LAMBORGHINI HURACAN EVO By Maarten Hoffmann
T
he word Lamborghini has always conjured up evocative thoughts of eroticism, drama, Monaco and movie stars - oh, and death. Death because that is how many people ended up if they were not paying very keen, laser like focus on their driving at all times. The Lambo was never easy to drive, never relaxing, always on the ragged edge and that is why we admired them but rarely ever bought them - just too much in a busy 21st century life. The old tractor maker that is Lamborghini remained on that path until the company was purchased by the VW group and placed under Audi control back in 1998. The Germans of course do not like killing their customers as it is very bad for repeat business and they took to smoothing out the wrinkles and producing cars that can actually be driven. Their current
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SURREY BUSINESS
line-up is the V12 Aventador, the V10 Huracan and the all-new FWD Urus. I reviewed the Urus back in April and the Aventador is in the garage for next week so l will concentrate my focus on the new Huracan Evo. Anything the company does has to square up to its natural enemies - Ferrari and McLaren. The step change here over the original Huracan is what they call Lamborghini Dynamic Veicolo Integrata or LDVI, a super computer that controls everything including your ability to kill yourself. LDVI rules over everything on the car from the chassis to the powertrain and includes a predictive element. They claim the Evo model has seven times more aero effi ciency than the previous model.
In addition, there’s a set of accelerators and gyroscope sensors positioned at the heart of the car’s centre of gravity, which provide real-time monitoring of lateral, longitudinal and vertical loads, as well as body roll, pitch and yaw. The suspension’s magnetic damping is also part of the equation, as is the traction control, the Evo’s all-wheel drive, torque vectoring, dynamic steering, and the active rear axle. So what of it? Mightily impressive is all l can say and if l hadn’t written it l wouldn’t know that all that computer jazz was going on - and l don’t care.