SimplyAbuDhabi XXXIII

2 3 0 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I So, while i’ve done many laps of race tracks in some very exotic cars over the years, i’ve always left enough in reserve to avoid getting into trouble and my 100 per cent clean slate of not damaging cars is testament to that. However, it also means that i leave a track always a little annoyed that i didn’t extract the full potential of a car and i offset these thoughts in the comfort that i returned it with all its wheels still attached. The Huracán Evo was a different matter however as i got back on my flight that night satisfied that i could not have driven it any harder. i gave it everything i could as if it was six hours of qualifying laps for a Grand Prix and someone else was paying the bills, because i was being cared for by the car’s electronic brains. The result is that i enjoyed my track time more so in this car than just about anything else i can remember, even with cars that are more powerful, exotic and better suited to uncompromising track work. The combination of the chassis electronics as well as its all-wheel steering and torque vectoring rewarded my efforts and unlike other forms of traction control and drift control fitted to other performance cars, this felt organic as if there was no electronic intervention keeping it under control. in that sense Lamborghini’s mission to place fun back into the business has been an outstanding success as even wearing the purpose-made Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tyres (245/30 r20 front and 305/30 r20 rear) wasn’t enough to stop its 600nm of torque from a V10 that spins to 8000rpm from breaking traction, but there is more to this car than its outrageous drift mode. Away from the chassis control wizardry behind the scenes, the Huracán Evo, which replaces the LP610-4 model and gets the uprated 630bhp engine from the Performante, has been given a makeover in some of the more civilised areas such as a new 8.4-inch HMi capacitive touchscreen in the centre console that acts as the brain for its new in-car connectivity features. Functions such as the seats, climate control air and its infotainment options including Apple CarPlay with smartphone integration, are now located in the one panel. A multimedia system incorporates connected navigation and entertainment including web radio and video player and allows for voice commands.