Why the Lamborghini Huracan Evo is dominating the roads

Vibrant, powerful and certainly not one for shrinking violets - Erin Baker, Editorial Director at Auto-Trader, takes a spin in Lamborghini's latest offering

Is this the best Italian supercar you can buy right now? With a stunning colour palette, room for the shopping and enough thrills to last a lifetime, thanks to the “Evo” bit, the Lamborghini Huracan Evo might just be.

Price

If you have to ask… Actually, the Huracan is Lamborghini’s base model. The price hike comes with the “Evo” bit, which denotes extra performance, and all the extras you’ll want to add. The car starts at £186,000, but expect to pay over £200,000. Our stunning test car, for example, was coated in a marine-blue matt paint job (£11,250), smatterings of carbon-fibre (£2,710), glossy black bumper bits (£2,440), and extra mechanical bits like the special lifting suspension to raise the nose for speed humps (£4,860). Add on to that the hefty insurance, low fuel economy and a £1,000 service, and you won’t have much left for your daily skinny latte.

Style

Lamborghinis are not for shrinking violets: if you want subtle, you’ll probably buy a Ferrari. Lambos are truly bonkers and thank the heavens for that - why spend all that money on power and noise if you don’t want to shout about it?

Our car matched the pale matt blue paintwork with a red roof and brown tan leather seats. Some onlookers thought it was too much: we thought it was perfect.

The low, aggressive, wide stance shrieks dominance of the road. Everyone stares, everyone pulls out an iPhone for videos and photos, everyone smiles and gawps. It’s a rare, wonderful experience.

Tech

Supercars aren’t known for being at the forefront of connectivity: the assumption is that you want the car for its speed, not its ability to hold a conference call (good luck with any calls, with that exhaust noise). You have to pay an extra £2,440 for the privilege of a smartphone interface and connectivity, but at least the service is good: VW Group owns Lamborghini so the user experience is a good one. You get USB slots, a good sound system (although the noise of the engine is better) and the whole system is designed in hexagon-shaped graphics to mirror the design all over the car.

Comfort

The Lamborghini Huracan Evo is surprisingly spacious for a truly hardcore supercar. It’s wide enough with enough leg room for two adults to sit comfortably on long journeys, and the suspension isn’t as rock solid as you might think. There’s a deep boot underneath the bonnet (engine at the back) and we bunged end-of-term school bags and PE kits for two boys in easily.

You get dual-zone air-conditioning, heated seats, foot mats, and an ambient light package. There’s zero visibility out of the rear, thanks to the engine sitting high behind you, but the wing mirrors provide enough indication of what’s going on around you, and we like to operate on the assumption that it’s up to other people to get out of the way of a supercar. front and rear cameras are an option.

Power

This is still the thing you buy this car for. Lamborghinis are traditionally four-wheel drive but this is the rear-wheel-drive version so it’s lighter, more rapid and potentially trickier/more fun in the wet. With 610bhp on tap, and 0-62mph in 3.3 seconds, it’s an incredible piece of machinery. You’ll run out of road way before it does. But, despite this more hardcore appeal, it’s very easy to drive at 30mph around town. And that’s the joy, really. Throw the roof down, drop the windows, rev the crackling exhaust, and cruise around all day, face to the sun.