Porsche recently slapped down a gauntlet, and Lamborghini has picked it up. Now, some of the world’s fastest road cars are suddenly going off-road.
At last year’s Los Angeles auto show, Porsche unveiled an impossible monster. The 2023 Porsche 911 Dakar is an off-road-oriented version of one of the world’s fastest cars. With a lifted suspension, and a roof rack (with an optional pop-up tent), the 473-horsepower 911 Dakar seems like a glorious idea and possibly a threat to the laws of physics.
Porsche plans to build just 2,500 copies worldwide—possibly because that’s all the world can take.
Now, Lamborghini has its answer.
A Lamborghini with a raised suspension, and custom all-terrain tires
Lamborghini will build just 1,499 units of the new Huracán Sterrato. They’ll use a 610-horsepower version of Lambo’s venerable 5.2-litre V10 engine and a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. All four wheels get power thanks to an electronically controlled all-wheel drive with a rear mechanical self-locking differential. The Italian supercar builder claims the Sterrato does the 0-100 kilometres per hour run in 3.4 seconds with a top speed of 260 km/h.
So far, this sounds like a normal Lamborghini. Then it gets weird.
The two-seat Sterrato sits 44 millimetres taller than a Huracán EVO “to ensure greater suspension travel.” Aluminum underbody protection guards against damage from trail debris. Special Bridgestone tires developed just for the Sterrato feature “an innovative pattern design and a cutting-edge compound which provides a perfect grip both on gravel and tarmac.” They’re run-flats, as Lamborghini says they're not road-legal. And if you dig the grille-mounted taillights, sorry, they won’t make it to the North American market. However, roof rails (roof rails on a Lamborghini!) will allow you to mount supplies on top.
Forget turn-by-turn navigation; this Lamborghini tracks your coordinates
Inside the off-road Huracán, the usual driver’s instrument display (Lamborghini insists on calling it the Human Machine Interface) now includes “a digital inclinometer with pitch and roll indicator, a compass, geographic coordinate indicator, and steering angle indicator.”
A compass and a geographic coordinate indicator intend you to take this thing well off mapped roads.
How much will the 2024 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato cost?
Lamborghini hasn’t mentioned a price, but we’re betting the $222,000 in U.S. dollars Porsche lists for the Dakar might be slightly lower than the even-more-exclusive Sterrato.
We don’t care about the price. We care about the four-day desert race we’re looking to plan to settle the fight between Lamborghini and Porsche.
