DESERT CENTER, California — Lamborghinis he knows something about his buyers: they like being able to appear and perform ridiculous acts. Typically, that means scissor-hinged doors and unhinged performance on the pavement. Sometimes, though, Lambo It brought its boundary-clearing show off-road, and not just because the stability control failed spectacularly. The legendary LM002 was a V12-engined luxury pickup truck destined largely by Emirati sheikhs to glide over sand dunes, while the marque’s best-seller aurochs it’s more than capable of doing silly things in places harsher than the drive-thru at Starbucks.
And now, plowing sideways down a dirt road and into the Lambo pantheon of shitty off-road vehicles comes the 601-horsepower, V10-powered, $273,000, limited-edition 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato. It is raised 44mm or 1.73 inches for more ground clearance and suspension travel. The track is widened by 30mm at the front and 34mm at the rear, enough to require bolt-on fenders. Its ticklish underside is armored with aluminum skid plates. The body is safari with nostril-like driving lights, roof bars to support a roof rack and a snorkel so it can breathe easier when drawing lines in the sand. Looks like less a supercars and more like the getaway vehicle for a pair of tomb robbers, looking to sneak out of Giza ahead of the culture police, and whatever curses the thieves may have uncorked.
Just a few weeks before crossing the Sterrato – literally, Through – the Southern California desert, I’d been behind the wheel of its slightly cheaper, alternative-missions sister, the Huracán Tecnica, on the winding Italian mountain roads. With 30 more horsepower, rear wheel drive, rear wheel steer, an optimized exhaust system and Bridgestone Potenza Race tires, it was surprisingly pleasant and easy to drive fast, even/especially through technical twists and explosive turns.
The Sterrato was an entirely different bullfight, but remarkably similar in its ability to elevate my riding skills. It was so simple to ride well through the switchbacks, arcing sweepers and elevation-changing chicanes usually used by dirt bike racers that it was truly amazing. I’ve driven all sorts of truck and SUVs in the sand, but I’ve never had this experience with a “safari” performance car.
Lo Sterrato is a revelation in this sense. Its “Rally” mode and torque vectoring all-wheel drive system, coupled with an optimized version of the HuracanThe seven-speed dual-clutch transmission and the electronically locking rear differential – they knew exactly what to do, no matter what the desert, once again literallythrew at him.
“Imagine the wheels being less like a normal wheel and more like the rudder of a boat,” my co-driver and Lamborghini works driver told me. “The harder you ride, the more they push into the sand and let the torque vectoring do its job of finding grip.”
At first I didn’t believe him: I was uncertain in my first laps. But once I allowed myself to succumb to the dirt track’s intelligence, he rewarded me with visceral glee. Rarely does adding more steering and more power work on a trail, but by using this recipe in the dust, the Sterrato knew exactly what to do under whatever circumstances I tried to bog it down. Alternating between happy tail and happy nose, he delighted in finding hold and digging out. I don’t really understand the physics, but driving the Dirt Bike off-road turned out to be one of those experiences where using a bigger hammer somehow yields more accurate results.
The 1.73-inch lift is sparse, but provides enough confidence to traverse ruts, washboards, sand traps, and small hillocks. Surprisingly, it also felt more capable on the road than any other mid-engined Lamborghini I’ve driven as it’s more capable of attacking curb cuts and parking lot entrances without fear of dermabrading the underside of the front clip’s front clip. . That kind of confidence alone is worth a $30,000 price bump over a regular Huracan. If you could even buy one – all 1,499 are apparently spoken.
Some credit goes to the knobby run-flats, 235/40/19 (front) and 285/40/19 Dueler AT002, custom-designed by Bridgestone for the combined needs of Gravel riding for high output capability, loose and remote use of the desert. With a sidewall significantly wider than a typical Huracan, the car felt distinctly comfortable on the highway and the crumbly asphalt that runs through Joshua Tree National Park. And while the aggressive tread made it a little louder (with assistance from the howling V10) I found myself willing to make the trade-off. Or wondering if Lamborghini, or everyone, should just shoehorn their Exotics with smaller wheels and higher profile tires.
Lamborghinis, like all supercars really, are for extroverts. Being watched is kind of the point. But the Dirt Road takes this look to another level. Every moment of the ride, I felt like a 50-pound sack of dried antelope meat thrown into a lion’s den. If I had a dune desert in my backyard, or an even greater need to be looked at, I’d want a Dirt Road more than I already do. As it is, it is an ideal coupe de grace for the Huracan line, a thrilling finale, in a car that, like the marque itself, exemplifies affection for a ridiculous erasure of boundaries.
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