It’s not uncommon for automakers to overuse—if not abuse—terms such as “extreme performance,” “uncompromising engineering” and “sensuous design.” Not Lamborghini. The Italian sports car maker not only lives up to every audacious adjective, but raises the bar on each one.
With the Huracán Spyder, Lamborghini has introduced a soft top solution that compromises neither the stiffness of the chassis nor the strength of the car’s sharp origami-like design. It does slow it down a tad, though: adding 0.2 seconds to the coupe‘s zero to 60 time of 3.2 seconds (due to 22o pounds of roof and its tucking-away mechanism.) It’s a small price to pay for topless pleasure.
Like most other Lamborghini’s, the Huracán is named after a bull known for particular courage, who succumbed to a bullfighter in 1879. It is also the Spanish word for hurricane, which isn’t a bad analogy to what it feels like to stomp the throttle to the floor. The Huracán shares key components with its corporate sibling, the Audi R8—already exceptional, race-proven DNA. But the engineers in Sant’Agata, Lamborghini’s HQ, manage to bring Italian passion to the Huracán’s performance, handling and above all sound.
On that note, my favorite detail of many is the window behind the driver’s head, which acts as a windscreen with the top tucked away and can be opened. Why? Because in case the V10’s screaming racket isn’t already loud enough for you, you can have some more.
Standing next to the Spyder, the car seems tiny; it stands under four feet tall. But climb inside the rich, leather-bound interior and the car feels surprisingly spacious. And comfortable—the carbon fiber-backed racing seats held me in place during the extreme turns, but managed to be supportive enough that even after hours of driving, I felt no fatigue.
The car’s interior and exterior are saturated with hexagons. All that honeycomb is actually Lamborghini’s artful recreation of the structural shape of the carbon atom—a material in large supply in the car.
With Audi’s engineering excellence and Lamborghini’s visceral flair, the Spyder is the ideal combination: a MENSA-level German in the body of an Italian stallion.
SPECS:
Huracán LP 610-4 Spyder
Base price: $262,350
Price as tested: $287,225
Engine: Mid-rear mounted 5.2-liter naturally aspirated V10
Drivetrain: 4 wheel-drive
Chassis: Carbon fiber and aluminum hybrid
Power: 610 hp and 413 lb. ft. @ 6,500 rpm
0 to 60: 3.4 sec
Top speed: 201 mph