Lamborghini Huracan Evo 2019 Review

I’ve never been a fan of contrived drive events, to be honest. Taking performance cars on snow tracks and driving sideways at 10km/h sounds like a waste of time to me.

Does anyone read the stories written out of those exercises? Tell me, have you learned anything from them? Yes I know, I’m all very grinch-like, bah humbug, etcetera.

So when carsales signed me up for the 2019 edition of the Automobile Lamborghini Esperienza Dinamica Corsa at Phillip Island MotoGP track I was a bit “whatever”.

Esperienzias are the Italian supercar manufacturer’s way of getting owners and prospects into its cars in an environment where their performance can be safely tapped.

They happen all over the world and have been coming to Australia in one form or another for the last few years.

Sounds good, but I’ve been to these sorts of things that involve convoy laps led by a professional driver with the pace dictated by the slowest follower.

Top-speed restrictions are often imposed and sometimes there are even chicanes in the straights to make sure they are maintained.

Hey, I’m no Danny Ricciardo, but that does take a lot of the fun out of it.

In this case there was a big, big carrot; the first Australian drive -- albeit in left-hand drive form and only on-track – of the new Lamborghini Huracan Evo.

It would be in attendance alongside the V12 Aventador S and the Urus SUV, both of which carsales has driven previously – here and here.

OK, so what are we talking about here? The Huracan is Lambo’s staple two-seat supercar, priced under its older, bigger V12 sibling, the Aventador. It runs a longitudinal mid-mounted 5.2-litre V10, seats two people and looks ridiculously sexy.

The Evo is the mid-life makeover if you like, taking over from the LP 610-4 as the understudy to the mighty Huracan Performante.

We detailed the Evo when it launched, covered off the Australian pricing and spec and then Gautam Sharma sampled it on-track at the global launch for us.

But to reprise in the briefest of nutshells; the Evo uprates its engine to match the Performante’s 470kW/600Nm outputs, boasts revised aerodynamics that supposedly produce seven times more downforce than before, which really is a pretty amazing claim.

It also adds rear-wheel steer, all-wheel drive and even includes a new predictive driving logic called Lamborghini Dinamica Veicola Integra.

This measures various types of sensors to influence car behaviour by adjusting the dampers, traction control, torque vectoring and all-wheel drive without the driver having to get involved.

Other key details? Well, there’s also a new 8.4-inch infotainment touch-screen in the cockpit, it accelerates to 100km/h in 2.9 seconds, has a 325km/h top speed and it costs $459,441 plus on-road costs.

Hang on, we’re here for the Esperienza, remember -- not just the Evo!

So, according to the schedule carsales is driving the Aventador S first up. It’s about now the penny starts to drop that Esperienza is going to be a little different to most of these types of events.

The pre-race – sorry event – briefing is literally that: brief. Milos, the impossibly handsome chief instructor, starts by introducing the racing drivers who will be guiding us.

Then he talks about the cars. They are fast, Corsa is the most aggressive mode with the highest stability control threshold (so stick it in that and keep it there), the ignition button is under a red cover (press that) and to get the car into gear tap the right paddle shifter.

I somehow contort my helmeted head into an Aventador, just fitting with the seat at its lowest point and the backrest reclined to lounge spec.

I wait for someone to get into the passenger seat. Not happening. Instead, Super2 and Bathurst co-driver driver Richard Muscat is leading our little convoy out of pitlane and I am alone in a 544kW/690Nm, $790,000 (plus ORCs) car I’ve spent one minute fitting into and familiarising myself with.

Richard’s talking on the walky-talky but through the balaclava and helmet, I have no hope of hearing what he’s saying over the engine wail and road roar.

The next few minutes are a blur. Even on Phillip Island’s smooth tarmac the Aventador feels brutally hard. The pause-bang shift shock of its single-clutch transmission is ridiculous. I change manually to try and lessen the rudeness of it, but it only helps a bit. The steering is abrupt. The car doesn’t flow into corners, it jinks.

After controlling pace for a lap Muscat apparently orders us to hit the throttle hard on Gardner Straight. I know that because the Aventador behind me is suddenly sitting right in my, um, boot (does the Aventador have a boot?). Belatedly I floor the pedal and my brain feels like it has turned to liquid.

Man, talk about in the deep end.

Having survived the Aventador it was on to the Urus, the SUV that is energising Lamborghini sales globally.

This time there’s an instructor onboard and that’s because we’re going off-road. Yep, there’s a small 4x4 circuit behind turn two and that’s where Bathurst 10000 veteran Dean Canto is directing me to.

There’s a steep climb and drop to demonstrate hill descent control in forward and reverse gears, a water crossing and a berm to carom around.

It’s all good, clean, dirty fun … in a 478kW/850Nm 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8-powered $390,000 off-roader that no-one in their right mind would take off-road. Surely...

Next it’s just me chasing Muscat in a series of track laps. This is the opposite experience of the Aventador.

The Urus feels stable, predictable and even benign. Yes, it’s incredibly fast for something that weighs 2.2 tonnes, but the car’s immense digital capabilities are keeping everything under control.

It’s so stiff that Muscat’s inside rear wheel is lifting through the tight Honda Corner. After a few laps the Pirelli Scorpion Zero tyres start to overheat and slide and when we get back to pitlane the front brakes are smoking like a Havana cigar.

It’s the same plan for the Evo; Muscat will lead and I will follow. He warns me this is a very different and far more precise proposition than the Urus. Responses are instant, be they steering, throttle, dual-clutch transmission or brakes.

He’s right. The three hot laps pass in a blur of savage acceleration, slowing and immense speed. We’re pulling 267km/h indicated as hit the crest on Gardner Straight, and more than 160km/h in turn one.

It’s not just the outright speed but how quickly the Evo gets there. The engine spins out to its 8000rpm redline with such light rapidity I am too late on the upshift the first few times. The rev-matching on downchanges is mechanical music.

It’s by far the best vehicle I’ve driven today. It’s everything Muscat described, yet also malleable and adjustable. It’s so utterly engrossing to drive at a place like Phillip Island, which shows off its speed, grip and handling so brilliantly.

There is nowhere moreso than through the high-speed Hayshed and on up over Lukey Heights. The Evo simply sucks onto the road and grooves up and around to the left, chasing the inside white line like a Coke fiend. It’s addictive.

Somewhere in there LDVI might be doing its thing. If so, cool.

Whenever I’m track testing I keep a tape recorder rolling to record thoughts on the car as they pop up. In this case, minutes go by between words. That’s how engrossed I was in the moment of simply being in the car on the track right then.

“Millionaires have all the f&%#@+! fun,” I randomly blurt out at one point.

Muscat delivers the coup de grace with a passenger lap in a Huracan Performante. It’s a racing car for the road – even moreso than the Evo.

There’s no need to tailor his pace to mine any more. He just floors it. The car rattles across the ripple strips, slides across the apexes, slams forward and thumps through flat-out upshifts. It only takes a few corners for the tyres to start to protest.

Me? No complaints about that ride or the whole Esperienza, er, experience.

I may not be a fan of snow driving, but Lambos at Phillip Island? That’s a whole different story.

How much does the 2019 Lamborghini Huracan Evo cost?
Price: $459,441 (plus on-road costs)
On sale: Now
Engine: 5.2-litre petrol V10
Output: 470kW/600Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch auto
Fuel: 13.7L/100km
CO2: 332g/km
Safety rating: N/A