Lamborghini Huracan Performante

- Dan Trent

YOU’RE looking at the fastest production Lamborghini ever built – if you accept the Nurburgring as a standardised measure for such things, of course.

In October last year, in the hands of factory test driver Marco Mapelli, the Huracan Performante set a 6:52sec lap, faster than a Porsche 918 Spyder and Lamborghini’s own Aventador SV. Not hanging about, then.

With front-end styling inspired by a snake’s fangs, lashings of lacquered carbon fibre, bronze wheels, high mounted exhausts and that rear wing, the Performante is actually – by Lamborghini standards – a relatively restrained effort.

Generous use of composite materials, as well as looking cool, contribute to an overall weight saving of 40kg. To help matters, that 5.2-litre naturally aspirated V10 has been tickled to 470kW at a glorious 8000rpm. Torque climbs to 600Nm, 70 per cent of which is available from 1000rpm. Again, modest on-paper gains, but tech you can’t see (like titanium valves) and bits you can (those bronze-coloured intake manifolds and superbike-inspired exhausts) add to the magic.