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Lamborghini Huracan STO revealed as the most extreme Huracan yet

Mercedes-AMG just snagged the Nurburgring production car lap record from Lamborghini, but the Italians might already have an answer. It’s called the Lamborghini Huracan STO, with the STO being short for Super Trofeo Omologata. And yes, this one is even more extreme than the already bonkers Huracan Performante. Lamborghini says two of its race cars inspired it to make this road-legal high-po Huracan — the Super Trofeo EVO and the GT3 EVO. As weÂ’d expect, itÂ’s still powered by the 5.2-liter V10. The good folks in SantÂ’Agata have found 10 more horses above the Performante, meaning the STO makes 640 horsepower. Torque sits at 417 pound-feet, which is actually down quite a bit from the 443 pound-feet of the Performante. ThereÂ’s no lack of acceleration, though. Lamborghini claims a 0-62 mph time of 3.0 seconds and top speed of 192.6 mph. Those numbers are great, but theyÂ’re not what the STO is about. No, this Lamborghini was designed to set fast lap times, meaning aerodynamics and weight were the two key areas that were enhanced. The STO is 95 pounds lighter than the already light Performante. We imagine the bulk of that can be attributed to Lamborghini making the STO rear-wheel drive, not all-wheel drive. Yes! A rear-drive Lamborghini — we love to see it. But thereÂ’s also a greater use of carbon fiber for exterior panels (75% are made of carbon now). Additionally, the windshield is 20% lighter than a Performante, and itÂ’s riding on magnesium wheels as opposed to aluminum alloys wheels. On the inside, Lamborghini uses carbon fiber sport seats, full carbon door panels, removes the carpeting (replaced with bare carbon fiber) and coats other surfaces with its Alcantara-like Carbonskin. All this combined results in a car with a dry weight of 2,952 pounds. Pushing it into the ground is an impressive downforce package. Lamborghini has added air ducts in the front hood for better airflow to the radiator and to generate downforce. A new front splitter better directs air to a totally new underbody meant to create greater downforce. And the front endÂ’s new design better directs air around the front wheels to reduce drag. New front brake ducts enhance cooling to the improved “CCM-R” brakes (new design drawing on racing brakes for even more thermal durability than standard carbon ceramics).

Lamborghini's path to the future is paved with forged composites

As far back as 1983, Lamborghini has been researching carbon fiber for automotive use. The automaker felt confident enough in its ability to work with the high-tech material in 1985 that a team led by Maurizio Reggiani, now the Lamborghini Board Member in charge of Research and Development, crafted a revolutionary Countach with a chassis made almost entirely of hand-laid carbon fiber. The result was spectacular in that the car's chassis weighed about half of its all-metal counterpart. It turned out that first foray into carbon fiber was just as spectacular when it was finally tested for crashworthiness, but in a completely different way. Catastrophic would be an appropriate word, according to Paolo Feraboli, who now leads Lambo's brand-new Advanced Composite Structures Laboratory in Seattle, Washington. Proving how far Lamborghini has come since that ill-fated carbon-fiber Countach Evoluzione, Feraboli told us during the ACSL's grand opening that today's Aventador, which boasts a high-tech carbon chassis, aced its very first crash test in 2009. Chalk that success up to high-tech computer modeling and the practical application of lessons learned over several decades of trial and error. The dull red monocoque of that crashed Aventador now hangs on the wall at the ACSL like a functional piece of art, a reminder of Lamborghini's cutting-edge milestones of the past. Lamborghini's future will be hewn from what the company calls forged composites. First seen on the stunning Sesto Elemento Concept from the 2010 Paris Motor Show, the patented carbon-forging process forgoes hand-laid sheets, injected resins, and high-heat autoclaves. Instead, wads of randomly oriented carbon fibers that sort of resemble the kind of dough you'd use to make pasta undergo a three-minute press inside a mold. The resulting parts are just as strong as other carbon-fiber bits, but can be mass-produced at a fraction of the cost. While it's true that cost is often a secondary consideration for high-end supercars, it's still relevant. By reducing the cost and increasing the scale of composite pieces, Lamborghini can then afford to spend more money on other parts of the car. It's not just body panels and chassis components that Lamborghini thinks it can build using forged composite technology. The Sesto Elemento featured forged-composite suspension control arms that haven't yet made it into production, but probably will soon.

World's Best Dad invites Lamborghini owners to son's birthday party

The resulting unalloyed joy, as you'll see in the footage below, is priceless.
One of my defining moments as a budding car enthusiast came the first time I got to see a Lamborghini up close. I was out in Los Angeles visiting a relative with my mother and sister, and I took the change of scenery as an opportunity to look for more exotic cars than my middle-class Midwestern upbringing would usually encounter. We were on a walk, when off in the distance I saw - and heard - something extraordinary: An early '80s Lamborghini Countach, black with those bronze five-hole wheels, pulling into a parking spot. My mom still takes great joy in periodically retelling the events of that day, and as the story goes, I joyfully took off without warning, chasing the car down the street shouting "Lamborghini!" "Lamborghini!!" in my best eight-year-old Italian accent.