2019 Lamborghini Huracan Evo quick review

What is it?

Lamborghini’s ‘baby’ of the high-performance line-up is now five years old and due for an update. Rather than a light refresh, the Huracan has been treated to a significant injection of technology and a major front and rear re-sculpting.

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For now, the earlier LP 580-2 and LP 610-4 versions will continue to be on sale in both coupe and convertible (Spyder) forms, but the new Evo sits above them alongside the mighty Performante. But who is the Huracan hero? Our first overseas drive begins to answer the question.

How much is the Lamborghini Huracan Evo?

Australian customers will be asked $459,441 for the Huracan Evo Coupe and the first examples will arrive in the third quarter of the year. For a similar budget you could also have a Ferrari 488 ($469,888), a top of the range Audi R8 V10 Plus (leaving plenty of change at $389,325), while $461,200 will get you into the flagship Porsche 911 Turbo S.

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The Huracan coupe range kicks off locally at $378,900 for the LP 580-2 and tops out at $483,866 for the Performante. Spyder versions cost more but Lamborghini has not yet confirmed a topless version of the Huracan Evo.

Who is this car for?

Put simply, a very select few. A Huracan Evo buyer will be after something more sophisticated than the original LP variants, with as much potency as the Performante, but without its ostentatious wings and spoilers.

All Huracan variants offer a high-performance car that is at the very cutting edge of technology and performance for a street-legal car, packaged up in Italian styling that’s impossible to mistake for anything else on the road.

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Is the Huracan Evo easy to live with?

Not if you want a big boot, room for more than one passenger, don’t have off-street parking, care about fuel economy or want a vehicle that is easy and elegant to get in and out of.

But if you’re in the market for something with the athletic ability of a mid-engined, two-seater super coupe then it’s likely you are willing to make compromises for one of the most electrifying vehicles available.

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That said, as far as supercars go, the Huracan is surprisingly well behaved when you aren’t hunting down the perfect driving road or blasting around a race track. Thanks to some refinement in the form of DNA shared with Audi, the Evo can be comfortably driven in traffic, or parked relatively easily. In fact, with a new rear-wheel steering system and revised suspension, the Evo is possibly the most pleasant variant to use day-to-day since it launched in 2014.

The update has brought a new portrait-oriented central touchscreen measuring 8.4 inches, which might not sound like the largest display, but it is proportionally correct to the cosy cabin and packs a lot of technology and features for its size.

There’s internet radio, more connectivity features, and an optional telemetry package which allows owners to record drives and review data - which includes g-force readings and video footage from a forward-facing camera - once the day’s driving is done. Now you’ll have the evidence to back up your post-trackday brags.

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When the three-mode drive selector is switched to ‘Strada’ (or ‘street’), the exhaust note is muted, the suspension becomes pliable, the seven-speed transmission swaps gears smoothly and you might not ever know of the giant-slaying ability that the Evo possesses. Extracting that raw performance can be done by flipping the switch to either Sport or ‘Corsa’ mode, but to experience the best the Evo has to offer you really need a race track. Read on.

Does the Huracan Evo drive well?

Of course it does: it’s a modern Lamborghini. At least it does on a race track, which is where we sampled Lamborghini’s latest model.

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The venue here was the Bahrain International Circuit, which hosts a race in the Formula One Grand Prix each year. Here, the Huracan Evo is initially somewhat intimidating. It needs very little encouragement to become viciously fast, and the steering is surprisingly responsive. For the first few laps the Evo feels as though it is very easy to upset and likely to punish you for brash instructions, including too much throttle or a little too much angle on the steering.

However, just like the stunning desert track, it doesn’t take long to get acquainted to the newest Huracan.

As the speed and confidence levels increase, the Evo just gets better and better. With all-wheel drive and a perfectly smooth surface traction is never a problem, although some parts of the track can get slippery with a fine dusting of desert sand.

It might not have the raw downforce of the Performante, but cornering grip is monstrous and is matched by the savage acceleration and the ability of the standard carbon ceramic brakes to scrub speed.

Performance does not excel in one particular field, however. Instead the Huracan offers a brilliantly balanced recipe. It’s a car that simply gets better the harder you push it, which initially seems like a bad idea, but its combination of clever steering, subtle electronic stability systems and four wheel drive results in a car that is brutally fast on the track, yet one that is approachable for drivers of all confidence levels once some familiarity is gained.

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Those impeccable manners are partly thanks to a new LDVI system, which stands for Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata, which uses a single central processor to oversee all the vehicle stability systems. The effect allows every element of the Evo's performance to be maximised without compromising safety, and its effect is obvious from the driver’s seat.

And that’s the genius of the Evo. Its most impressive party trick is not the bellowing V10 soundtrack, outlandish styling or clever steering. It’s the fact it makes you feel like a hero, and never reveals just how much electronic wizardry is going on behind the scenes to prevent you from embarrassing yourself.

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Verdict

If you are lucky enough to have regular access to a race track then the Huracan Evo is easily one of the most capable and foolproof vehicles money can buy. But not only is the Evo savagely efficient at carving circuit corners, its new technology also promises to make it the easiest to live with on the road. Whether it successfully pulls off the most difficult balancing act will have to wait until our first on-road assessment.