Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato First Look: The Mad Max Supercar Becomes Real
The gravel-gobbling Huracán doesn't give a crack about no stinkin' rock chips.
Generally speaking, most folks wouldn't dare drive a Lamborghini sports car off-road unless they were playing Forza Horizon 5 , and even then some might hesitate. And yet, Lamborghini has been working on a "Sterrato" version of its Huracán supercar built specifically for the dirt to strip that pensiveness from real-world operators.
This exciting development has been a long time coming. We drove an early version of the Huracán Sterrato back in 2019 and our own Jonny Lieberman seemed to be quite taken with what he called Lamborghini's "space buggy." Since then, Lamborghini has continued to tease the Sterrato to keep potential buyers (and dreamers) on the hook, and now it has peeled the cover off its rugged supercar in its full, production-ready glory.
If you're wondering why Lamborghini would create an off-road version of a Huracán at all, we would first recommend that you go to dictionary.com and look up the word "fun." Secondly, as Lamborghini's chief technical officer, Rouven Mohr, tells it, the team that developed the Urus SUV realized most owners wouldn't ever drive the vehicle fast off-road despite it being so fun, so after discussing the idea over dinner, they set out to build one specifically for that one and only purpose.
After returning from off-road development work on what would become the Urus, Mohr-then in charge of final vehicle validation before start of production-plucked an Huracán Evo test car out of the line to the crusher and went to work. The result was the Sterrato, which very roughly translates to "dirt road. "
"We did some rapid prototyping," he told MotorTrend . "We did the suspension setup, then we tested the car internally. We took the car to Sweden, we took the car everywhere and every time that someone was driving the car [they were] really jumping out and with a big, big smile. There was no really project start because I mean at this time the company had different priorities, but then when [Lamborghini CEO] Mr. Winklemann came back the people also were showing him the concept cars and the demo cars and he said, well, but this is a cool car, why we never did this, and he decided to do it. "
Mohr is very clear: the Sterrato isn't meant to be a do-anything off-roader. It's not meant for climbing rocks or even going off the beaten track into the wilderness. It's basically a Lamborghini rally car, designed to go as fast as possible on low-grip surfaces like dirt and gravel roads, on the sand, and in the snow.
"The mission of the car is clearly to transfer the super sport feeling that we have with the [Huracán] STO or with the racecar-oriented setup on the track," Mohr said, "that you can have this fun on the gravel, on the snow, so on the low-grip surfaces.
"The off-road capability of this car is better than some people might think, but at the end of the day, the real mission of this car is to have the driving fun. "
As Lieberman's report confirms, driving fun was achieved. The car he drove, though, was a rough prototype and things have changed a bit for the production model. The biggest difference is in the wheelbase. While the prototype had its front axle pushed forward three inches to make room for the big wheels and tires. That's no longer the case. Mohr's team worked hard to retain the Huracán's proportions and as a result the Sterrato's wheelbase is now only 0.35-inch longer than a standard Huracán.
Doing so allowed the team to retain most of the suspension components rather than design new ones. One notable exception is the dampers, which are still active magnetorheological units, but have been reworked for 25-percent greater wheel travel in front and 35-percent greater travel in the rear and have new bump stops designed for harder impacts. The damping has been softened considerably through changes to the control software, and works in concert with springs that are longer and, yep, softer. Ground clearance increases by 1.7 inches to just under seven inches. That's about two inches less than a Subaru Crosstrek and not far off of a typical sedan, but again, this car is meant for dirt roads, not dirt trails.
As such, the underside of the car remains covered in aluminum skid plates to protect from debris and bottoming out. Steel—the preferred material for off-road trucks and SUVs—proved too heavy for Lamborghini's liking and messed with the car's handling; aluminum is lighter and works well enough.
The skid plate likely to get the hardest workout is under the car's nose. Even with the lift, the Sterrato's approach angle is only a hair better than a Huracán Evo's, though the departure angle improves by roughly 6.5 degrees, so at least you can worry less about dragging the rear diffuser. Lamborghini hasn't given a breakover angle, but it's bound to be better than a standard Huracán though still not good for actually climbing over obstacles because, again, that isn't the point.
In fact, Mohr says the car's ride height was determined more by the team's suspension tuning goals than outright off-road capability. Raise the center of gravity too much and the springs and dampers would have to be stiffened up to control body roll, hurting its ride and handling off-road. What's more, the team still wanted the Sterrato to drive like a Lamborghini on the street and (paved) track, so it couldn't be too tall or too soft there nor too low or too stiff on dirt.
"At the end of the day," he said, "the car could have for sure more off-road capabilities and it's limited by the ground clearance, but the current clearance is defined by the capability on the track. "
All the clearance in the world won't help if you're trying to drive on dirt with street tires, nor will typical off-road tires do you much good on a racetrack. While the prototype used one-off Pirellis, the production car uses a specially designed Bridgestone Dueler all-terrain tire that's good up to 160 mph. To make room for beefier 40-section sidewalls, they're mounted on 19-inch wheels (down from 20 inches on an Evo). Because they stick out 1.1 inches farther in front and 1.3 inches farther in the rear, plastic fender flares were necessary to keep everything legal.
Despite the heavier tires and body armor, Mohr says the Sterrato is only about 22 pounds heavier than an Evo, putting it right around 3,700 pounds. Again, beefier chassis or suspension bits weren't necessary given the tame dirt capabilities Lamborghini targeted, so those structures proved more than robust enough as is. Mohr says the engineers have beat the hell out of the car to ensure it can handle seriously high-speed off-roading without breaking.
Speaking of, the Sterrato retains the Evo's massive 15-inch front and 14-inch rear carbon-ceramic brake rotors clamped by six-piston front and four-piston rear calipers. Stopping distance on pavement will no doubt increase due to the off-road tire tread and rubber compound, but Lamborghini doesn't have an estimate on how much. Also, b ecause those big tread blocks squirm around more when you turn, Lamborghini removed the Evo's rear steering system. Mohr says it just made the steering feel artificial.
That's not to say the production Sterrato doesn't like to turn like the prototype did. Lieberman reported that car would begin to oversteer the moment you turned into a corner like a rally car and responded beautifully to a Scandinavian Flick. Mohr, who was a drifter in a past life, assures us that's still the case.
"I'm in love with cars that turn in only by off throttling because it's from the initiation point of view the easiest and the most elegant way that you can do [it]," Mohr said. "But for sure it's also a compromise always because driving fast on the highway the car has to be safe, especially for the driver that is not expecting this. But it's more or less on the same level, the agility and off-throttle behavior like in the [prototype] car. "
Getting it to do that required some software calibration in the Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata (Lamborghini Dynamic Vehicle Integration, or LDVI) system that governs the car's front-rear torque distribution, traction and stability control, and more. For starters, it's the first car equipped with LDVI and all-wheel drive, but no rear steering, so the program had to account for that, as well as the higher center of gravity, softer suspension,and off-road tires.
More than that, though, torque distribution has to be recalibrated for low-grip surfaces. Mohr says when driving off-road the system will now send more or less torque to the front axle based on how much throttle you're giving it, the steering angle, whether or not the car is already in a slide, and more. Under lighter throttle and steering inputs, it'll send more torque to the rear to help initiate a drift, while under heavier throttle and steering inputs it'll send more torque to the front to help control the drift and pull the car out of the corner.
