Update: 2015 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 Driven on Street and Track

After a decade-long run and 14,000 sales – almost half of the total number of Lamborghinis sold in the company’s 51 year history – the Gallardo is finally being put out to pasture, and the Huracan has stepped in to take its place. Its all-new aluminum and carbon fiber chassis, active suspension and a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission all point the way to a thoroughly modernized driving experience on paper, but what’s it like behind the wheel?  

 

 

Replacing the hugely popular Gallardo is no trivial task, and the folks from Lamborghini are quick to tout the new car as being the most accessible and driver friendly vehicle they’ve ever created. To that end, Lamborghini has gone to great lengths to make the Huracan a quantifiably more usable and enjoyable car than the Gallardo while still retaining the core elements that made the outgoing car such a sale success and a joy to drive both on the street and the road course.

 

 

Most notably, Lamborghini has pitched the dated single-clutch paddle shifted gearbox in favor of a proper dual clutch seven speed. This gearbox can already be found on the current Audi R8, and it is by any measure a massive step forward from the old unit. "It transforms the car" says EVO’s Matthew Hayward, providing faster shifts without the inherent clunkiness of the single-clutch.

 

The Huracan retains the 5.2 liter V10 from the Gallardo, but a host of improvements have been made to the naturally aspirated mill, which now outputs 602 horsepower and 413 lb-ft of torque and sports a new all-aluminum architecture. For those familiar with the Gallardo and the V10-powered Audi R8, the Huracan’s tune may be familiar one, but certainly not a song that anyone appears to be bored of just yet.

 

A new steering wheel mounted switch dubbed "Anima" controls the Strada, Sport, and Corsa driving modes on offer, which provide varying levels of damper stiffness, throttle response and gearshift scheduling, though mixing and matching your favorite settings from each is not an option. "We wanted Strada’s rear-torque bias and Corsa’s fully manual gearshift control, but the computer said no." lamented Road and Track’s Chris Chilton.

 

 

With its all wheel drive system, new gearbox, and 50 more horses on tap, the Huracan sprints to 62 mph from a standstill in just 3.2 seconds, an improvement of four tenths of a second over the Gallardo. While immensely quick, it’s still safely a few tenths behind its big brother, the Aventador. Interestingly, Lamborghini test drivers have pointed out that it’s actually a dead heat between the two around the Nardo test track, which puts the track focused Gallardo Squadra Corse two seconds behind both of them per lap. If kept on boil, the Huracan will max out at 202 mph.

 

 

Lamborghini’s pursuit of everyday usability appears to have come at the cost of some track precision. Mild all-wheel-drive understeer appears to be the most prevalent handling habit, and comparisons with the Ferrari 458 Speciale indicate that the Huracan as it stands now is simply not as precise and willing to rotate as its counterparts from Modena are. That said, as the first iteration of the Huracan, this is to be expected, and a host of more hardcore versions of the car are sure to come in the next few years. As a foundation for those, the Huracan shows great promise.

 

Check out the video below to get EVO’s take on the new baby Lambo, and be sure to keep an eye on the 2015 Lamborghini Huracan overview page for updates as we have them.