LAMBO'S GREATEST SUPERCAR?

Perhaps nothing screws with your mind more than whipping a supercar around the bend of a racetrack and aiming not for the next apex but at the dirt track running perpendicular to the course and leading off into the infield

- CHRISTIAN SEABAUGH

One moment you’re listening for the telltale signs of rubber breaking away from asphalt, tires at the limit of adhesion—the next, there is no such sound, only the V-10 singing behind you as you sling sideways into a sandy curve. Welcome to the Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, perhaps the most brain-bending supercar ever built.

Birthed over dinner (and no doubt drinks) at the tail end of Urus development, the Sterrato is what happens when supercar engineers are allowed to stop chasing numbers and given freedom to do something different. A sort of 21st century reinterpretation of a Group B rally car, the Sterrato marries the littlest Lambo’s inherent on-road goodness with off-road hardware designed to help explore dirt trails and desert washes at serious speed.

The key to this is unsurprisingly found lurking behind and beneath the 2023 Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato’s engorged and textured fender arches. Ride height is bumped up by 1.7 inches over the 2020 MotorTrend Best Driver’s Car–winning Huracán Evo (upon which it’s based), to 6.4 inches. The car’s MagneRide dampers are also reworked for more wheel travel and to handle the off-roader’s potentially different loads. For example, softening up the nose under heavy braking in the Sterrato’s unique Rally drive mode allows quicker turn-in. A unique set of Bridgestone Dueler All-Terrain AT002 run-flat tires on downsized 19-inch wheels (the smallest size that will clear the Huracán’s brakes) are designed to provide high-speed grip in dirt, gravel, and mud while not entirely sacrificing the Lamborghini’s on-road performance.