Lamborghini Huracan Tecnica Gets STO’s 631 HP but More Livable Suspension

• Latest take on the Lamborghini Huracan is the Tecnica, with the 631-hp V10 from the STO driving the rear wheels. Sounds like fun? It was.

• It will be the last Huracan with a naturally aspirated V10.

• The future of Lamborghini will be hybrids starting next year, then all-electric all the time starting with the First Lambo EV in 2028.

Last year we drove the Lamborghini Huracan STO racecar-for-the-street and pronounced it good, even though we would have set it up differently for the high-speed bumps of Willow Springs’ big track, where we drove it. The year before that we drove the softer, more streetable Huracan EVO RWD and said it was the most fun Lambo you could buy. Now we are hot off the track from driving Lamborghini’s latest Huracan creation, the Tecnica, and we are now saying it is the greatest thing since grated parmesano.

The Tecnica takes the 631-hp V10 from the STO and puts it into a somewhat softer, much more comfortable car, with rear-wheel drive just like the EVO RWD model, thus giving you the best of all possible worlds.

So, should you rush to your Lamborghini dealer right now and lay down a big pile of lira? No. Because the Huracan Tecnica is already sold.

Whaaaat?

“We had this drive program arranged before it sold out,” said Lamborghini’s affable US CEO Andrea Baldi. “Plus, we want to keep our clients informed about what we’re doing.”

What they’re doing is making a darn fine car—the best and most fun Huracan yet—if you’re not out for ultimate lap times at all costs. Oh yeah, costs. The Huracan Tecnica checks in at $239,000 before delivery.

It's too bad this car is sold out because it’s delightful to drive. With 631 hp and 417 lb-ft of torque from the 5.2-liter V10 going to the rear wheels, it would be nearly impossible NOT to have fun in this. For our fun we were at The Thermal Club’s South Palm circuit (the one with the red and white stripes), with two miles of second- and third-gear turns sandwiched by a long pair of straights on either end. It was lead-follow and we each got our own designated professional driver to pursue—who would be driving an STO, btw.

Like the other Huracans, the Tecnica can be set to one of three drive modes: Strada, Sport, and Corsa; or Street, Sport and Track. Each of these was recalibrated somewhat for the new car. Thanks to a carbon-fiber hood, carbon-ceramic brakes, and increased efficiencies throughout, the Tecnica is 22 pounds lighter than the EVO RWD model and within 67 pounds of the STO. All the car’s performance electronics from torque vectoring to Performance Traction Control System are controlled through a newly recalibrated Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata, or LDVI. According to someone’s anxious translation from Italian there are also “3 Souls In One Car,” those are Driving Fun, Performance, and Lifestyle. Reconciling all three on two miles of paperclip road course would be fun.

I skipped over Strada and did my first session in Sport. Here you could let the car shift for you, or you could try and shift at the right times yourself. If you shifted at exactly the wrong moment your shift would go up and then the car would shift up for you, too, placing you a gear above where you’d have preferred as your lead driver starts pulling away from you. Sport also lets the rear end hang out a little, which is fun, although on the track such a characteristic slows you down.

Nonetheless, 631 hp pushing a dry weight of 3040 pounds around South Palm was fun. (Why do the Italians keep using the useless dry weight instead of curb weight? Because it looks better, like listing the sticker price without the requisite delivery charge. Basta!)

In Corsa mode you get quicker throttle response and faster gearshifts, while the MagneRide shocks stiffen up. You have to do all the shifting for yourself here, but you soon learn to shift by sound exactly when the engine is approaching its redline. Corsa mode was much more fun around Thermal’s South Palm course. The carbon-ceramic brakes never faltered, even when repeatedly stomped at the end of that long back straight, going from sixth to fifth to fourth to third. Likewise, the car’s four-wheel steering really helped, or at least I told myself it was helping, on Thermal’s tightish corners, spreading out turning effort to all four wheels instead of just the fronts.

I never got up to the Tecnica’s listed top speed of 202 mph, nor did I verify the 0-62 mph time of 3.2 seconds nor the 62-0 mph distance of 103 feet, but the car felt entirely capable of accomplishing each of those figures.

How does this compare to a McLaren or a Ferrari? Depends on what you want. Gone are the days when you would dismiss a Lamborghini for being good only at straightline speed and posing. This Tecnica is in competition with the best of the class at cornering, too, though you might still give the edge to either of those aforementioned brands—the McLaren for pure, unfaltering precision and the Ferrari for doing everything perfectly while coddling you the whole time it’s doing it.

There is another factor at play here: This is supposed to be the last car of the purely internal-combustion V10 Huracan line. The future will be all about hybrids and then full electrification. The first Lamborghini PHEV arrives next year, the year after that the entire lineup will be hybrids, and by 2028 the first fully electric Lambo will arrive. Those are more efficient and our planet certainly needs them, but they’re not as much fun to drive, neither around a race track nor in your favorite canyon road.

So hoist a double cappuccino to the long goodbye of internal combustion, and get ready for whirring and clicking where you once heard glorious V10 howling. Arrivederci, baby!

Are you ready for Lamborghini to go plug-in hybrid next year, and then launch its first all-electric model in 2028? Please comment below.