Awd 560-4 + Nav + Rr Cam + Piano Blk Trim + Q-citura + Apollos + Bi-color Lthr on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Lamborghini shows off 2023 Huracan 60th Anniversary models at Fashion Week

As promised, Lamborghini pulled back the covers on its run of 60th anniversary Huracans. The three trims, Super Trofeo Omologata (STO), Tecnica, and EVO Spyder each come in two fashion-influenced colorways, and each will come in a run of 60 units for a total of 180 produced. The STO is inspired by sportwear and the athletic team kit. The first version comes in various shades of blue over black, the second version in gray over black. The Huracan Tecnica looks to motorsports liveries and the Italian flag, one variant in gray over black and red, the other in white with green stripes over black. The droptop EVO Spyder is a remix of the other two, available in either blue and white over black, or green with white strips over black. Of note, CEO Stephan Winkelmann said "The special editions of the Huracan not only celebrate the 60th anniversary of our brand, but also give our customers maybe the last chance to purchase an otherwise sold-out V10-powered Lamborghini." We think "maybe" is an important word in this sentence. The high-riding Sterrato only got 1,499 units that disappeared faster than wet cotton candy. The standard Huracan is sold out through 2024, as is everything else coming out the Sant'Agata Bolognese factory. Yet the Huracan successor isn't due until the end of 2024, according to a Road & Track report. Eighteen months that will include the afterglow of a huge birthday year is a long time to go without one-third of the lineup, especially at a company that loves — and succeeds so well at — special editions. As for that successor, about the only agreement among rumors is that the chassis be a modified version of the platform created for the flagship Revuelto. Car magazine says the hybrid V12's carbon-heavy "monofuselage" will be reworked with aluminum to lower the price. As recently as last November, some pubs said they expected Lamborghini to stick with a V10, Auto Express writing about Lamborghini technical officer Rouven Mohr saying, "[the new car is] not a range-oriented hybrid and there will be no kind of downsizing," the mag saying Mohr conveyed the sentiment "that itÂ’s against LamborghiniÂ’s philosophy to reduce the engine size and then 'compensate' with electrification as some rivals have done."  A twin-turbo hybrid V8 has come up more recently, this engine being of Lamborghini's design. No longer having a corporate sibling in the Volkswagen Group stable to share V10 hybrid costs and upkeep with, a hybrid V8 makes much more sense.

2023 Lamborghini Sterrato First Drive: Ridiculous obliteration of boundaries

DESERT CENTER, Calif. — Lamborghini knows something about its buyers: They like to be able to appear, and to perform acts that are, ridiculous. Normally, thatÂ’s meant scissor-hinged doors and unhinged performance on pavement. On occasion, though, Lambo has taken its boundary-obliterating show off-road – and not just because stability control spectacularly failed. The legendary LM002 was a V12-powered luxury pickup largely meant from Emirati sheiks to power-slide up sand dunes, while the brandÂ’s best-selling Urus is more than capable of doing silly things in places more rugged than the Starbucks drive-thru. And now, plowing sideways through a dirt track and into the pantheon of LamboÂ’s bat-shit off-road vehicles comes the 601-horsepower, V10-powered, $273,000, limited-edition 2023 Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato. It is lifted 44 mm or 1.73 inches for greater ground clearance and suspension travel. The track is widened by 30 mm up front and 34 mm in the rear, enough to require bolted-on fender flares. Its tickly underside is armored with aluminum skid plates. The body is safari-fied with nostil-like driving lights, roof bars to support a gear-toting rack, and a snorkel so it can breathe more readily when drawing lines in the sand. It looks less like a supercar and more like the getaway vehicle for a pair of tomb raiders, looking to sneak out of Giza ahead of the cultural police, and whatever curse the thieves may have uncorked. Just a few weeks before driving the Sterrato through  —  literally, through  —  the Southern California desert, I had been behind the wheel of its slightly-cheaper and alternatively-missioned sibling, the Huracan Tecnica, in twisty Italian mountain roads. With 30 more horsepower, rear-wheel-drive, rear-wheel-steering, a tuned exhaust system, and Bridgestone Potenza Race tires, it was surprisingly delightful and easy to drive quickly, even/especially through technical turns and blasting curves. The Sterrato was a whole different bullfight, but remarkably similar in its capacity to elevate my driving skills. It was so simple to drive well through bounding hairpins, arcing sweepers, and elevation-switching chicanes — usually utilized by dirt bike racers — that it was actually startling. I have driven all manner of trucks and SUVs in the sand, but IÂ’ve never had this experience with a “safariÂ’d” performance car. The Sterrato is a revelation in this respect.

Lamborghini wants to grow, but it will never become big

Lamborghini had a record year in 2021: it delivered 8,405 cars, an increase of 13% over 2020 and, tellingly, 6,803 units more than in 2011. Almost all of the company's production capacity for 2022 is spoken for, so its popularity doesn't look like it's going to wane anytime soon. Andrea Baldi, the head of the Americas region for Lamborghini, sat down with Autoblog to talk about what this growth means for the future. "We have more than a year-long waiting time for every model. Even for the Huracan, which we launched in 2014. It's not just the STO; it's the all- and rear-wheel-drive variants as well. We pre-sold the Aventador Ultimae in three weeks in July 2021, which was a record," Baldi pointed out. The more family-focused Urus has been hugely popular as well; it's the best-selling Lamborghini with 5,021 deliveries in 2021. Lamborghini plans to continue growing in the coming years, it will notably unveil four new models in 2022, but there's a set limit to how far it can stretch. The executive team's idea is not to rival Audi in terms of size, or even Porsche. "We definitely want to scale up our production a bit. The big chance for us is the jump into hybridization, because it means that we'll get a new generation of cars. We'll start in 2023 with the Aventador's successor, and the entire range will gradually be electrified after that. This gives us an opportunity for the Aventador and Huracan successors to have a production line that can make more cars," Baldi revealed. He stopped short of telling us precisely how many more, but the increase will be relatively small — and maintaining the brand's exclusivity will be of paramount importance. "The idea will always be to have one car less than demand," he noted. "We will always have a waiting time but it should be shorter, so we need a little more production capacity. If you sit in front of your house and watch 10,000 cars go by, one will be a Lamborghini. We're talking about a small-digit percentage increase, but for a luxury brand it will be a big change," Baldi added. Going hybrid unlocks other opportunities, like the ability to reach new buyers while letting the firm stay on the right side of ever-stricter regulations. And yet, many of its customers still associate a super-sports car with a mighty internal combustion engine.