Lamborghini Huracan Los Angeles

THE ROARING LAMBORGHINI HURACAN LP580-2

As art imitates life, so the favor is returned. Virtual Lamborghinis have featured in many video games over the years, and now the Italian company seems to have developed a new model specifically for those who grew up with that genre’s least realistic games, the ones that let you drift your virtual supercar with pixel-perfect precision at ridiculous speeds.

That’s certainly what we take from the technical briefing that introduces us to the new rear-wheel-drive Huracán LP580-2, as well as from our drive at the Losail circuit in Qatar. Maurizio Reggiani, Lamborghini’s R&D boss, gave a presentation in which he mentioned power oversteer in practically every other sentence. He assured us that the new car has been designed to flatter the skills of even modestly talented drivers, his words delivered against a video backdrop of Huracáns drifting at such outlandish angles as to make us believe Ken Block has at least one Italian cousin.

While this new rear-drive Huracán is a cheaper entry into Lambo ownership, it’s also being pitched as more involving to drive than the existing LP610-4, trading some performance for the excitement and adjustability that comes from having more power than grip. A rear-wheel-drive Huracán was always part of the plan, unlike the rear-wheel-drive Gallardo, which was pretty much a driveshaft-removal job. Shedding the LP610’s electronically controlled clutch pack as well as its propeller shaft, front differential, and related hardware saves a relatively modest 73 pounds in weight, but it also delivers some definitive differentiation over the Audi R8 that shares most of the baby Lambo’s structure and powertrain.