Lamborghini’s Huracán Sterrato is a raging, rally-ready bull

If you’re one of the folks who thinks the Lamborghini Urus SUV is not consistent with the brand’s image as the maker of exotic sports cars for the road and track, you’ll probably think that the new Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, a rally-ready off-road concept, is an abomination. If you know Lamborghini history, though, you’d know that the company has been making off-road vehicles for a long time. In fact, the first vehicles that Lamborghini manufactured were for off-road use.

Ferruccio Lamborghini made farming tractors before Enzo Ferrari’s insulting response to his complaint about the clutch on his personal Ferrari convinced Lamborghini to start making his own supercars. Tractors haven’t been the only off-road Lamborghinis, however. In the 1970s, factory test driver Bob Wallace made desert-capable variants of a couple of the company’s road cars that he called the Jarama Rally and the Urraco Rally. More famously, from 1986 to 1993, the Sant’Agata Bolognese firm produced the wild LM002 truck, a V-12 powered 4X4 popular with movie stars and Middle Eastern falconers.

The ironically named Sterrato (Italian for “macadam,” also known as asphalt) is not a truck. It is based on the Huracán EVO sports car, and powered by a 640-horsepower V-10 engine. The EVO’s Lamborghini Dinamica Veicolo Integrata system uses predictive logic to control the Sterrato’s four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, torque vectoring, and modified suspension. The LDVI has been recalibrated for the Sterrato to achieve maximum grip and acceleration in poor traction conditions along with more pronounced rear axle bias and more aggressive stabilization in oversteering conditions.

To turn the Huracán into a proper off-roader, ground clearance has been raised by almost two inches (47mm), increasing approach and departure angles. Track width, both front and rear, has been increased by 1.25 inches (30mm) and the 20-inch wheels are mounted with specially developed “balloon” tires with higher sidewalls and off-road tread patterns and blocks. To accommodate the larger tires, the body features wider wheel arches, which also have integrated air intakes for brake cooling.

Structural upgrades include underbody reinforcements and a dual function rear skid plate and diffuser. The front frame has been reinforced with aluminum members and is protected by an aluminum skid plate and reinforced side skirts. Additionally, carbon-fiber composite deflectors keep debris out of the engine’s air intakes, and CFRP mud guards keep rocks from chipping the Sterrato’s dramatic paint job, which changes from orange on the passenger side to red on the driver’s side. Exterior treatments are completed with an LED light bar on the roof and bumper-mounted LED flood lights. Inside, there are aluminum floor panels, a lightweight titanium roll cage, four-point safety harnesses, and carbon-fiber bi-shell sports seats.

Regarding the one-off concept, Chief Technical Officer of Automobili Lamborghini, Maurizio Reggiani, said, “The Huracán Sterrato illustrates Lamborghini’s commitment to being a future shaper: a super sports car with off-road capabilities, the Sterrato demonstrates the Huracán’s versatility and opens the door to yet another benchmark of driving emotion and performance.”