Yahoo Autos A Lamborghini in the snow? The new Sterrato makes it possible (and awesome)
"Yellow f***ing Lamborghini!"
I've been spotted. I'm trying to change my boots as inconspicuously as I possibly can in the parking lot next to the ski lift, but when you're perched on the door sill of a Huracan Sterrato, a shiny yellow beacon in a field of filthy gray SUVs, there's no hiding.
A young man on skis is losing his mind a short distance away, issuing the profanity-laced call to his friends to come to take a look at the bright wedge in the icy lot, and I know it's going to be a few extra minutes before I make it to the lift.
You can't fault their excitement. Southern Vermont is unlikely Lamborghini territory at the best of times. In mid-January? Forget about it. You might see a brave Carrera 4, but that's about as exotic as it gets this time of year in the Green Mountains.
In January, the hope is always that those mountains will be white. The roads, though, were in quite a state: muddy and icy and sloppy, and the perfect testing ground for this oddball supercar.
Lamborghini showed its intent with the 2019 Sterrato concept, but it wasn't until mid-2022 that the company confirmed they'd actually build the thing.
On paper, that thing doesn't seem so special. A paltry 44 mm of lift does not a rally car make, nor 30 and 34 mm of additional track at the front and rear, respectively, nor the bolted-on fender flares and questionably functional skid plates.
But, as Brett Berk learned when he drove it through the desert, minor updates on paper can create fantastic cars. I planned for a test of a different sort, to pilot this delightful beacon across the winding and filthy roads of Upstate New York and Southern Vermont toward one of my favorite mountains.
The car you see here, which Lamborghini provided for a long weekend, came complete with numerous options, the most significant (and worthwhile) being the $9,800 for the Giallo Inti paint. Total price? That would be $348,649 including the $3,695 destination charge and $2,100 gas guzzler tax – a lot of money for a winter beater.
One of those options, though, threatened to stymie the trip before I even got out of my driveway.
The accessory roof basket and the spare wheel Lamborghini attached to it using the included “wheel retainer belt” gives the Sterrato a certain stance and character. However, it created some challenges. I had initially planned on using my SeaSucker mount to simply stick my board on the roof and head for the hills. There was no room.
I then planned to remove the basket, which slides onto the also-optional crossbars attached to the standard raised roof rails. Sadly, the basket was locked in place with the keys nowhere to be found. Hmm, probably should’ve phoned ahead and asked for the accessory roof ski and snowboard rack. Oh well.
Next plan: Just strap the board to the basket. It’s small but quite well designed, with rubberized edges that, with a few ratchet straps, would have held my board quite securely. Sadly, I was forbidden from actually putting anything in (or on) that basket.
That left just one final option: Put the damn thing in the car. Slotting a 5.35-foot plank with sharp, metal edges into an ornate interior of Alcantara and carbon fiber wasn't top on my list. So, I wrapped my snowboard up like a big burrito in a moving blanket and, with a little delicate maneuvering, managed to angle it from the passenger footwell up between the seats. I buckled it in using the blazing Giallo seatbelt, and away we went.
That interior hasn't seen any major updates for off-road Sterrato duty. The biggest change is a pair of custom-labeled, nicely fitting rubber floor mats. While not expansive, the Huracan's interior is relatively roomy (though definitely not enough headroom for your winter beanie with the jaunty pom-pom).
The overall design is busy but racy, though perhaps getting a bit familiar at this point. Thankfully, a recent update added niceties like Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. They're wired, but that's better than nothing. Dig into the car's interface, though, and you'll find a few small Sterrato-specific add-ons, like an inclinometer screen with GPS coordinates.
The most significant change within the Sterrato is hiding on the bottom of the button-heavy steering wheel. On lesser Huracans, you can toggle from Strada to Sport and then on to Corsa.
Here, that last mode is replaced by Rally, designed to allow for more wheelspin, more aggressive torque vectoring, and more grins.
