Sant’Agata Bolognese, Italy - In a nutshell, Lamborghini’s new Huracán STO is the closest thing you’re going to get to a road-going version of the Huracán Super Trofeo and GT3 Evo race cars.
While its 5.2-litre normally aspirated V10 engine remains as per the standard Huracán Evo model, producing 470kW at a screaming 8000rpm and 565Nm (which is albeit 35Nm less), the STO is built with a raft of super-lightweight materials that make it 83kg lighter than the standard Evo and 43kg less heavy than its Performante predecessor.
It’s slightly slower than the Evo from 0-100km/h (3.0 seconds versus 2.9s) while matching its nine-second 0-200km/h time, but this package is more about track-attacking finesse than outright speed.
75 percent of the STO’s exterior panels are made from carbon fibre, while the rear fender has adopted a carbon fibre ‘sandwich’ technique that’s usually used in the aerospace industry. This technique allows the vehicle to use 25 percent less carbon fibre material without affecting structural rigidity. This is just one of many weight-saving measures employed in this track day tool of a car. The windscreen, for instance, is 20 percent lighter than the one found in the Performante, and features magnesium rims for the highest strength-to-weight ratio.
Lamborghini has also made extensive use of carbon fibre throughout the cabin, including the sports seats and even the floor mats, believe it or not! The door panels are in carbon too, with occupants having to use a latch as an opener.
The wheels, meanwhile, are made from magnesium, and they’re shod with purpose-designed Bridgestone Potenza tyres, which are available in road-focused and track versions.
On the aerodynamic front, the STO achieves the highest level of downforce in its class and the best aero balance for a rear-wheel drive car, Lamborghini says. This is thanks to numerous measures, including a manually adjustable rear wing, integrated ‘shark fin’ on the rear bonnet and a new rear finder derived from the Super Trofeo race car. The vehicle also comes with a race-derived CCM-R carbon ceramic braking system, which are said to provide four times higher thermal conductivity than traditional CCB brakes.
Three new driving modes
Drivers are also treated to three new Anima driving modes: STO, Trofeo and Pioggia. The default STO mode is for road driving and fun on curving roads. In Trofeo mode, all systems are optimised for dry tar and the fastest lap times on track. Pioggia (rain) mode, as the name implies, optimises the vehicle’s dynamic systems for wet conditions.
When it comes to ordering the car, buyers can customise both the exterior and cabin through the company’s extensive ‘Ad Personam’ personalisation programme, which offers “limitless” paint and trim combinations as well as race-style vinyls.
“The Huracán STO delivers all the excitement of a beautifully balanced, lightweight and aerodynamically superior super sports car, mirroring the driving feeling and exhilaration of Super Trofeo, and perfectly set up for the world’s most demanding tracks but created for the road,” Lamborghini’s technical chief Maurizio Reggiani enthused.
“The extensive technical solutions and intelligence gained from both our Super Trofeo and GT3 programs has been refined and embodied in the Huracán STO, allowing the pilot to experience the emotions of a racing driver, daily, in a road-legal Lamborghini super sports car able to take lap records”.
The first international deliveries of the Huracan STO will take place from the second quarter of 2021. Lamborghini’s South African distributor says that numbers will be very limited and at this stage there is no indication of local timing or pricing.