Skip to main content

Lamborghini's Huracan Performante will rewrite the rules of aerodynamics

2015 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster
Ronan Glon/Digital Trends
Lamborghini will travel to the Geneva Auto Show to unveil an even more extreme variant of the Huracán, Digital Trends can reveal.

“We are going to introduce the Huracán Performante in Geneva, I think it will be very interesting and you will see why,” company boss Stefano Domenicali told us on the sidelines of the international launch of the Aventador S. “Then, of course, we are getting ready to launch the Urus. We will be very specific on that very soon. I believe in Geneva we will be able to tell you more,” he added.

Part of building a more extreme Huracán involved removing over 220 pounds of weight. Metal components have been replaced by carbon fiber parts, and niceties deemed unnecessary on a street-legal track car have been sent back to the parts bin. Power will be provided by an evolution of the stock model’s naturally-aspirated, 5.2-liter V10 engine tuned to send over 610 horsepower to all four wheels.

The Huracán Performante will be a rolling showcase of Lamborghini’s technological prowess. Notably, it will usher in a new active aerodynamics system unique in the world of street cars.

“I can tell you we discovered something that is big news, it doesn’t exist [yet], we invented it,” hinted Maurizio Reggiani, the head of Lamborghini’s research and development department, in an interview with Australian website Motoring.

Lamborghini extensively tested the Huracán Performante on Germany’s famed Nürburgring track, and engineers’ efforts have paid off. Reggiani confirmed the Performante is quicker than the Aventador SV, which lapped the 12.9-mile long circuit in six minutes and 59 seconds. Rumors indicate it’s even faster than the Porsche 918 Spyder, which finished about two seconds ahead of the SV.

Stay tuned, we’ll bring you full details about the Lamborghini Huracán Performante — and more information about the Urus — in early March. We’ll be on location in Switzerland to snap live images of the newest Raging Bull.

Editors' Recommendations

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Lamborghini’s newest concept car is a gamer’s dream come true
lamborghini creates v12 vision gt concept for gran turismo sport 1

Previous

Next

Read more
The Lamborghini Museum houses 55 Years of technical innovation
Lamborghini-Museum

The Lamborghini story begins with a worn out clutch disc. Specifically, an old clutch disc in a Ferrari. Ferruccio Lamborghini was a wealthy industrialist in postwar Italy, who had made his fortune producing farm equipment. He had purchased a Ferrari and discovered that the clutch disc was the same part used in a Lamborghini tractor. This led to angry words with Enzo Ferrari and then to a bitter Lamborghini promising to build a better sports car.

There are few motivators more effective than wounded pride, and Lamborghini shortly produced his first car, the beautiful 350GT in 1964. An example of this car, along with other significant Lamborghini models up to the present day, is on display at the Museo Delle Tecnologie at Automobili Lamborghini headquarters in the northern Italian town of Sant'Agata Bolognese. The town and factory are located about 30 minutes outside the city of Bologna.

Read more
Lamborghini and MIT want to replace batteries with supercapacitors
2020 lamborghini sian is a high tech hypercar with hybrid power

Lamborghini wants to build hybrid and electric cars, but it doesn't want them to have batteries. While other automakers pursue new battery tech for greater range and performance, Lamborghini is trying something entirely different. The Italian automaker has teamed up with MIT to develop supercapacitors for electric cars.

MIT and Lamborghini began working on supercapacitors together three years ago. The technology was previewed on the limited-edition Lamborghini Sián and the Terzo Millenio concept car, but now engineers are taking a step toward making it a true competitor to batteries. MIT's chemistry department and Lamborghini have jointly filed a patent for materials that, according to Lamborghini, could make wider use of automotive supercapacitors possible.

Read more