The Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato, Driven: Meet the Off-Road Supercar (2024)

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Lamborghinis and the real world, traditionally speaking, have not been great bedfellows. Ferrucio’s mechanical prodigy have long been perfect for fantasy — be it on the silver screen, on the bedroom wall or for the perfect day’s drive through the Alps — but commuting to work, taking the kids to school or slogging across the land on an interstate highway are all tasks that Raging Bulls have been, shall we say, less than ideal for.

Admittedly, things have been growing better on this count. The Urus crossover, of course, is the clearest proof of that; set aside its extroverted exterior and it’s basically a Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT with Italian citizenship. But even Lamborghini’s sports cars have become more civilized with each generation: adding comfort features, growing easier to drive, enabling drivers to reverse without hanging out an open door.

The Huracan Sterrato, though, takes this trend in a new direction. Designed and presented as a sort of rally-spec exotic, it is, in truth, an application of sport-utility vehicle principles to low-slung supercars. And in some ways, that makes it better — perhaps not on racetracks or dream roads, but in the world most of us actually drive in every day.

2023 Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato: What We Think

The Huracan Sterrato may be the most unusual Lamborghini in ages; indeed, it’s arguably the vanguard of a whole new class of automobiles, the off-road sports car. It still delivers everything you’d expect from a Lambo, from exotic style to remarkable performance and advanced tech.

But it also holds an additional, separate appeal for many of the same reasons buyers in more proletarian classes choose crossovers over sedans. It rides slightly higher, and thus is easier to enter and exit; it has a taller suspension and bigger sidewalls, and thus rides more comfortably. Yet this comes at little cost to its acceleration, braking and handling — at least, at the limits drivers are likely to explore in real-world conditions.

Granted, of course, the Sterrato is not without eccentricities; the Huracan’s infotainment system remains maddeningly obtuse, and the optional roof-mounted spare tire is more trouble than it’s worth. Then again, without a few idiosyncrasies, would it even be a Lamborghini?

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To learn more about our testing methodology and how we evaluate products, head here.

The Sterrato tweaks make this the best Huracan for real-world driving

I hate making broad generalizations, but in this case, I feel safe in making the one above — even if it is one for a highly specific group of people. Most people who can afford a Huracan can also afford a much more usable daily driver, I presume; that said, if you are the sort of person who would daily an Italian supercar, the Sterrato is far and away the best choice.

The first reason: the off-road tires. The Sterrato wears custom-made Bridgestone Dueler AT002 tires, sized 235/40/19 up front and 285/40/19 in the rear. Compared with the Huracan Technica (or most supercars), there’s more sidewall, which means more give over bumps — and thus, a more comfortable ride.

The second reason: the added ground clearance that comes with the lifted suspension. The Sterrato’s undercarriage rides 6.73 inches off the pavement or dirt, 1.73 higher than a regular Huracan. Granted, more ground clearance doesn’t equal a lot of ground clearance; I still scraped the chin in my first 60 seconds of driving. Still, the boost definitely relieves some of the pressure to bob and weave around every pothole, manhole lip and other roadway imperfection — which, trust me, is very much an active source of anxiety when driving a low-slung supercar in a place like New York City.

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Performance on the pavement doesn’t really suffer in response, though, at least not at the speeds most (sane) individuals are likely to achieve. The claimed 0-62-mph dash of 3.4 seconds is just two-tenths behind the more-super-car-conventional Huracan Technica, but some of that can be chalked up to the latter’s extra 30 ponies; likewise the extra seven-tenths of a second it takes to vault from 0-124 mph, a task Lambo says takes 9.8 seconds n the Sterrato. Sure, top speed is limited to 161, but unless you’re on the track or autobahn, let’s face it, you’re not likely to go faster than that.

The Huracan Sterrato is an absolute blast

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I aim to live my life with as few regrets as possible, but it seems likely I’ll always have one that I didn’t wring the Sterrato out harder during the brief time I had it. It was dropped off at my Manhattan apartment on Friday around midday and picked back up Monday morning.

Problem was, that weekend wound up being sandwiched between a pair of unusually long business trips, so I needed the weekend to unpack, repack and attend to domestic responsibilities — which left tragically little time for the Huracan. I would have loved to have thrown it around on some of my favorite dirt roads in the Catskills or whipped it through some snow-covered backroads in Vermont, but alas, my schedule allowed only for a quick blast up the Palisades to Harriman State Park and back.

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Still, I pushed it as hard as I dared given the circ*mstances … and even at those levels well below its absolute limits, the Sterrato proved a hoot. The 5.2-liter V10 remains one of the most engaging engines in the new car market, spinning up a mechanical symphony as it revs; I found myself holding low gears and zinging up towards the redline at every opportunity to savor in the sound as much as the immediacy of its acceleration.

The steering is precise, the car eminently placeable and the grip everlasting, even with those all-terrain tires on dry pavement. And hey, should you want to break the car loose, it’s not only happy to do so, it’ll even help, thanks to the brilliant Lamborghini Integrated Vehicle Dynamics “brain” introduced on the Huracan Evo that helps the car’s many computerized systems work in harmony. For Sterrato duty, the LDVI (as Lambo calls it) even picks up a new Rally mode for horsing around in the slippery stuff, like snow and dirt.

The Sterrato modifications arguably make this the coolest-looking Huracan

Not the best-looking Huracan, I should say; that would be the the Huracan Technica. (You can argue that style is subjective, but I’m writing this article, so hey, live with it.)

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The Sterrato, however, is unadulteratedly cool-looking — not in a classic, elegant way, but in a 10-year-old kid’s awestruck no-way-check-that-thing-out! kind of way. The knobby tires, angular flat black body cladding and added off-road lights on the frunk lid all add up to a Mad Max-of-Miami Beach aesthetic like nothing else on the road — and suck up attention like nothing else.

The roof-mounted spare is a terrible choice

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Presumably in an effort to maximize the wow factor for photos, Lamborghini’s U.S. P.R. department ordered my test car with the optional spare wheel-and-tire affixed to a bespoke roof rack atop the Sterrato. Its utility is marred, however, by the fact that the Sterrato has staggered-size tires, and the spare is only suited for the front ones; hit a nail or slice a sidewall at the other end, and you’re stuck calling AAA. Besides, the custom-made Bridgestones are run-flats capable of going 50 miles at 50 mph.

The real dealbreaker, though, is the effect of dragging a wheel through the air atop your Lamborghini. As you can imagine, this wreaks havoc on the car’s coefficient of drag. While Lamborghini owners might not mind the hit to gas mileage, they certainly will take issue with the racket it makes as it buffets itself against the breeze at highway speeds. North of 50 miles an hour, the noise becomes obnoxious to the point of distraction — and a Lamborghini that makes you not want to drive fast is one that defeats its own purpose.

Besides, if that wasn’t bad enough, the spare also blocks one of the Sterrato’s coolest visual features: the roof-mounted air intake for the V10, meant to spare it from the worst of dust when bombing down dirt roads. Should you be lucky enough to buy one, don’t bother with it.

2023 Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato

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• Powertrain: 5.2-liter V10; seven-speed dual-clutch automatic; all-wheel-drive
• Horsepower: 602
• Torque: 413 lb-ft
• EPA Fuel Economy: Like you care
• Seats: 2

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