that works the four wheels. There's also the Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata, a central processing unit that integrates all of the car's dynamic systems and setup to anticipate the next move and the driver's needs to respond with the appropriate driving dynamics. It's also got an enhanced 2.0 version of the Lamborghini Piattaforma Inerziale set of accelerators and gyroscope sensors, with improved precision at monitoring in real-time the lateral, longitudinal and vertical accelerations and also roll, pitch and yaw rates. Also improved is the magnetorheological suspension, which instantaneously adapts the damping based on inputs from the LPI. A new advanced traction-control system allows traction to be directed to a single wheel when needed, and steering is enhanced to provide higher responsiveness in corners, coupled with the rear-wheel steering to ensure agility at low speeds and maximum stability in high-speed cornering and under braking. Three driving modes are offered: Strada, Sport and Corsa race-track mode.

Lamborghini may offer rear-drive Huracan

Lamborghini may not offer a manual-transmission option on the new Huracán - so few customers were asking for it on the preceding Gallardo as it was - but don't think that it won't pursue ever more hardcore variants. And that will reportedly include a rear-drive version.
Speaking with journalists at the Pebble Beach unveiling of the new Huracán Super Trofeo, Lamborghini CEO Stefan Winkelmann is reported to have said, "We did it with the Gallardo so it might be an option. We are a four-wheel-drive super-sports car [manufacturer] but why should we not do a rear-drive option?"
The rear-drive Huracán would naturally shed a few pounds off the all-wheel-drive version's curb weight, but the question is just how much. There is said to have only been so much of the AWD system that Sant'Agata was able to strip out of the Gallardo to make the rear-drive Balboni edition after the fact, but if the Huracán was engineered from the get-go for both drivetrains, the rear-drive version could prove that much more thrilling to drive.