Car Review

The Lamborghini Huracan STO: This is Iron Man’s car.

This is a car for Iron Man ... or at least Carbon Fiber Man.

by Jordan Golson

It’s easy to think of the Lamborghini as the flashy supercar for people who are more concerned with showing off than going fast.

That statement is probably accurate if we’re honest. Head to any Cars & Coffee event — the gatherings of supercar owners and their supercars — and you'll see plenty of Lambos but far fewer Ferraris or McLarens, many of which are designed for the race track.

It's not that Lamborghini cars are slow. Far from it, the Lamborghini Huracan Performante set a (since-broken) production car lap record at the Nurburgring with a time of 6:52:01. But none of the more than 17,500 Huracans sold have ever been so specifically designed for racing as the new Huracan STO that I was able to drive last month at the Willow Springs Raceway, some 80 miles north of LA.

Simply put, the clever-yet-efficacious aerodynamics and consolidated technology make the Huracan STO a car Iron Man would drive. If not him, at least his lesser-known but lighter and faster friend, Carbon Fiber Man. (OK, we obviously know Tony Stark drives various Audi R8 models in the movies, but still.)

Lamborghini

The Huracan STO (Super Trofeo Omologata) it's a road-legal rocket ship that pulls inspiration from both the Huracan ST Evo and Huracan GT3 race cars, the latter of which won the 24 Hours of Daytona three years running.

Lamborghini Chief Technical Officer Maurizio Reggiani says the STO improves on the Performante in braking, lap time, consistency of performance, aerodynamics, and overall chassis control, which is impressive considering the agility of the Performante.

The car features an enormous rear wing that can be adjusted with a screwdriver to three different positions. The wing generates an astonishing 926 pounds of downforce at its maximum setting, double that of the Performante.

Lamborghini

That wing helps put the power down at the car's rear while simultaneously providing 37 percent better aerodynamic efficiency over the Performante. That means there's more downforce but comparably less drag, which is the magic formula for Going Faster.

An air scoop above the engine gobbles up cool air from the top of the car and runs it over the top of the 640-horsepower naturally aspirated V10 to help maximize cooling when out on the track.

Making 75 percent of the body out of carbon fiber, ripping out the carpets, and replacing the door handle with a floppy red piece of cloth helped reduce overall vehicle weight by nearly 95 pounds. Carbon Fiber Man would love this car.

Lamborghini

The body panels at the front of the car have been combined into one enormous carbon fiber piece. The two front fenders, hood, and front bumper are joined together into one vast bit of carbon fiber. This means far fewer brackets and mounting points are needed, and there are no panel gaps to mess up that precious airflow. It also means that cargo space (already at a premium in the regular Huracan) is reduced to one cubic foot, or roughly enough room for a crash helmet and very little else.

There's also a considerable amount of technology befitting of Tony Stark that’s meant to get you set up for the track when you pull off the street. Because most people don't have an entire race team helping them set up, the goal was to get the whole car ready for maximum attack with the flip of a switch.

On the steering wheel are three settings: STO, Trofeo, and Pioggia. They roughly translate to Street, Track, and Wet. In STO, the transmission stays in automatic mode, the traction and stability control modes are all active and protecting you, and the car is a dream to drive. It's almost docile.

Lamborghini

But with a single touch to Trofeo, the car gets red and angry, ready to charge. Track-oriented pedal maps (for more direct and predictable throttle response) are activated, the Magneride suspension firms up, and the transmission locks into full manual mode. And then it gets really slick.

Lamborghini's engineers fitted the car with rear-wheel steering, but then it was tuned to approximate real-time adjustment of toe and camber angle setups (how the tire touches the ground, basically) to optimize performance on the track versus street. This is something that a bunch of expensive race engineers would do to an actual race car, but the STO allows drivers to do it with a toggle of the drive mode.

This is also true for the Torque Vectoring system. Using subtle braking on the rear wheels during turns, the system can simulate changes to the differential to maximize traction. Again, it allows the driver to get a race car feel out of a street car with a single button press.

Lamborghini

The effect is intoxicating. After taking a lap in STO mode, I toggled to Trofeo, and it was like driving a different car. It wasn't slow before, but it was a whole different beast once I set it up for the track. Turn in was sharper and more precise, the throttle was predictable, and the downforce was mind-boggling.

I was able to launch into and out of corners at speeds my brain could scarcely believe, and the faster I went, the happier it was. And when I ran out of bravery, the Formula One-derived carbon-ceramic brakes were happy to slow things down.

New on the STO is a traffic-light green/yellow/red system that watches brake temps for each wheel, advising on the center screen whether you've gotten a bit too enthusiastic and need to take a few cooling laps. Reggiani said he could never make the system go red through all the development and testing of the car, which is a testament to all the cooling tricks Lamborghini's engineers have stuffed into this car.

Lamborghini

But perhaps the coolest part of the STO is a new connected telemetry feature. The car has onboard cameras looking at both the steering wheel from behind the driver and at the road ahead, and the STO can record both live telemetry and video from racing laps. This part isn't particularly unique. But because the car has an onboard data connection, it'll upload your recordings in real-time to the cloud, where you can look at and analyze them on your phone.

And, best of all, you can share those videos with your friends or post 'em on social media. Ah, now we're back on firmer Lamborghini ground with what the Huracan does best: showing off.

We'll have to wait and see what the new Huracan STO does at the Nurburgring, but don't be surprised if Lamborghini throws down another production car record.

One Cool Detail: Connected telemetry

Jordan Golson / Lamborghini

Lamborghini was kind enough to give me the recording of one of my (admittedly slow) laps to show what the Connected Telemetry feature looks like. It records live video from both outside and inside the cockpit and overlays that with a real-time track map, tachometer, speedometer, and steering, throttle, and brake input meters.

And it can all be accessed right from your iPhone, uploaded directly to the cloud via the car’s built-in cellular connection. You can also compare speed and driver input data between laps, or even between drivers, to determine where you can improve. It’s the sort of thing that an expensive data logger like the VBOX would give you, only built-in to the car and easy to see and share.

Now you can brag to your friends about how fast (or slow) you are without leaving the driver’s seat.

Subscribe to PRNDL, Jordan Golson’s car reviews newsletter, free on Substack. This review is also published in the North State Journal.

Lamborghini covered our lodging to review this car on location, as is common practice in the auto industry. Automakers or their affiliates have no oversight when it comes to Inverse editorial content, which remains wholly independent and from the brain of our extremely opinionated car analyst and critic, Jordan Golson.

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