Rear-drive, 631-hp Huracán Tecnica recalls a purer Lamborghini

Do you prefer your Lamborghinis with ten cylinders? Perhaps you like the streetable nature of the superlative Huracán, the $300K STO. While you admire its extra aero, you find its carbon-fiber bodywork worrisome to maintain and its on-track data management systems overly fussy. If only Lambo could retain the purity of the rear-drive Huracán Evo and dial things up … just a bit?

Welcome to the Huracán Tecnica. After years of watching secondary dealers clean up on RWD Lamborghinis, the firm has decided to throw its own hat back into the mix. Aimed at the driver who is too sophisticated (or mature) for the wild STO, the Tecnica is envisioned as a new-generation version of the 2010 Balboni RWD Gallardo. Per the request of Lamborghini’s test driver at the time, Valentino Balboni, that limited-run edition paired a gated six-speed manual transmission with a naturally aspirated V-10 that sent 510 hp exclusively to the rear wheels via a reworked rear differential.

The success of the Balboni edition prompted Lamborghini to design several other RWD special editions, not to mention the Gallardo LP550-2, and the company is reaching back into its playbook for 2022. The Huracán Tecnica also boasts a 5.2-liter, naturally aspirated V-10, but it offers no manual option. As in the STO, the sole transmission option is a seven-speed dual-clutch. As with the Balboni, the absence of driveshaft makes it lighter than its stablemates, the 2952-pound STO excepted. In sheer output, the 631-hp Tecnica slots above the Evo and alongside the 630-hp Performante. (Here the Huracán family marks another subtle improvement over the Gallardo line, in which both rear-drive models, the Balboni and the 550-2, generated less power than the standard, all-wheel-drive car.) At 3040 pounds dry, the Tecnica is a skosh (read: seven pounds) lighter than the Performante, and its weight distribution favors the rear (41/59, versus 43/57).

The Tecnica’s other calling card, besides rear-wheel drive, is optimized aero—35 percent more downforce than the other rear-drive Huracán, the Evo, and 20 percent less drag. Increased stick-you-to-the-road comes courtesy of a new bumper fitted with an air curtain, a model first. The slats in the front splitter are lower and more open to direct air into and through the wheel wells. Out back perches a fixed rear wing.

The additional aero helps to visually differentiate the Tecnica from its brethren, but Lamborghini’s stylists had their say, too. The angular black signature across the Tecnica’s unique nose harkens to back to a 2017 concept—the futuristic, electric Terzo Millennio. More practically, it ensures an easy “it’s a Tecnica” visual distinction. Walk to the back of the car and you’ll spot a pair of exhaust pipes with hexagonal tips—a shape that’s been a consistent motif for the Huracán since it launched in 2014. Quite cool.

Behind the 20-inch front wheels you can glimpse six-piston calipers that clamp carbon-ceramic rotors. Lamborghini eschewed a staggered setup, so the rear tells the same story, but with four-piston monoblocs.

Inside, Lamborghini’s dialed back the color palette of the digital instrument cluster to cater to a more focused driver. The interior, though it always sports Tecnica badging, can be done up in whatever color you so desire via the Ad Personam customization program.

Lamborghini hasn’t yet announced pricing for this ligher-weight, rear-drive V-10 model, but the best news may lie in what the press release doesn’t mention: A production cap. Its Gallardo predecessor, the RWD Balboni, was limited to just 250 units at launch; like the Balboni’s immediate successor, the LP550-2, the Huracán Tecnica appears to offer no such measure of moderation. (Neither, for the record, does the Huracán’s VW Group platform-mate, the RWD Audi R8, which offers an eight-cylinder flavor of naturally aspirated, rear-drive goodness.) That said, collectors have little reason to fret about desirability with a naturally aspirated, V-10 Lambo. The days of such relative simplicity are numbered at Sant’Agata.

Since the limits of any Huracán are difficult to approach on public roads, it’s inevitable that some Tecnicas will do little more than adorn garages. For those who crave unadulterated V-10 performance on public streets, this Huracán will be hard to beat.