Every so often we see jacked-up Lamborghinis, all ready for terrifying speeds and offroad adventure, and we mostly ignore them because they’re just renders. Ephemeral dreams that will evaporate as soon as we get too close, and then immediately disappear. But not this. This is a real car (though the photos may be digital renders). This is the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, and it the safari Lamborghini fantasy you’ve always wanted.
And no, this is not just an appearance package. Lamborghini didn’t just go down to the local Autozone, pick up some cheap plastic fender flares and some tacky lights. It didn’t glue all of that to a random Huracán lying out back. Lamborghini put in real WORK:
Ground clearance is heightened by 47 mm, with the car’s front approach sharpened by 1% and the departure angle enhanced by 6.5%.
The wheel track is enhanced front and rear by 30 mm, with 20” wheels on balloon tires set into new wide-body wheel arches with integrated air intakes, giving the Sterrato a commanding presence that makes clear its abilities. Specially-developed larger tires with increased side walls improve the asperity absorption and grip. Wide, rugged, open shoulder blocks for self-cleaning qualities, provide excellent off-road surface adherence with improved traction and braking and are highly damage resistant.
But it’s not just some jacked-up suspension, a wider track front and rear, and “balloon” tires (that look liked they’d still be low-profile on any other car). The frame has been reinforced, and skidplates affixed just in case this new Rambo Lambo hits a rock or whatever. But because you can’t forget the “Lambo” part, the rear skidplate has been shaped into a diffuser, just in case you still want to conquer absurdly high speeds with your 5.2-liter 640-horsepower V10.
All of that stuff, however, isn’t the best part to me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all AMAZING, but it’s not the best. No, the best part is software based. You would think, this thing being made to go off road and do a little rallying on the side, Lamborghini would tone things down with the all-wheel-drive system. It might make it a little more staid, a little more placid, a little more biased towards the front wheels under the guise of “enhanced stability” and “faster on a rally course,” even if exponentially less fun.
But no. Oh, no no no. Not at all. Lamborghini has instead gone the other way entirely (emphasis mine):
The Huracán EVO’s LDVI (Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata) with predictive logic, controls the Sterrato’s systems including four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, modified suspension and torque vectoring, anticipating the next moves of the driver to ensure perfect driving dynamics. Calibrated for off-road driving including low-adherence surfaces, and tuned to maximize traction and acceleration, the LDVI system in the Sterrato provides enhanced rear-wheel drive behavior, producing more torque together with additional stabilization in oversteering maneuvers.
You are reading that correctly. Half the fun of slinging through mud is hanging the ass out the back, and Lamborghini has seen it fit to make the Huracán Sterrato hang its ass out the back just that much more. Sure, it’s more for style and fun than anything else, but this is one Lamborghini that really does adhere to the company’s famous ethos, that being We Make The Cars That Are Entirely About Style And Fun.
Here’s where this fantasy car gets really crazy, though. Lamborghini is of course calling it just a “concept” for now, but the small sugared-up child that lives in my brain is wondering if there’s a little more here. There’s apparently been a rumor of a safari-ized Huracan dating back almost two years to 2017, and that’s a hell of a long lead time for an all-show no-go concept.
Build it Lamborghini. You know what happens when you build it.