Revving the Lamborghini Huracán, the last of the Italian stallions

The Lamborghini Huracán is actually a pretty good deal, by the warped standards of exotic cars. Yes, the base price is $242,445, which is more than the price of the average house in the United States. But there are plenty of cars that cost more and aren’t as quick. In fact, let’s leave price out of it: If you’re lining up for a quarter-mile, there aren’t many production cars on earth that can hang with a Huracán. You’re talking the low side of 10 seconds, the province of superbikes and seven-figure metal. Yeah, it probably gets around a road course all right, too, but this is a car that exists for the straights.

The Huracán’s obvious competitors are the Ferrari 458 Italia and McLaren 650S, a pair of adversaries that take a more holistic approach to performance — they’re good at everything. The Lambo is the outlier, extroverted and brutal, stiff-riding and loud and built to take you to the other side of 200 mph. If you dare.

The badge on the side of the car brags of 610 horsepower — 602 bhp, translated from the Euro rating — which is impressive but not preposterous, considering that the outgoing Gallardo made 552 horses. The real secret to the Huracán’s Bugatti-challenging 0-60 time (Car and Driver measured it at 2.5 seconds) is the transmission, a new seven-speed dual-clutch unit that replaces the six-speed single-clutch box. Not only can the new transmission perform clutch-drop launch-control starts, but its instant upshifts mean that the acceleration is barely affected by gear changes. The Gallardo could put on a pretty good show, but each shift required a brief intermission — please visit the concession stand and we’ll be back in a moment with third gear.