2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato PVOTY Review: This Can’t Be Real

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Lamborghini, in case you harbor any doubts, doesn’t need any help selling cars, not even its even-pricier special edition models. It also already offers, as you’re aware, the 641-hp Urus SUV for those wanting to live out their off-road rally fantasies, Italian style. There’s no logical or practical reason for the 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato to exist, but the world is a better place because it does.

Truly, the greatest pitfall of the Sterrato is no fault of its own but one of economics. Few people get to drive a Lamborghini in the first place, and far fewer will ever have the pleasure of experiencing the wail of the world’s last naturally aspirated V-10 while sliding sideways through the sand at highway speeds, throwing rooster tails 10 feet in the air. The incongruity of it all, the constant vacillation between “we shouldn’t be doing this” and “this is the most fun we’ve ever had" is a kind of joy more should get the chance to experience.

“I’ve never driven a Group B rally car in the dirt, but I have to imagine it’s as hair-raising as this,” features editor Christian Seabaugh said. “There’s just something about looking out over its stubby nose, hearing that V-10 sing behind you as you slide sideways. Flipping fun, man.”

The most impressive part, as we see it, was less in the building and more in the tuning. Rather than developing a laundry list of new parts for the Sterrato, existing bits were lengthened to provide a 1.7-inch suspension lift. No, the real magic is in how all the parts were adjusted to make them work in environments and use cases they were never intended for. Not just to simply work but to excel.

Switch into Rally mode, grab the paddles, and deliberately point the Sterrato down a road you’d never drive any other Huracán down, and you’ll be smiling and giggling more than you’ve done since you were too young to drive. This isn’t a pavement princess in designer cowboy boots; it’s a legit high-speed off-roader. In any other Lamborghini, you’d be nervous about being this sideways at these speeds, but this one feels like that’s its natural state of being. It’s as if the Huracán was always meant to do this, and the track stars are the weird special editions. 

So long as you choose the right road. As our dirt course began to get torn up by repeated use, the Sterrato’s limitations came into focus. Its 6.4 inches of ground clearance isn’t much, so the aluminum skidplates soon got a workout. More worrisome for the driver, though, were the horrible sounds coming from the suspension as it bottomed out over the bigger bumps and ruts. Thankfully, it’s just noise. Multiple judges reported worrying they’d done career-ending damage to the car only to find out it was unharmed. Softer bump stops would go a long way.

“Bigger holes and washboard ridges banged and pounded away at the Sterrato’s tires and underbody,” deputy editor Alexander Stoklosa said. “There were several full-drop suspension unloads and impacts whose sensations skewed deeply into 'I-broke-a-Lamborghini' territory. No damage was noted afterward, but the sounds, head toss, and vibrations were disquieting.” 

As good as the spec-built Bridgestone all-terrain tires were off-road and on, they also showed their limits on the track. The Huracán is so sharp, it begs to be driven hard in all situations, but the tires don’t have quite as much grip on pavement as the car demands. More like 80 percent. You can drive around it by braking early, avoiding trail-braking, and using the throttle to rotate the car off the apex, but otherwise a mild but maddening understeer sets in. Leave the track to other variants and keep this one on roads, paved or otherwise.

There, it’s the ultimate Huracán for a typical use case: driving around town. Potholes, speed bumps, and steep driveways that can give Huracán STO owners mild heart attacks cease to matter. There isn’t even an obvious interior noise penalty from the tires or the optional roof rack, mostly because the glorious V-10 engine is so loud you don’t hear much else.

Concerns about how much advancement in design really happened here and whether the reworked parts constituted a $25,000 value (at MSRP) over the Huracán Evo the Sterrato is based on were raised, but the smiles this factory-built, street-legal rally car put on our faces made it easy to wave them off. We hope, like the STO, there are many more generations of Huracán Sterrato to come.