ESCAPE
HIGH ROAD
Tangerine DREAM
Lamborghini’s new fast and furious Huracán EVO RWD Spyder is a party for the senses By Howard Walker We all know about endorphins, the spunky polypeptides produced by the body to stimulate feelings of immense pleasure. Eating chocolate and drinking wine are great endorphin releasers, but there’s another source of endorphin production that’s far more effective than any Godiva or Pinot Noir. Let me introduce you to the newest offering from Lamborghini, the tangerine dream machine known as the Huracán EVO RWD Spyder. The endorphins this 602-horsepower, V-10 engined beauty delivers are up there with hearing Pavarotti hit the high notes of “Nessun Dorma” or receiving a basket of kittens to cuddle. 56
There aren’t enough superlatives in Webster’s to adequately describe the way this hurricane-force machine can slingshot itself off the line, dragster-style. Nothing prepares you for the ensuing mayhem as this rocket ship spins its rear wheels like a Fourth of July pinwheel, lunging at the horizon in a haze of flambéed rubber. I’ve driven plenty of superfast cars; this one scared the snot out of me. Time, perhaps, for CliffsNotes on the raging bull from Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy. Introduced in 2014, the Huracán replaced the much-loved Gallardo as the first rung on the ladder of Lamborghini ownership. Over the
years it evolved first into the Huracán Performante, then the EVO. But it always stuck with all-wheel drive to help wrangle all that power—and keep drivers out of the hedgerows. For purists, having all-wheel drive has been a bone of contention. They argue that it somehow desensitized the car, taking away the raw, driverfocused, laser-precise responses. Last year, however, the wraps came off the Huracán EVO RWD, with that honking mid-mounted 5.2-liter V-10 spinning just the rear rims. More nimble and tailhappy, it instantly became the most fun-driving old-school Lambo money could buy. And speaking of lira, the base price of the Florida-orange Spyder convertible is $229,428, around $15,000 more than the $214,366 Coupe version. Must-have add-on options easily take the sticker north of $250,000. Toggle a switch and that tight-fitting canvas roof powers back, disappearing beneath a hard cover in a mere 17 seconds and at speeds up to 31 mph. Top down, the Huracán makes a terrific convertible, with hardly any wind
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5/27/21 3:07 PM
