2017 Lamborghini Huracan Performante review

You’re looking at the fastest production Lamborghini ever built – if you accept the Nurburgring as a standardised measure for such things, of course.

In October last year, in the hands of factory test driver Marco Mapelli, the Huracan Performante set a 6:52sec lap, faster than a Porsche 918 Spyder and Lamborghini’s own Aventador SV.

Not hanging about, then. With front-end styling inspired by a snake’s fangs, lashings of lacquered carbon fibre, bronze wheels, high-mounted exhausts and that rear wing, the Performante is actually – by Lamborghini standards – a relatively restrained effort. Generous use of composite materials, as well as looking cool, contribute to an overall weight saving of 40kg.

It’s quicker, too. The 0-100km/h time is now 2.9sec and a second has been taken off the 0-200km/h sprint, with 8.9sec. That’s serious speed. Fundamentally, though, it’s the same as the regular LP610-4, in that it drives all four wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch gearbox and can do all sorts of clever stuff with its front-to-rear torque distribution, actively adjustable magnetorheological dampers and controversial variable steering ratio.

The whole car feels tensed and ready for action, the variable steering ratio locks into a narrower and faster range, the damping sharpens and the aero vectoring element of the ALA system activates. Then there’s the engine. And what an engine. A naturally aspirated V10 closing on 8000rpm.

With aero vectoring effectively dragging the car into the corner by putting more downforce on the inside rear wheel, you need less lock than you think to hit the apex and the car turns in assertively and aggressively with the slightest twitch of your wrists (though there’s not a great deal of feel through the Alcantara-clad wheel).

On the street, for all its blistering track pace, the Performante is a surprisingly fun road car, too, the increased feedback actually giving you more than the regular Huracan. Drive it in Strada on the road and it’s like a regular Huracan with a big wing on the back – with the knowledge that in Corsa it’s a different animal.

Where supercars once set out to challenge, their primary goal is now to flatter. Unlike any Huracan before, the Performante now caters to the latter as much as it does the former.