New Huracán Sweet spot between Evo and STO?

OFFICIAL PICTURES

Huracán Tecnica will go on sale this year priced beyond £200k

Carbonfibre engine cover lies flat and is positioned so as to allow for a new vertical rear window, which improves visibility. New exhaust system, with hardware and software changes, is said to give the engine an aural edge over the STO in the upper reaches of its 8500rpm scope.

Huracán broadens its appeal

Lamborghini’s new 631bhp Tecnica version aims to mix the best of the Evo and STO

amborghini has launched

Lthe most versatile and ambitious version of the mid-engined Huracán supercar to date.

With styling lightly inspired by the hybridised Sián hypercar, the rear-driven Tecnica will bridge the gap between the Huracán Evo and the hardcore STO when it arrives later this year at an expected asking price comfortably in excess of £200,000.

Chief technical officer Rouven Mohr described it as “more or less a combination of both [existing] cars”. As such, the spread of its recalibrated driving modes is broad, with Strada offering the same languid cruising manners as the regular Huracán Evo and Corsa bringing the Tecnica close to the aggression of the STO. However, midway Sport mode will be the new car’s ace card, enabling levels of controllable oversteer never before seen in any modern Lamborghini, according to Mohr, who this year returned from Audi for his second stint in Sant’Agata, replacing Maurizio Reggiani (now at the firm’s Squadra Corse motorsport division).

Driver confidence is apparently the single most important element of the car’s character, with genuinely approachable on-limit handling being the priority.

Like the STO, the Tecnica is solely rear driven and is powered by the same 631bhp 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10, mated to Lamborghini’s seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and an electronically controlled limited-slip differential.

As for outright performance, 0-62mph is dispatched in a claimed 3.2sec, 100mph goes by in 9.1sec and the top speed is 203mph.

The Tecnica uses the same rear-wheel steering system as the track-focused STO. It knits the agility- and stabilityenhancing effects of that system with brake-based torque vectoring and adaptive

Driver can expect 0-62mph in 3.2sec and 203mph flat out

WHAT’S THE TECNICA LIKE TO DRIVE?

Driving a late-development prototype Tecnica on track at Nardò is huge fun, even if it feels like a step down after the spikier adrenaline highs of the Huracán STO. The Tecnica is clearly more road focused than its race-inspired sibling.

That’s no bad thing: the STO’s refinement could politely

Sport mode allows you to get the tail out wide

be described as marginal. But it does make the Tecnica a less intense ten-tenths experience. Its V10 is noticeably quieter when being revved out – apparently, tougher drive-by regulations are partially to blame for that – and it has less darty front-end responses thanks to fixed-ratio steering.

Yet once turned in to Nardò’s many corners, the Tecnica produces huge grip and the exciting, edgy sensation that comes from big power and rear-wheel drive. The dynamic systems still keep guard, but the intermediate Sport dynamic mode allows a liberal amount of low-speed power oversteer. The more trackfocused Corsa setting actually prioritises grip over slip. The steering’s power assistance is still a little too generous compared with the junior supercar norm, but the brake pedal is weightier and easier to modulate than the STO’s.

The Tecnica is secure, exploitable and enormously quick on track – but I suspect real roads will suit it better. MIKE DUFF