2022 Lamborghini Huracan Evo Spyder Awd on 2040-cars

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Performance doesn't matter anymore, it's all about the feel

We've just had a week of supercars and high-end EVs revealed. Many of them boast outrageous performance specs. There were multiple vehicles with horsepower in the four-figure range, and not just sports cars, but SUVs with 0-60 mph times under 3.5 seconds. And it's not just a rarified set of supercar builders, comparatively small tuners are also building this stuff. Going fast is easy nowadays and getting easier. So what will distinguish the greats from the wannabes? It's all about how a car feels. This may seem obvious. "Of course it matters that a car should have good steering feel and a playful chassis!" you say. "Why are you being paid for this stuff?" But a lot of automakers have missed the memo. This past week I spent some time in a BMW M4 Competition convertible, and it's a perfect example of prioritizing performance over experience. It boggles my mind how a company can create such dead and disconnected steering; the weight never changes, there's no feel whatsoever. The chassis is inflappable, but to a fault, because it doesn't feel like anything you're doing is difficult or exciting. The car is astoundingly fast and capable, but it feels less like driving a car and more like tapping in a heading on the Enterprise-D. I also happened to drive something of comparable performance that was much more enjoyable: a Mercedes-AMG GT. It was a basic model with the Stealth Edition blackout package, and even though it had a twin-turbo V8 instead of a six-cylinder, it only made 20 more horsepower. The power wasn't the big differentiator, it was (say it with me) the feel. While not the best example, the steering builds resistance as you dial in lock, giving you a better idea of what's happening up front. Pulses and vibrations come back to you as you move over bumpy pavement in corners. The chassis isn't quite as buttoned down, either, providing a little bit of body roll that tells you you're pushing it. It's also easier to feel when the car is wanting to understeer or oversteer, and how your throttle and steering inputs are affecting it. The whole thing is much more involving, exciting and fun. 2021 Mercedes-AMG GT Stealth Edition View 8 Photos That's also to say nothing of the Merc's sounds. That V8 is maybe not the best sounding engine, but its urgent churn through the opened-up exhaust gets your heart racing. It also seems like it's vibrating the whole cabin, so you feel it as much as you hear it.

2018 Lamborghini Huracan Performante Second Drive | The Lambo of the moment

Down the front straight, past the pits, over the start/finish line, sixth gear at 140 mph. Suddenly, the shrieking wail of the 2018 Lamborghini Huracan Performante's mid-mounted V-10 and hits me right between the eyes. It's an easy shot, since I'm wearing an open-face helmet. Speed is not a problem for the Performante. This new lighter and more powerful version of the Huracan is the best-performing Lambo of all time. It just set the new production-car record around the Nurburgring Nordschleife of 6 minutes, 52.1 seconds. That's 35 seconds quicker than the standard Huracan. And Lambo says it can accelerate from 0 to 62 mph in 2.9 seconds, which is as quick as the Aventador S. Its 202-mph top speed still lags the top end of the V-12-powered Aventador by 15 mph, but does it really matter? Completely flat, smooth as glass and just 1.8 miles around, Thermal's South Palm Circuit isn't exactly the Nordschleife, but the bathrooms are much fancier. Built in 2014, the luxurious Thermal Motorsports Club outside of Palm Springs, Calif., is an ideal facility for us to taste the 2018 Huracan Performante. If owners of the $274,390 supercar want a safe and controlled environment to wring out their new toy, chances are it will be at private amusement parks such as this. In the age of twin-turbos, the Huracan's naturally aspirated V10 is a (glorious) anachronism. In the Performante, it has been cranked up to 640 hp at 8,000 rpm and 442 lb-ft of torque at 6,500 rpm, a 30-hp and 40-lb-ft increase over the standard all-wheel-drive model, and it's all above 6,000 rpm. Displacement remains 5.2 liters, but Lambo's engineers added lighter titanium intake valves, more aggressive camshafts, a less-restrictive air intake and a lighter freer-flowing exhaust system. The engine's compression ratio remains a stratospheric 12.7:1, and it runs into a very aggressive rev limiter at 8,500 rpm. The Performante is 88 pounds lighter than the standard Huracan Coupe thanks to liberal use of the company's patented Forged Composite, which it calls the lightest, strongest and most innovative material ever used by Lamborghini. Chopped fibers embedded in a matrix of resins, it's sort of like carbon fiber 2.0, although its finish looks like high-tech camo with golden flecks. It's all over the Performante, including its massive rear spoiler, rear bumper and diffuser, front spoiler and its engine cover, which weights 21 percent less than the piece it replaced.

188,000-mile Lamborghini Huracan from Las Vegas rental fleet listed for sale

If you're shopping for a Lamborghini Huracan, you're far more likely to find a low-mileage example than one that has covered the planet's equatorial circumference nearly five times. There is a notable exception to this rule looking for a new owner in Las Vegas, unsurprisingly, and the seller says nearly 2,000 people have driven it. Houston Crosta, the seller, told Car & Driver the 2015 Huracan was the first car he bought when he founded a business named Royalty Exotic Cars that specializes in renting high-end, high-horsepower machines to Vegas tourists who want to up their bling. If you've visited Sin City recently, you may have seen this wedge-shaped bull racing up and down The Strip. Crosta estimated about 1,900 renters have put an incredible 188,000 miles on the Huracan in five years; that's 302,000 kilometers, if you're more comfortable with the metric system. Either way, it's a lot. If rental-car miles are the automotive equivalent of dog years, rental supercar miles in Las Vegas are like putting wear-and-tear on fast-forward. And yet, Crosta claims the Huracan has been surprisingly reliable. He had to replace the seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission at about 180,000 miles but otherwise did "nothing but oil changes and basic service." Even the interior seems to have held up. Crosta's other exotics haven't fared as well. He has also owned a Lamborghini Aventador that somehow ended up on fire, a Ferrari 458 which went through seven transmissions, and a McLaren 650S that also met a fiery end. Speed enthusiasts who want to scratch their gambling itch without traveling to Las Vegas can buy the Huracan, which is listed for $130,000 on eBay, and try to take it beyond the 200,000-mile mark. Whether it's worth that is debatable; Crosta has received offers in the vicinity of $100,000 and shot them down, according to Car & Driver. In comparison, a 2015 Huracan with under 10,000 miles is worth between $180,000 and $200,000.