“IT’S FAR LESS COMPROMISED ON
TRACK THAN YOU WOULD HAVE
THOUGHT LOOKING AT IT”
TOPGEAR.COM → JULY 2019 075
has spent a lot of time modif ying the Lamborghini Dinamica
Veicolo Integrata (LDVI) system to make the Sterrato more
rear-biased. After a couple of laps, you begin to enjoy this new
supple Lamborghini, turning in on the brakes to get the car
sliding, and then powering out on oversteer. It’s clearly not going
to threaten the regular Evo’s lap times, but its accessibility
and the enjoyment you get from a completely different kind of
Lambo experience is addictive. Moreover, it’s far less
compromised on track than you would have thought looking at it
sat in the pitlane.
Track work done, we move to the Strada Bianca, a ribbon of
white road made up of sand, dust, rocks and VERY SOLID
BANKS. This is where the Sterrato comes alive. Initially, my
onboard computer can’t process the fact I’m flat-out in third,
occasionally grabbing fourth and drifting a supercar around a
rally stage. To be honest, it feels wrong to me, and I spend my time
waiting for the chassis-compromising crunch as the car grounds
on landing, or the glow of the warning lights as the Italian diva
waves the white flag... but they never come. The Sterrato takes or,
rather, revels in the abuse.
It genuinely feels like you’re the latest star of Police, Camera,
Action! who has stolen someone’s supercar and are desperately
trying to flee the scene cross-country. But once you get past the
noise and remember the Sterrato was designed to do this, it
proves hugely capable and, without question, the most fun I have
had in a supercar.
In Corsa mode, the LDVI system has been revised to lengthen
the transition into oversteer, making it flattering and easier to
drift on broken and unpredictable surfaces. At the end of my
second stint, I get out expecting there to be some damage to the
car, such is the pounding the surface was giving it, and so
horrendous were the noises of stones battering it, but, while
covered in dirt, it sits happily idling with not a mark on it.
Dirty supercars, supercars that show they have been used,
have long been something we admire at TopGear. As the Sterrato
ticks cool, covered in an extreme layer of, er, ‘sterrato’, it looks
fabulous. It’s done enough during my time with it to make me
sincerely hope it makes the move from skunkworks R&D special
to production car.
In a world where the supercar spectrum is driven by the
pursuit of thousandths of a second, it’s refreshing for Lambo to
have the confidence to go in a different direction, and I genuinely
think it could be onto something.
As the world’s roads continue to deteriorate at a frankly
alarming rate, the chances of finding a road good enough to
fully pull the pin on a supercar become a vanishing rarity.
Emerging markets like China, Russia and India have hugely
disparate road quality and vast tracts of routes only reachable
by something off-road-capable. But why should a supercar, or,
more accurately, the supercar experience, be restricted to
roads? Too many of these incredible feats of engineering are
bought and hardly ever used, the surface of their potential barely
scratched. The Sterrato breaks the stereotype the supercar has
backed itself into, and offers a broader capability and with it
broader appeal.
Need to get to your Alpine retreat? Bolt the snowboard on the
roof and head for the snow line. Bored with Sunday evening traffic
back into LA? Why not take a diversion across the trails? Want a
supercar that can survive the harshest environment of all: daily
life in a megacity? The Sterrato has you covered.
What Lamborghini has created in the Sterrato is a diverse,
enjoyable and usable supercar for the battleground of the world
we find ourselves in today. A supercar that deserves to be let out of
the skunkworks and let loose on our planet.LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN STERRATO