  2015 Lamborghini Huracán. Click image to enlarge |
Review and photos by Michael Bettencourt
My Italian’s a tad rusty, but I’m fairly certain that “Lamborghini Huracán” roughly translates to “frenzied R8 V10”. As in a more triangular, jaw-dropping, and feral version of Audi’s slightly more restrained mid-engine exotic.
Or so I thought going into my street drive of the Huracán, a brief half-hour fling of fantasy on the back roads surrounding the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park, née Mosport. With the Huracán starting at about 260 large in Canada, or roughly a hundred grand over what Audi charges for its 10-cylinder R8, any notion of value at those stratospheric price points are certainly in the Swiss bank accounts of the one-percenters. After driving a few versions of the exciting but aging Lamborghini Gallardo in the past few years, the usefully updated and still sexy R8 seemed the much wiser supercar investment.
Plus the Audi has a one year longer basic warranty. Which I imagine has swayed precisely zero buyers to opt for the Audi over the Gallardo, because the Lambo’s appeal has always been more emotional than anything else.
It’s this emotion that Lamborghini is banking on with the all-new 2015 Huracán, which will start arriving to North American customers by the end of the summer. The company needs this magic Italian adrenaline elixir to keep flowing, because the Gallardo has been a prime driver of the brand’s recent success, and the bestselling Lamborghini of all time. Granted, that sales title is partly because it lasted a full decade on the market, long even amongst generally elongated supercar lifespans. But the Huracán has the crowd slobbering looks and extra-revvy power over the top R8 to maintain its animalistic appeal, while refinements inside as well as with the adjustable suspension now bring it right up to the cutting edge of civilized.
The V-shaped LEDs glowed menacingly at passersby on a rainy recent morning at Mosport, when the Lamborghini Blancpain Super Trofeo Gallardo spec series was in town, but could very well have sported tractor beam powers, judging by the way folks milled around two Huracáns parked near the ‘gentlemen’ racer Blancpain trailers. The Aventador used as a pace car for the series occasionally parked nearby also attracted plenty of attention, especially when it took folks for a dizzyingly fast lap around the circuit (it hit about 250 km/h charging along the uphill back straight, and felt like it was about to hit four-wheel liftoff/orbit).
  2015 Lamborghini Huracán dashboard. Click image to enlarge |
But the new and so far rarely seen Huracáns were clearly attracting the higher number of cell phone and camera snaps.
Inside, the two Huracáns on display had candy-coloured interior seats to match their eye-grabbing yellow and tangerine paint jobs. Nothing subtle here, and like the pelvic-height exterior, seemingly made for stretching necks and twisting panties alike.
 2015 Lamborghini Huracán ignition & shifter. Click image to enlarge |
Like the Aventador, the Huracán’s ignition switch is between the front seats, this one mounted higher up on the centre console, but also dramatically covered in a rocket-launcher red plastic cover. The sound of the V10 upon hitting that Start/Stop button is appropriately like a raging bull as it’s poked with a nail in the rear just before it bursts out of its tight enclosure. This is not the car to take for a 2 am spin if you care anything at all about what the neighbours think. And yes, even in the Lamborghinis’ natural habitats, the noise will flood the neighbours’ gated compounds or shake the foundation of posh downtown condos.
The big news inside is the new ‘anima’ personality selector on the lowest spoke of the steering wheel, which allows the car to move from the default Strada position (no Normal or Comfort for any self-respecting Lambo) to increasingly aggressive Sport and Corsa positions. The other steering wheel spokes have controls for windshield wipers on one side, and turn signals on the other, leaving all the real estate behind the steering wheel free for the large shift paddles of the new dual-clutch, seven-speed transmission. If this sounds like a blatant copy of the Ferrari 458’s steering wheel and setup, well, the Lambo’s anima system is not a dial, but a rocker switch.
