Lamborghini's Huracan Performante will rewrite the rules of aerodynamics

By Ronan Glon January 24, 2017

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 Metal components have been replaced by carbon fiber parts, and niceties deemed unnecessary on a street-legal track car have been sent back to the parts bin.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

Topics

Contributor

Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…

Space

Lamborghini will send an experiment to the International Space Station

Lamborghini Huracan Performante Spyder live

Lamborghini won't equal Elon Musk's feat of sending a car into space, but it will send pieces of one. Next month, the Italian automaker will send five samples of carbon fiber to the International Space Station (ISS) for testing. Lamborghini claims to be the first automaker to conduct materials science research on the ISS.

The goal of the project is to see how the five samples react to the stresses of space, Lamborghini said. Researchers will be analyzing the results with an eye toward using the materials not only in future cars, but also in medical devices. In 2017 Lamborghini signed an agreement with the Houston Methodist Research Institute to jointly research the biocompatibility of composite materials. The low weight, radio transparency, and radio compatibility of these materials could make them useful in prosthetics and subcutaneous devices, according to Lamborghini.

Cars

Lamborghini’s latest supercar is too extreme for the road

lamborghini 830 hp squadra corse supercar teaser

Lamborghini is known for craziness, but with other automakers developing more extreme supercars, the raging bull risks being overshadowed. So Lamborghini is upping the ante with a hardcore, track-only supercar. Developed by the automaker's Squadra Corse racing division, the unnamed supercar will be unveiled in 2020.

Details on the new supercar are scarce, but a Lamborghini press release said it would be powered by a version of the 6.5-liter V12 used in the Aventador and certain limited-edition models. The output will be 830 horsepower, but from the 759 hp, the V12 makes in its most potent form today. This may be one of the lats Lamborghini models to feature a pure V12 powertrain. Lambo has indicated that the Aventador's successor, due in 2022, will have a hybrid powertrain.

Cars

Lamborghini’s first EV will be ‘mature’ and based on the Taycan, report says

Lamborghini Aventador S Roadster

Lamborghini has hinted that it will eventually launch an electric car, but that first all-electric model may not be one of the Italian automaker's traditional supercars. Lamborghini is planning a four-door "grand tourer" based on the Porsche Taycan, Autocar reports.

Lambo is working on a fourth model to join the Aventador and Huracán supercars and Urus SUV, Maurizio Reggiani, the automaker's research and development boss, said in an interview with Autocar. The timing of that fourth model, which won't launch for a few more years, means that it will be the "right time" for an electric powertrain, Reggiani said.