2016 Lamborghini Huracán LP580-2 UK first drive

The Lamborghini Huracán LP580-2 is the bottom-rung version of Sant’Agata’s bottom-rung, mid-engined supercar. And given that supercar owners are typically about as keen to plump for a cheaper and less powerful model as they are for a nice, conservative pair of sunglasses, entirely unflamboyant shoes or a subtle eau de cologne, it’ll probably be a lot less popular than it deserves to be.

Essentially a Huracán LP610-4 that’s missing the forward parts of its driveline, the LP580-2 is rear-wheel drive – and theoretically the purer sporting machine of the two as a result. It develops very marginally less grunt than its four-wheel-drive sibling: 572bhp instead of 602bhp, as well as 15lb ft less torque. It also weighs 33kg less.

Unlike the rear-drive Gallardos that preceded it, the LP580-2 is available exclusively with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox - so the ‘added dynamic purity’ line that Lamborghini uses to define the car doesn’t extend far enough to provide a three-pedal version.

But elsewhere, Lamborghini has taken the opportunity to tweak the car’s suspension, steering and electronic governance systems in order to dial some much-needed balance, playfulness and tactility into the Huracán’s handling mix. The car’s adaptive dampers have been retuned, its spring and anti-roll bar rates softened a bit up front to allow greater weight transfer, and its electronic traction and stability controls overhauled to allow more throttle-adjustable handling in Sport mode.

Read our review of the 2016 Lamborghini Huracán LP610-4 Spyder here

The LP580-2 is still a Lambo, bless ’em – and still a good deal firmer, noisier, angrier and more raucous than any of its direct rivals. Which is the way things ought to be. If Lamborghini’s entrant in any given niche of the performance car market wasn’t the most harem-scarem option, the company would be missing its USP.

But in any guise, the Huracán is a car you accept warts and all. It’s made by people who care much more that it’s the most outlandish-looking car you might be considering than whether your 6ft 4in northern European frame happens to fit inside it. People who value the sound and fury, the building delivery and the diamond-hard response of an atmospheric V10 more highly than the sheer torque and pace (and leaner emissions) endowed by a turbocharged engine. People who instinctively understand that what a car like this actually is, and how it appeals to the senses, plays at least as big a part in how excited it makes you feel as what it does.

The Huracán does not play lightly on the senses. On the move, the cabin is always alive with road roar, while the ride is plainly softer than that of the LP610-4 in Strada mode but still unforgiving over sharp ridges and catseyes and hard-edged at all times. It feels deliciously naughty, in other words – and you’ll love it for that.

The performance deficit that the car suffers relative to its range mate is so slight as to make almost no difference during road use. Opportunities to extend the car’s engine up to 6000rpm and beyond, using full throttle, are so few anyway. At any rate, when you do get to wind it up, the LP580-2 is still heroically fast and dramatic. I’ve read sniffy mention made elsewhere of the fact that the car’s V10 makes its peak power a bit earlier than that of the LP610-4. That's true - at 8000rpm. That’s not exactly early, though. And it still spins all the way to 8750rpm, by the way – in a sufficiently crazed fashionmake your hair stand on end, if only there were enough head room in the car.