2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato Tested: The Off-Road Rugged (and Surprisingly Practical) Lambo
While its Huracán Evo AWD sibling is still the better objective performer, the Sterrato is far more usable.
Pros
- It’s awesome
- Surprisingly practical
- Rally mode extremely fun
Cons
- Terrible rearward visibility
- Slower than other Huracáns
- Limited production run
It makes sense to go out with a bang, especially after you’ve lived as long a life as the Lamborghini Huracán has. After countless trims and innumerable special editions comes perhaps the wildest Huracán of them all: the off-road terrain-slaying 2023 Lamborghini Huracán LP 610-4 Sterrato.
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Before, a vehicle along these lines was only achievable in Forza Horizon. Now, it’s a reality. And even better—it loses none of that Huracán magic. Adds to it, in fact.
The Story’s Beyond the Numbers
Admittedly, the Sterrato walks that delicate line between looking cool as hell and coming across as an overcompensating SEMA build. But if you let loose your inner 12-year-old and invite the invasive thoughts in, you’ll quickly realize the Sterrato is probably the raddest thing Lamborghini has done since the Rambo Lambo.
To the surprise of no one, the Sterrato lags behind its closest Huracán variant, the Evo AWD, when it comes to on-road performance figures. It still hits 60 from a stop in a very respectable 2.6 seconds, but its quarter-mile and MotorTrend figure-eight times are 10.7 seconds at 128.5 mph and 24.4 seconds at an average 0.82 g, respectively. A 2020 Huracán Evo AWD we tested, up a bit on power, put down a 0–60 time of 2.5 seconds, the quarter mile in 10.5 seconds at 132.7 mph, and the figure eight in 22.3 seconds at an average of 0.96 g. Braking also suffers: The Sterrato needs 115 feet to stop from 60 mph; the Huracán Evo needed only 93, with the Sterrato’s tires largely to blame for the difference.
But can your Huracán Evo do off-road things? No? Checkmate, nerd! Next question.
On our paved course, we stuck the Sterrato in Rally mode with ESC off, and it immediately resulted in a ton of corner-entry oversteer. You gotta be ready to catch it. But that also means you can let the car point itself into a corner, allowing for some fun slip angle to carry it through. There’s clearly rear-biased power delivery in the exits, which adds to the dramatic flair that is so Lamborghini.
Interestingly, the transmission put itself into manual shift mode in both Rally and Sport modes and demanded we click the paddle twice to downshift in Sport and only once in Rally. Despite this odd feature, we still set the faster lap time in Sport, perhaps due to familiarity with this mode, or because the car felt less rear-biased this way.
As for what it’s like in the dirt? Outrageous. Check out the Performance Vehicle of the Year pros and cons review for the full rundown. Who wouldn’t want to sling sand with a V-10 screaming in their ears?
Practical!?! Did You Say Practical?
Finally, our lasting impression of the Sterrato is how practical it is. Yeah, we said it.
After loading a bunch of gear onto its roof rack and driving it nearly 200 miles from Los Angeles to Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, there was no perceptible increase in wind noise in the cabin. Fearless we were when pulling it into steep driveways or rolling it over dipped intersections and deep rain gutters because of its factory lift—something you cannot say of any other supercar.
Don’t be fooled, though: Just because it has an off-road-tuned suspension and thick sidewalls doesn’t mean it rides like a Rolls-Royce. It’s still a Huracán, after all, just less punishing. That being said, it’s relatively (“relatively” being the operative word here) cushy, and the forward visibility is better than typical. Forget about over-the-shoulder visibility, though: This is a mirrors-and-camera-only special.
Add it up, and in the pantheon of Huracán special edition models, the Sterrato is arguably the most memorable Huracán of them all. Someone took to heart the mantra “safari all the cars” and gave us this. Too bad production is so limited, because the Huracán Sterrato might very well be the perfect Lamborghini.
I got into cars the way most people do: my dad. Since I was little, it was always something we’d talk about and I think he was stoked to have his kid share his interest. He’d buy me the books, magazines, calendars, and diecast models—everything he could do to encourage a young enthusiast. Eventually, I went to school and got to the point where people start asking you what you want to do with your life. Seeing as cars are what I love and writing is what I enjoy doing, combining the two was the logical next step. This dream job is the only one I’ve ever wanted. Since then, I’ve worked at Road & Track, Jalopnik, Business Insider, The Drive, and now MotorTrend, and made appearances on Jay Leno’s Garage, Good Morning America, The Smoking Tire Podcast, Fusion’s Car vs. America, the Ask a Clean Person podcast, and MotorTrend’s Shift Talkers. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, cooking, and watching the Fast & Furious movies on repeat. Tokyo Drift is the best one.
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